If you hear it twice in a month, then there must be some play. While it was fifty shades of gray outside, I asked Joost Woesthoff, the motorcyclist from just one village away, if he had noticed that the key season had started again. Not so. Joost said: “It is all going well. Everyone wants used, beautiful and good stuff as replacement material. But just tinkering and messing around? Only people like you still do that. ” I thought about what people like me would be ...
A few weeks later I was in Genemuiden, to make a Ural story that has already started Auto Motor Klassiek - do you already have a Subscription? - stood. Richard Busweiler was also surprised. ” Nowadays I actually only sell good, complete motorcycles. Most people who need Ural or Dnepr stuff? They buy them new from Jan (Wassenaar, Rolpa). You and those few buddies of yours are just about the only ones buying used parts. And that's a shame, because I still have tons of stuff. ”
In addition, a motor race is nowadays a company where it is known exactly what is in the house, what its condition is and on which shelf it is stored in the warehouse. Searching for hours in bins and shelves is no longer possible for most customers. And of course (almost) every motorcyclist or dealer in used goods has a neat web shop from which he structurally sells globally. The fact that a motorbike run is a lot more transparent for the tax authorities is just an added bonus.
If you then remember the days when part of a motorcycle run was fused with everything in a neglected apple orchard. That when pulling a Honda C77 you pulled the entire motorcycle in half and ended up back to back on a pile of frames. That a fussy Ducati driver was cleverly making critical remarks about a Desmo head until… the demolisher took his head off his hands and threw him hard on the concrete slab with the comment: “Fussy dick! Do you have your way? ” Those were completely different times. Life was clearer. The motorcycle world was really still a motorcycle world.
But hey, there is still 'messing around' as Richard Busweiler remarked with satisfaction. Only that tinkering and messing around has become rather marginal. I have the pleasure of knowing some 'people like me'. Sometimes we meet somewhere along the way or key in our sheds and garages.
It's nostalgic old man stuff, of course. But with a lot of accumulated experience, something to smoke and drink at hand, we keep driving a few old motorcycles. And it is driven. It is also nice that we have aged just as much as the winters have become milder. And of course we now have motorcycle clothing that is a thousand times better than those of our younger years.
But when it comes to it, nowadays we get into the car nicely to get parts in Brummen, Genemuiden or De Lutte. In De Lutte we recently saw a nice Honda C77 project. Not grown in the bushes, but found somewhere in Zeeland and taken out of love.
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In the past, tinkering was not nearly as fanatic as is now claimed by Dolf. I have been keying since I was 14 and am now 67 years old, but I know from experience that in our area (Rotterdam at the time) they did not understand a shit about tinkering. There were, of course, exceptions. What you sometimes encountered were stranded motorcyclists who were doing a half / full overhaul on the side of the road, also done themselves, but the majority just took the bike away to a motorcycle shop. At the time, many motorcycle shops themselves had a half-yard behind the shop that were accessible to regular customers. Back then, in the 70s, losing a drop of oil from an engine was not as world-threatening as it is now, so engine shops could also deal with demolition engines a little easier
Then my friends and I have always had the wrong bikes and not enough money. And I totally agree with your closing sentence!
Another real car junkyard around here.
Van Vliet in Weteringbrug
Lovely, a field with cars where you can find and disassemble the mess yourself.
I really got loads of parts there.
I do have the idea that there are relatively older cars.
Cars that are a few years old apparently leave through a different channel.
Does motor run Wegman still exist in Aalsmeer?
Niels, Wegman in Aalsmeer still exists and there are countless motorcycles outside and in the greenhouses.
You can see, whoever, a decline in interest in “old-timers-classics”. The number of members of many old-timer clubs is also declining and / or becoming obsolete. Young people, IF they already go for a motorcycle, more often opt for a modern sports motorcycle, which is pleasant to drive, but hopeless to tinker (themselves). (luckily there are always exceptions,) Times change, which is sometimes unfortunate, but inevitable
Agree
There are great minds who know that it will be all over with classics in 25 years. Then I finally buy a Muench for 2000 euros!
I just see a change, and not just because of the trendy buns with beard; older (er) bikes are “in” again ..
Old BMW two-valve boxers are being converted into spit-liillike thingies, and the cafe racer craze is reviving too ... (has it even gone?).
In limburg there is still one like that, an old motor scrap yard in ell, the name is PIET MOOK I sometimes come for a part but actually also for the free coffee and to soak up the time of VROEGER and Piet always has nice stories.
So on to Limburg!
In the past, also nice to see at the scrap yard for parts for your car, often also special cars.
I often drive along the meadows where they used to be.
Good morning Dolf Peters.
Finally seen a picture of you. Together with that young man with his hands in his trouser pockets.
Greetings from Oldenzaal
Jan in 't Veld
You also had this kind of scrap yard for cars.
In the 80s, you had at least 3 of those scrap yards within a radius of 3 km around Leuven
with more or less old cars taken by nature.
I had a Ford Taunus station at the time. There were always 10 to 12 copies everywhere.
It was a wonderful time, turning a Taunus L into a Ghia for a few bucks.
This has now all disappeared due to environmental permits
Memory:
Bolman scrapyard in the Hekkelaantje in The Hague in the early 70s. Motorcycle was scrapped lying on the ground (the bike that is).
Every useful part, except electrical, was immersed in a barrel of oil and placed on the shelves. Hekkelaantje is no longer there, but Bolman still is! One of the oldest motorcycle shops in the Netherlands.
And I think on the old ground you have to be very careful about throwing your butt on the ground!
Yes, where have the scrap yards gone, and yet it is also easy not to stand outside in the rain and pull parts from the shelf.
Scrapyards without 0.0 or 1.0 or even 2.0 but now on to Corona free 2021 scrapyard 3.1
It can become critical as soon as the 'parts boundary' shifts dangerously towards the living room and wife / girlfriend.
She has to tell countless sad stories about it!
Dear Charles,
we can present everything with that 🙂
Incidentally, a big compliment to Mr Dolf Peeters and editors and .. and .. for always posting such a fun editorial piece with humor based on reality. Has to laugh about this regularly 🙂
Cheers.