90's bikes are the best!

[Yorick]

I must be a heathen as I don't want any bikes from my youth. If I rode any of them it would kill the memories. They belong in the past, IMHO.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I think character is more about engine configuration and volume.

The old Brit twins and singles, you can actually feel that something is happening below you because they're so unrefined compared to a modern IL4, they're also generally on a loud open pipe which all adds to a bit of motorcycling theatre, especially if you have to concentrate to ride one, think about braking (because they don't) and plan your corner before you get to it, etc...

Theres a knack to a lot of things on them. Just starting them up takes a certain know how. Simiarily you can't just slam the throttle open/shut cause they're not CV etc.

It feels like you have to get to know the bike and build a relationship with it. You don't of course, its just metal and plastic, but to the caveman part of your brain it seems like the bike has a personality.

[Yorick]

Once you've been bitten by something with soul everything else just feels functional.

Aye, i get that i really do.

Hence my love of the 990 Superduke and the 690 Dukes.

The 990SD still sits way up near the top of most evocative bikes i've ever ridden. I could effortlessly own one again.

I found my Dragster evocative, I flew it in, opened the crate, it was gorgeous, I bet anyone alive would find it thrilling, etc.
But I never connected with it enough to keep it.

Maybe if you got one of those old Italian bikes that you like and poured some love into it then you'd find a new kind of emotion in bike ownership.

Everyone is different, but I reckon there is a classic owner hiding inside you

I still fancy one of them. Hmm.

[Nidge]

IIRC Nidge said his favourite bike is his 1970's Triumph.

Once you've been bitten by something with soul everything else just feels functional.

It's exactly that. Objectively modern bikes are of course better but it's the qualitative rather than quantitative aspects that matter to me i.e. how does riding the bike make me feel. If you reduce everything down to objective measurement everything is a bit rubbish; a Panigale cant corner as well as an F1 car, A BMW GS wont tackle extreme conditions as well as a Land Rover, a Pan European cant take as many suitcases as Mondeo etc etc so clearly what attracts us to bikes is that something extra they give us whether it's thrills or nostalgia, freedom or fulfilling a fantasy, it's a different visceral experience for each of us but I'm pretty sure it's not simply down to a set of quantifiable metrics

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I can totally get the 90s thing, mostly because of Carbs... For example the 1998/1999 Yamaha R1, it was just a glorious machine to ride, really impressive. I actually enjoyed it more as a bike than the 2005 R1. But, i can see how 'new' bikes are better in some ways... but really in 90% of instance, it's the riders holding the bike back, not the technology within the bike that's holding the rider back, so rarely matters.

I had a 98 R1 in 2000, traded a YZF750R in for it, the R1 really was a massive leap forward, and probably the most fun bike I've ever ridden, but that fun happened at mental speeds, it's the only bike I've ever deliberately rear wheel steered on tarmac (3rd gear, old Snetterton layout, coming onto the back straight) and the only bike I've wheelied at over 100mph (with the assistance of a hill), it was like riding a big motorcross bike, if the front end started to get lively you accelerated to calm it down, everyone should have a go on one.

[weeksy]

Everyone is different, but I reckon there is a classic owner hiding inside you

Not until i have the time and money to do it right.

This is where i kinda fall down, because i'd really want it perfect...But if i make it perfect, would that spoil what it is, along with spoiling the riding as i'd never take it out.

[Rockburner]

I don't feel a huge difference between modern bikes and 90's bikes, there is obviously some but it's not huge.

I feel a massive difference between pre-WW2 bikes and 80/90s bikes - so if I get off my 1936 bike and jump onto my TDR250 the difference is incredible, it feels like I'm on a magi carpet and everything is so smooth - but if I jump off my 1988 TDR and onto a 2020 BMW GS then there isn't much difference other than size and power.

That's a bit weird mate

Not really, there is only so far you can go with conventional suspension, my 1936 bike is hard tail with only a damper on the front girder forks.
The TDR and anything new is more or less the same.

Out of all the bikes you've ridden there were obviously differences but I don't think anything was a complete step change, like going from girder forks to conventional forks.

No, i absolutley agree with that bit, none of them have been as revolutionary as that and the benefits are clearly more incremental than a massive step in technology, but still, they're very very different to me.

I think that's what you might call the "contraction of the range of experience". If your experience 'pint-jug' has bikes from (say) 1985 - 2020, then the difference between them, in relation to the entirety of your biking experience, is quite large. But if your experiences are from (say) 1930 - 2020, then the relative difference from '85 to 2020 is much smaller compared to the entirety of your experiences.

Much the same as all life experiences really, if you've only ever lived in the South East of the UK (say), then travelling to Scotland is a massive undertaking, but if you've travelled all over Europe and visited the Far East, then a trip to Edinburgh is a mere folly.

[weeksy]

Not until i have the time and money to do it right.

IME the money, time and ability to do it are rarely in harmony.

You just have to do what you can when you can.
Most people that have anything classic have always got jobs pending or on the go.

I don't do 'pending' or 'on the go' i either own a bike that's working and right or i don't own it... The world is that simple for me. Hence it being complicated in the classic ownership context.

[Rockburner]

Not until i have the time and money to do it right.

IME the money, time and ability to do it are rarely in harmony.

You just have to do what you can when you can.
Most people that have anything classic have always got jobs pending or on the go.

I don't do 'pending' or 'on the go' i either own a bike that's working and right or i don't own it... The world is that simple for me. Hence it being complicated in the classic ownership context.

I dunno - if you swap 'cleaning it' with 'maintaining it', then you're 90% there. There's not a huge amount of a classic bike to keep clean (compared with a modern faired bike)

[weeksy]

IME the money, time and ability to do it are rarely in harmony.

