In the distant past I also did question sections. Just like "ask Mona" in a leading women's magazine from back in the day. Those were 'Dr. Soot' and 'Ask Thera'. The approach was pleasantly playful. The questions are sometimes surprisingly serious. Recently I scored a stack of 'Weekblad Motors' from the first half of the seventies, the heyday of my motorcycle existence. That was also very serious bizniz.
But how motorcyclists have changed in the course of barely half a century! One asked Triumph three-cylinder owner wonders how his Trident came to an oil consumption of one liter at four hundred kilometers after 20D kilometers. The editors took a deep and focused look at this and listed numerous reasons and solutions. Reader FG from Eindhoven received extensive text and explanation about how and when a chain is worn out. Half a page was spent thinking about the aforementioned reasons why a Zündapp kept getting stuck and the final most likely solution to the problem came from a Suzuki T500 rider who had had similar problems.
In the field of plain bearings, there was the question: 'What wears out, the hard or the soft material?'. The answer was five times longer than the question asked. And then there was the driver of one Triumph P494 – who doesn't know him? – with total loss lubrication that had too much (approx. 2 mm!) space on the valve guides and wanted to know from which material he could best make new valve guides. In connection with lubrication, bronze was not recommended and pearlitic cast iron (with the famous carbon fins) was recommended. So those were just some things that played with normal motorcyclists. And it was just a running column in the Only Motorweekblad of the Netherlands. It was also about Honda Black Bombers and BMW R50s up to and including R75/5s. And Gileras. And Nortons. And Jawas…
During the driver tests in that also disappeared Weekblad Motor from the early seventies, things were regularly mentioned such as broken parts, broken couplings, broken frames and crankshafts, electrical failure, broken spokes and so on. Of course it also had to do with the fact that we were younger then and only drove full throttle.
By the way, it was the time that the beautiful and good Laverda 750s went for a mille or three in guilders. Harley-Davidson 750 cc side-valves – the WLA and WLC machines in an aged version – cost between 1.500 and 2.000 guilders. Those were just the asking prices, by the way. With all those price comparisons, it is usually forgotten that Gross Modal, including holiday pay, was less than € 1973 in 8.000. In 2023 that will be € 40.000…
Have we all become technical wimps and has the market where we tap 25.000 euros for such an old Harley side valve gone completely crazy? I'm afraid so. This is due to the enormous increase in prosperity for many people. The disappearance of serious craft training for decades also counts heavily. The increasing complexity of technology is also a thing. And with thoroughbred baby boomers and investors, the money is splashing against the baseboards.
Motorcycles were once invented for suckers who couldn't afford a car. In the past, students and aspiring concrete workers rode Harleys because such a thing cost three hundred guilders out of the crate. Wintertime was revision time. My own son drove a Honda 125 cc in his student days because those things were bought by driving school owners for the smallest A, which nobody wanted.
That was another top plan of our rulers: 125 cc motorcycles for beginners. There were no 125 cc novices. Nobody wanted to ride 125 cc. Except for those few students.
Meanwhile, we are considerably older and more experienced than then and the surviving engines from then are often as good or better than they ever were. Now they are classics. And if you compare the classic prices with the current new prices? Then our classics are still cheap. And that's how you get to a happy ending after a worrying argument. Nice is not it?
Then something like 2.000 guilders
But a nice standard 750? You had it for over 3.000 guilders
In the second half of the sixties I bought Friday's Motor at the station in Nijmegen for 25 cents.
Always enjoy and keep all numbers. Loaned in 1975 and never got back.
If you see all the motorcycle magazines available now, the world has indeed changed. Only the content of all those magazines together is rarely more fascinating than that of the disappeared Motor.
But that must be an Alzheimer's idea.
Agree. The advertiser pays. And who pays is determined. Moreover, engine tests these days are about electronic smarts
Now that you mention it Dolph.
Indeed, it is often more about those electronic smarts than about how 'damn good' (or bad of course) that thing actually drives or how reliable that 'bicycle' actually is. I regret that. I don't know about others, but as a motorcyclist I tried to ride with only electronic gadgets. Not so. It turned out that it really took a serious motorcycle. You know, a frame with a handlebar and saddle, and two wheels. Oh yes!… An engine that performed and that also had to be reliable, completed with life-saving brakes, has always been a damn handy gadget. Nowadays, you are more likely to buy 'an ideal platform for your smart phone'. I may not quite speak for myself if riding a motorcycle isn't all about that.
With regard to 'perlitic' cast iron and 'lamella', then both are contradictory. Lamellar cast iron has 'lamellae' where the oil lingers so beautifully. Cylinders of most (older) engines are made of it. Great stuff!
Although the tensile strength of lamellar cast iron is lesser compared to some fellow species, it remains the favourite. Yet my BMW 2V just has bronze valve guides and is very satisfied with them. It may be feared that cast iron will be the lesser here. There are therefore also several types of bronze, including sintered bronze, bearing bronze and the seaworthy CuNiAl. A science in itself.
And thanks for the addition!
I'm not a boomer, so I didn't experience the time of “please get that thing out of the garden”…unfortunately.
In my starting motorcycle days I could buy a dilapidated WLA for fl2500, but I didn't have that many kinks.
It became a CB350F for 1500 hard guilders… thanks to a loan from grandpa and grandma (to the dismay of the mothers).
Nevertheless, had a lot of fun, and a lot of tinkering…because that was part of it.
Oil changes every 5000 km, adjusting contact points and valves… nice man
We are us fossils. But happy fossils
started on a Solex in 1968 for six guilders fifty, my mother put it on the street with a sign for free when she found out that I was driving it with my brother..
after the peugeot BB driver's license with a teaching permit on a yamaha rd125, which went like the fire brigade (compared to the asthmatic peugeot)
drove R75/7 for years, now happily on my lambretta tv175.
As long as it's not electric, it's fine!