And I'm not talking about our motorcycles. We as classic enthusiasts are now so experienced that, when you see a forties at a fair, he probably came with his parents. Within our own circles we see some youth who is also grabbed by old stuff.
Just like it once happened to us, Lars bought the bike from his childhood dreams: A Kawasaki GPX600R. Lars realizes that this is not the most obvious engine in a country where 100 km / h is pretty much the new normal. But he is in love with his Kawa. And that's how it should be among enthusiasts. But a 1991er GPX600R? Were those things not new yesterday in the showroom? However?
You're getting older daddy
That influx of youth is nice, but for the time being it will not do much for the average age of us, classic enthusiasts. And then you see how beautiful life can be a kind of cycle. Of course I only speak for myself, I have been on the counter for 65 years and am something like 1 m 86. I officially ride motorcycles from the age of 18e. But the police confiscated my first motorcycle when I was 16. I dare not say that I am a good motorcyclist, but I have been riding through the seasons for almost half a century now. So I am at least an experienced motorcyclist.
I fall less often than before when I thought I was a highly talented motorcyclist
Fortunately, every time I shave I see a dynamic young god in the mirror. Yet. Peter Koelewijn sang it already: You're getting older daddy. And every time I get on a modern motorcycle I think "No, right ..." Modern motorcycles are huge. Very good, very fast. And compared to the motorcycles up to, say, the eighties, they are also huge. While people have not grown so fast. I have a Triumph T150 V. That was a big, heavy, very fast engine at the time. Later I had a 750 cc Trident from 1991. That thing was physically about twice the size. The T150 looked like a moped next to it. And recently I saw about a peer on his BMW R1150 GS… Steps? Clamber? To climb?
It occurred to me what a befriended repairman had told me: He had regular jobs with such adventurous high-poters, allroaders and highly potent KTMs. Those massive powerhouses hadn't fallen from an Alp or thundered into a ravine in the Andes. They had toppled over. When putting down, getting on or taking a step-by-step turn. By the way, did you know that you are soon on three mille + damage?
For the past twenty and some years I have ridden 'big' Moto Guzzis
Usually California's. They are quite sturdy guys, but they steer and brake well and have a nice low center of gravity. The inventor of the unique, 'meter-long' jiffy deserves the Nobel Prize for practical thinking. When I could only report about my last Cali that he had not walked three tons, I put him to sleep. It was replaced by another Guzzi: a 650 from 1986. When I started motorcycling, a 650 cc rider was a heavy motorcycle. Now it looks like a moped. And I enjoy it as much as I had with my first moped. Would that mean I'm getting younger again?
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The older I get, the faster I was
Because everything used to be nicer, I expanded my two-wheeler stable last year with an innocent Honda C310… just to strum.
When I was a teenager I used to put myself on old dogs, so this was a bit of a smell then.
Only 'then' I was 15 kg lighter and the thing suited me, now (after all these years of motorcycles) it feels weirdly small ..
"You are getting older daddy, admit it"
At the time I drove it to Terschelling and Czechoslovakia, now I don't have to think about doing that with such a stew.
I went to the lake of Zuidlaren. On my C50 and my childhood friend on his C310 that we just sprayed in a green / blue Peugeot color. Seems all not so long ago. (Must have been 1982 🤓)
1982 was also not so long ago. However?
My Zundapp turned out to be much smaller than it used to be!