You just have to do what you can when you can.
Most people that have anything classic have always got jobs pending or on the go.

I don't do 'pending' or 'on the go' i either own a bike that's working and right or i don't own it... The world is that simple for me. Hence it being complicated in the classic ownership context.

I dunno - if you swap 'cleaning it' with 'maintaining it', then you're 90% there. There's not a huge amount of a classic bike to keep clean (compared with a modern faired bike)

It would and may require a completely different mindset though that i'm not sure i have yet. The mindset to ride a bike in a purely cruising context, just round the lanes at traffic speed. I don't have that within me at this moment. Bikes are for power, speed, fun.... I don't really get fun at 40mph on a motorbike.

[Mr. Dazzle]

My (wife's) Bonneville deffo ain't for cruising at 40mph

Fair enough it ain't gonna outrun even an A2 bike these days, but you certainly don't hang around on it! I think it surprises people a bit when the 'old boy' on a black and silvers bike goes tearing past them on the way out of roundabouts.

Dont forget they were the superbikes of their day.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Actually..might outrun an A2 bike, not sure.

Its nominally about 50bhp but its much lighter than a modern bike. It's tiny. It also has a really long stroke engine so it's really torquey with loads of bottom end. Only got 4 gears though.

It'll still pull away from 90% of cars at the lights. You don't need to ride it like an old fart. Those old boys you see tooling along at 50mph aren't necessarily being constrained by what the bike can do.

[Rockburner]

I don't do 'pending' or 'on the go' i either own a bike that's working and right or i don't own it... The world is that simple for me. Hence it being complicated in the classic ownership context.

I dunno - if you swap 'cleaning it' with 'maintaining it', then you're 90% there. There's not a huge amount of a classic bike to keep clean (compared with a modern faired bike)

It would and may require a completely different mindset though that i'm not sure i have yet. The mindset to ride a bike in a purely cruising context, just round the lanes at traffic speed. I don't have that within me at this moment. Bikes are for power, speed, fun.... I don't really get fun at 40mph on a motorbike.

I know it's been a while, but the only 'classic' I ever "pottered" on was the Matchless G3*, the Comet, the G80, the Commando were all (ab)used in the approved manner. . The Bantam wouldn't pull it's own weight up a hill, but trying to keep it flat out at all times was more fun than you'd expect I seriously feel a need to get back on the old bikes tbh.

They ARE a different riding mentality - you can't throw them around like a modern bike, a considered approach is needed, but they don't have to be ridden slowly.



* and even then I managed to miss a corner and take it inadvertently off-roading : allegedly it has the same frame as the 'Scrambles' bikes... bollox to that I say!

[weeksy]

My (wife's) Bonneville deffo ain't for cruising at 40mph

Fair enough it ain't gonna outrun even an A2 bike these days, but you certainly don't hang around on it! I think it surprises people a bit when the 'old boy' on a black and silvers bike goes tearing past them on the way out of roundabouts.

Dont forget they were the superbikes of their day.

True enough, but your classic ain't my classic for sure. Mine would be a 250/350 Ducati/MV and they i imagine are a chunk slower.

[Rockburner]

My (wife's) Bonneville deffo ain't for cruising at 40mph

Fair enough it ain't gonna outrun even an A2 bike these days, but you certainly don't hang around on it! I think it surprises people a bit when the 'old boy' on a black and silvers bike goes tearing past them on the way out of roundabouts.

Dont forget they were the superbikes of their day.

True enough, but your classic ain't my classic for sure. Mine would be a 250/350 Ducati/MV and they i imagine are a chunk slower.

Don't you believe it - that's a proven road-race bike, good for (nigh on) 3 figure speeds when new*. Why do you think they're a highly desirable classic?

* Maybe not THAT one, which is done up as a scrambler, but with the appropriate road/race-oriented frame etc.

[weeksy]

My (wife's) Bonneville deffo ain't for cruising at 40mph

Fair enough it ain't gonna outrun even an A2 bike these days, but you certainly don't hang around on it! I think it surprises people a bit when the 'old boy' on a black and silvers bike goes tearing past them on the way out of roundabouts.

Dont forget they were the superbikes of their day.

True enough, but your classic ain't my classic for sure. Mine would be a 250/350 Ducati/MV and they i imagine are a chunk slower.

Don't you believe it - that's a proven road-race bike, good for (nigh on) 3 figure speeds when new. Why do you think they're a highly desirable classic?

Because they're exceptionally pretty.

Right then, who's sending me £7000 for my 50th next year ?

[Yorick]

True enough, but your classic ain't my classic for sure. Mine would be a 250/350 Ducati/MV and they i imagine are a chunk slower.

Don't you believe it - that's a proven road-race bike, good for (nigh on) 3 figure speeds when new. Why do you think they're a highly desirable classic?

Because they're exceptionally pretty.

Right then, who's sending me £7000 for my 50th next year ?

Take it out of the subs jar

[weeksy]

LOL We'd need a LOT more people signing up for that mate, we're on 353 of which 2 are mine

[Mr. Dazzle]

Other way around for me. Even a brand spanking new bike has a million things wrong with it, or which could have been done better.

So I don't worry about it.

[weeksy]

My old bike looked that new once, now it's all oily and looks like it's been ridden and enjoyed a lot.

The perfect look for me is when one of those 80yr old blokes pulls up on a bike that looks like the bike and rider have been to hell and back - but he's owned it from new and it's in perfect mechanical order. No hipster red hanky bollox or shiny bike, just something well loved and well ridden.

I believe to an extent you can have both

A bike that's well used, but still perfect...

I may be overly optimistic though