Still to Utrecht

I don't like modern motorcycles. If you design something that looks like it comes from a Japanese SF cartoon, then you lose me. If you make an 100 so much plus hp engine and then full of it with electronics that determine for the rider what the motorcycle does where, how long and when? Then I quit. But visiting the Motor Fair in Utrecht? Oh well, that's kind of a habit. There are many used cars. Sometimes there is a classic. And everything is offered. Oh yes: the drinks are very expensive.

Over the top

In my view, this electronic trickery is just like eating a Viagra package in one go and then using burnt matches to make a scale model of Utrecht Cathedral. And whether it is really necessary for a display to have more computing power than the computer that brought the moon lander in place?

Fortunately, there is now a very strong retro trend. From low in the market (MASH) to high (Triumph, of course Harley) made machines that at least look like they were conceived by a normally functioning designer instead of a tormented CAD / CAM genius keyboard.

But will they become classics?

But whether all those motorcycles there in Utrecht will soon become classics? They will hopefully all grow old in a pleasant way. But once the time has come, when a model from 2013 is also about thirty years old later ... Can you still get things for it? Manufacturers have a legal obligation to take care of this for ten years after the end of production. But what if there is nothing left after 11 years? That is the dream of the manufacturers, because at least there will remain a nice flow in the story.

Moreover, it is no longer the case that there are still hidden stocks of NOS, new olds stock, everywhere. Parts production has long been very precisely adjusted to actual production and minimum stocks. Now you can still buy parts for your Harley WLA or C that were made in the early 1940s. And new exhaust systems for Honda sales topper, the CB750 OHCs are back as replicas because the market is big enough for it. But what should we do with an electronic malfunction on an 25 + year-old motorcycle? Now put things aside? Hope they pass over?

Return to Utrecht

Emotionally, therefore, a mandatory figure. Much less fun and much more expensive than Hardenberg. Yet a place where you encounter unexpected acquaintances. Can talk to. Bargains can score. View motorcycles. And after all there are specials and classics 'on display' ... Moreover, you can admire the new station square in Utrecht. That has apparently become quite a lot.

By the way, going to Utrecht by train is not a bad plan. On the motorcycle it is now very fresh when you get more than a kilometer or 50 from 030. And parking the car at the Jaarbeursterrein costs a lot of money. You know what? I put on my long underpants and get on the moped. Because parking your motorcycle costs nothing in 030.

Oh yes: Outside are often just the nicest motorcycles. Motorcycles of visitors ...