Topic: Truer words were never spoken involving motorcycles!

[HondaMan]

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/total-recall-taking-your-motorcycle-back-to-dealer-zip-tie-cranked?src=SOC&dom=fb

[Retro Rocket]

Yep....

There’s a name for motorcycle riders who can’t operate a zip-tie: car drivers.

Love it....

[Garage_guy_chris]

Um ... No! All i have to say is Carbs, Points and Condensers. Long live old school! Im the ECU in charge!

[RevDoc]

Truer words indeed! 

[mrbreeze]

I thought it was gonna be Harley before I even opened the link!

[atm cycles]

Amen.

[camelman]

Nailed it!  Now, let's all port our cylinder heads!! 

[70CB750]

 

[becken]

Thank you for posting that.

[DaveBarbier]

I've thought this for a long time. It's a shame that these riders don't know or are too scared to try and understand how to fix things themselves. It really takes away the badassery of being a biker. "I'm a hard mother f-er, don't f with us! But I can't ride that weekend. My hog will be at the dealer because my oil change light came on."

Makes me proud to be a part of this community. I really think buying this bike and joining this forum has made me a better person.

[Phinn]

It's not just bikes. Cars are no longer user-serviceable. And there's a reason for that.

Starting in 1966 with the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the federal government took over the auto industry's design and engineering functions. In 1970, the EPA was created with a large portion of its mission dedicated to cars. 1975, Congress enacted CAFE standards aimed at the entire fleet made by a manufacturer, not just specific models.

This is the same de-civilizing process that has given us low-volume toilets, low-flow shower heads, and taken the phosphates out of our laundry soap (which is the chemical that does the important job of rinsing and thus actually removing the dirt from our clothing).

The first thing that breaks on a washing machine is the government-mandated clutch, which stops the drum from spinning if you open the lid while it's running. It can't be removed, and is designed to fail by locking up, not by failing to engage, rendering it unusable.

Almost no one learns to tinker on their cars in the driveway as a teenager because the manufacturers have sealed the radiators and taken away the caps. They took away the carbs. They've made engines out of aluminum instead of ferrous metals. The new Ford F-150 is going to be all aluminum, which can't be pounded back into shape if you dent it. They removed the dipsticks and replaced them with sensors that plug into computer modules running proprietary software.  Try buying a new car with a stick shift these days. You won't find one!  Maybe it'll have paddles behind the steering wheel.

These changes were intentional, but not the choice of either manufacturers or buyers. There's a third party involved (an unseen, unidentified regulator), and he doesn't care what you like or don't like.

[Steve_K]

I like working on my bikes, the old ones.   BUT, I do like using a Power Commander to rejet, whoops, remap my SV without the smell of gas on my fingers.  Doing a tune up is much more interesting when points, carb balancing, and valve adjusting with wrench and screwdriver are needed.  My SV is much more car like under the tank.  Is it more fun to ride?   More fun than a CB,  I don't think so.  It is just different.  A CB reminds me of my youth and that make this old man feel young!
Besides, my grandson like sitting on my CBs more than the SV.   I have a Yamaha PW50 waiting for him.  I hope that he loves bikes as much as I have.
Steve

[solo 2]

I'm curious, is it sad that there are no more carbs or is it sad that old guys haven't learned anything new. I turn 50 this year, been a car/bike guy all my life and yes things have become more complex but you can't change air/fuel/spark. In the last year I have have hacked my Subaru Forester turbo and have added an app to my cellphone that tunes my Ducati via wireless bluetooth. It's scary and a lot of sweating was involved but in the end I get the same satisfaction of doing it myself...same as the first time I took a carb apart.

BTW my computer skills are seriously lacking, seriously. This is the same process I went through when I hesitantly put a wrench to my first bolt. I say long live DIY however it works.

[solo 2]

Nailed it!  Now, let's all port our cylinder heads!! 

LOL, funny I'm just playing with the CB heads right now, DIY porting and polishing. I find this much scarier than computer tuning, same amount of research...just more work to find out if you've completely pooched it.

[oldhatt45]

Good Article Hondaman!

Two things are take aways for me from this article.

1.  That our generation is slowly diminishing and we're gone, the thrill of working on an old motorcycle and bringing it back to life will likely disappear and be only a footnote in history.

2.  I'm glad I will likely not be around to see the final product of our society of "just throw it away and get a new one" robots.

Charlie

[DaveBarbier]

Good Article Hondaman!

Two things are take aways for me from this article.

1.  That our generation is slowly diminishing and we're gone, the thrill of working on an old motorcycle and bringing it back to life will likely disappear and be only a footnote in history.

2.  I'm glad I will likely not be around to see the final product of our society of "just throw it away and get a new one" robots.

Charlie

I'm not so sure about the first one. Honestly, some in the hipster movement are all about this kind of thing. I mean, there are a lot of young guys bringing back things like knife making by hand. And say what you will about hipster cafe bikes, these are kids that want cool bikes and many are willing to learn all they can about how a motor works and do it themselves. Yes, they might destroy a good frame in the process but at least the mindset of tinkering is there.

I think it's human nature and will never be lost. Albeit the ones keeping it alive are a minority instead of years ago when it was just what you had to do.

[oldhatt45]

Dave,

I agree that there are some "younger" folks out there that are doing what we do and have done for many years.
Thing of it is that they are very few and far between.  I hope they do continue to work on these old ladies and do get to tinker.

But main stream is not what we do or have ever done.  And with each passing day, our vintage bikes grow fewer and fewer, after all, there were only so many made. 

