I suppose like most of us, my friends all ride more modern stuff. There aren't many other "seasoned" motorcycles in my area any more. I bought my 750K3 (production racer) at the end of the 73 roadrace season from the shop where I worked, and it's been my main ride since then. I never realized that we were supposed to ride differently just because our rides are 30 odd years old! I firmly believe as Nick said it's all in the preparation. Look after them and these bikes are dead reliable. I rode across Canada when I moved west. Before we moved home we took a trip down the west coast to California, to New Mexico and back north to Vancouver. I think I blew a fuse once.
Just a quick story of a short trip my wife on her 76 400F, a friend on his GSXR750, and I took to mid Ohio for an AMA event. It's a ten hour ride one way and for weeks this guy joked about how long the trip would be riding with the two old bikes. The three of us always ride together and we NEVER hold anyone up, my wife will run 75 all day long if that's what the pace is, but he was having fun at our expense. We left one afternoon, and ended up spending the night just west of Buffalo, ran hard for several hours. The next morning it started to rain early and low and behold one bike wouldn't start. The GSXR that is! His bike is mint, and the best part of all this is he owns a bike repair business and had recently done a top end rebuild including valve & seat work and had not gotten around to rechecking valve clearances and that's what the problem was, the valves had "settled in" and most were too tight - enough to lower compression and the bike wouldn't fire.
OK now picture this, he (on the 400 no less) and I head out in search of a shop where we can re shim this thing. Within a couple blocks we find this great little shop that picks up the bike and gives us the run of the shop while we effect the repairs. The guys in the shop are relentless on this poor sap, teasing him for making the old bikes sit out in the rain while he holds us up. I didn't have to say a word! Eventually we get underway again, the rain subsided and we had a great few days, super riding in Ohio, enjoyed the races at a great track.
Naturally everyone always gathered around the older bikes and ignored the Suzuki, so when we returned home I mentioned to my friend that I would sell him the 8600 mile K1 I had sitting in the corner or my shop........ just to rub it in!
