Spoiled, spoiled riders

[Boit]

I'm so angry that I'm going out to the garage right now and remove that D.I.D. sticker from my front fender! No poser be I!

 

[xrsforever]

Bikes are good clean fun. Why would you not want to make a bike better ? JMD I think your jealous,if you want a stock bike,fine. But don't rip those who are into the sport. I remember the' ole days when you replaced the fenders(Preston Petty) the tanks,tires,pipes,grips. It has not changed that much.:cool:

 

[spanky250]

the vast majority of riders don't NEED a lot of the toys they buy. Dave

Most people don't need a 60 inch TV, or a $50,000 Lexus, or a $500 suit, but that's what makes this country so great. You can blow all the money you wish on anything you want to buy. Isn't that why you work, anyway? To have the money to spend on toys, and to live a good life? JMD, why should it bother you if there are people that buy things they really don't need? Is it your money they are spending? Or does it just bother you that they can buy things that you can't afford? Personally, I only spend money on my bike for things that it needs, like the horrible suspension it came with that made it unrideable, or new pistons or tires when neccessary. Heck, I don't have the first sticker on my bike, but I certainly don't care if Joe Cool down the street wants to have the trickest bike on the block. It's his money, and his bike.

 

[JMD]

Spanky, it's all a matter of perspective. That "unrideable" suspension you mention is probably vastly better than anything Roger DeCoster ever won a GP on. We're spoiled.

 

[spanky250]

Originally posted by JMD
Spanky, it's all a matter of perspective. That "unrideable" suspension you mention is probably vastly better than anything Roger DeCoster ever won a GP on. We're spoiled.

I'm sure that the suspension stae-of-the-art has come a long way since Decoster's days, but he was racing against other bikes of his era, with the same level of suspension technology. My bike's suspension in stock form was no where near the level of what was considered acceptable when it was new. The forks were sprung for a 130 lb. rider, while the shock was sprung for a 200 lb. rider. It was so baddly unbalanced that it would spit you off at the first sight of a jump or whoop.

 

[JMD]

Really, I do know what you mean, Spanky. I had my suspension done, too. I was just trying to point out how spoiled we are with the fantastic machinery we have available. Factory riders never had it so good, back in the day, but now the bikes come off the showroom floor darn near perfect. Sure, I make modifications too. It's half the fun. But we're awfully lucky to have this kind of quality at hand.

So life is sweet in that regard. On the other hand, when I started riding 30 years ago, even though I was mounted on a heavy, ill-handling, no-suspension, blubbering, vibrating, unreliable piece of coprolite, I could head out to the desert or the national forests and ride absolutely anywhere I wanted to, no black helicopters, no eco-Nazis. It was pure freedom. That is something I'm glad I was able to experience, and no modern manufacturing marvels can take the place of that. Anyway, the important thing is to ride, and to love it while we can. Someday, people will see pictures of us and say, "Can you believe it? They actually used to let people ride those primitive machines on the hills and meadows, destroying the Earth, before everything became preserved under a protective layer of concrete."

 

[spanky250]

Originally posted by JMD
when I started riding 30 years ago, even though I was mounted on a heavy, ill-handling, no-suspension, blubbering, vibrating, unreliable piece of coprolite,

At the time, you probably thought you were on the most incredibly advanced machine on the planet, and you were griping about how "spoiled" you were with the bikes you had to ride compared to what they were like thirty years previously. The more things change, the more they stay the same...