The real connection to these bikes lies with Our Generation.  We rolled them off the showroom floor.  We rode them from new into today's world.  We've brought some back from near dead.  We know what these bikes stood for and what they mean to us.  The younger guys don't have all that and it has to be a special type of younger guy that will stick with these old gals and not just be a "Fad" for them to say, hey, I've got one of those.

In my mind, the test would be to see how many are around in 2069.

Charlie

[DaveBarbier]

True true, Charlie. I was talking in more of a general sense. It sucks that eventually these Hondas will eventually be forgotten like so many other great machines from much earlier than the 70's. That's how it goes though. I'm just glad to be a part of it as I'm one of the young ones who never had one as a kid. Hell, I was born in '84. If I have kids I hope I still have this bike (and maybe a couple more) that still work well enough for my son/daughter to tinker with. Who am I kidding, they'll be forced to tinker with engines like a good father does, haha.

[oldhatt45]

Dave,

LOL, You're young enough to be my Youngest Child.  LOL 

But, Good on Ya for keeping the Old Ladies going.
Hope you keep at least 1 dead bang stock, so your kids (and others) see what they started out life as.     

Charlie

[camelman]

It's funny reading that article and comparing it to this forum. I like this forum. I find a lot of support, information and drive to push the boundaries on this forum. However, I also see a lot of walls and limits put up when reading posts on this forum. There are limits on whether to restore or customize, do the work yourself or go to a professional, port a cylinder head yourself and risk damaging it or go to an expert (screw punctuation, you get what I'm saying here).

The comment about porting a cylinder head is poignant because it was a recent discussion I was on that I thought was antithetical to the concepts put forth in the article HondaMan posted. That cylinder head porting discussion was also contrary to the way I approach life. The crux of that argument was that the OP was too stupid to do the work himself, and that's why he shouldn't port a cylinder head. I say... "who cares?". Are we playing God here on who is good enough to do this work, or are we trying to help and learn as we go. What got all of us supposed experts on this forum to be experts is that we tried things in the face of potential failure. We MUST keep driving that. Otherwise, we'll push people away from testing and learning and becoming "experts like us". We'll push people out of this elite group of people who can work on things. If we do that, then WE are partly responsible for the diminishing group of capable DIYers. As "experts" we MUST accept that we cannot stop others from making mistakes, but that we can help them learn by ALLOWING them to make mistakes.

I hate it when "experts" don't let others make mistakes. It is so awfully selfish.

Camelman

[Retro Rocket]

The crux of that argument was that the OP was too stupid to do the work himself, and that's why he shouldn't port a cylinder head. I say... "who cares?". Are we playing God here on who is good enough to do this work,
I hate it when "experts" don't let others make mistakes. It is so awfully selfish.

I'll call you out here mate, it really sh1ts me when someone interprets others concerns as calling the OP stupid, NO ONE said that what so ever, no one even insinuated that , nice way to twist a subject to suit your little rant... No one was "playing God " either, personally for me, there is NO God so that kinda screws that bit up as well. You see, the more experienced members here have been doing things for a hell of a lot longer than say, YOU maybe, {see how that works}  your post sounded very immature so i'll "assume" that you are younger and maybe less experienced...? {starting to dislike assumptions yet?}   Do you know how easy it is to actually screw up a head...? Do you own or have you ever owned the correct tools used for porting..?   One can destroy a head in minutes without the knowledge to even start porting, its an art in itself. If I were completely inexperienced at this I would seek out someone with the skills needed and pick their brains, when you join a PUBLIC forum that happens naturally. What most commentators in that thread were trying to get across is that "mistakes"  can be expensive, sure, anyone can hand sand a port and clean it up {thats not porting}, but when it comes to properly porting a head you must posses some knowledge as to what you are doing and what you are trying to achieve. If you have 5-10 heads laying around, then by all means, port away until you get it right, {how would you even know what right...?} if you can't afford that then ask questions as the OP in that thread did. If you get upset by others opinions and people trying to help, and pointing out what could possibly happen, maybe your in the wrong place. That was an extremely poorly worded rant Camelman....    And for what its worth, I know people that shouldn't be allowed to use a bloody screw driver, let alone a porting tool, and they aren't stupid at all, they just posses different skill sets, I've seen plenty of people like that here in the last ten years, thats probably why they come here for HELP....

[DaveBarbier]

Dude, you are delusional. If you read the thread in question... http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=151514.msg1730729#msg1730729
...a rational person will CLEARLY see that the "antagonist" was actually a voice of reason bringing good points and evidence of why inexperienced people shouldn't do porting themselves and expect good results the first time around, especially having only 1 head and no proper tools. Haha!

What you're is alluding to is ridiculous. Sometimes people don't have the knowledge, experience or tools to do certain tasks and get decent results. If you can't see that, I can't help you.

Edit: and don't go turning this post around saying I'm trying to restrict people from voicing their opinion, haha.

[jtb]

Even though it's not needed, I use the kickstarter when I around Brit bikes.  Love to see their faces when it starts on the first kick every time.

[turkey4me]

You meet the nicest people on a Honda
And the meanest people on a forum.

Kick starters rule!  Mean people suck.

[ofreen]

The people that are willing to get deep into their machinery whether car or bike have always been in the minority.  I don't believe it is any different now.  Still plenty of gear heads out there, number-wise maybe more than ever.  And they are able to talk to each other better than ever.  Just look at all the wrenching videos on youtube.  They are not just working on the old stuff.  And there are many forums like this one.

My beef with a lot the new stuff is the complexity for complexity's sake.  The more complex it is, the more likely it will break and be expensive to fix.  But there is a higher profit margin on all the gee-whiz stuff so the makers pack their vehicles with it.  (I have never felt the burning need for a back up camera on my car.)  Then they make money fixing it down the road.  Here is an example. Scotty has a great channel, by the way -