Last night I twisted my left knee - simply bumped into something - and it now hurts like fury. When I was about 13, I piled up my right knee and so now I have a matched set. How wonderful!!!
Anyhow, right now, I can hardly walk and so I am just sitting, watching the unfolding dramas/clusterf@cks on CNN and CBC - and thinking about the bigger and smaller issues in life. It has occurred to me that what we are doing on this forum, ladies and gents - and what Mailman has been documenting so well, and what most of the rest of us are doing with varying degrees of success, is sort of a
"filtering" process.
Let me explain what I mean by that:
- MamaYama built our bikes many years ago - and for the most part, they did it very well;
- Somebody back in the 1970-84 period bought these pretty new bikes, was really proud of them and enjoyed them for a while - largely not changing them;
- The original set of owners (except for Fred - who has kept his bike for nearly 40 years) then sold the bikes on to a string of one or more individuals, many of whom (perhaps most of whom) were total f@ck-ups who often did the most stupid things to these once beautiful old bikes - and we've all marveled at how foolish, destructive and/or neglectful these "intermediate" owners have been (and it really is remarkable how dumb some of these folks were);
- Now, people like us are digging these old bikes out of barns, ditches, dusty garages and prying them out of the hands of people who generally don't know what they've got - or simply don't care;
- A few of us "chop" the bikes into something quite bizarre, sometime creating motorcycles that are less comfortable, less safe and less capable than they were 40-odd years ago;
- Some of us work very hard and spend lavishly to bring them right back to where they were when they were shipped overseas from Japan in the 1970-84 timeframe; and,
- Most of us restore them while keeping them looking mostly the same as they were originally, but we make important improvements that make these great old machines even better than when they were built (with better ignitions, charging systems, chassis bearings, tires, brakes etc.);
- I must admit, I am not quite sure what the members of the first group (the "choppers" ) are trying to create - but I guess it has meaning to them.
- The folks in the last two groups (the "original" types and the "improvers") who, thankfully, form the majority of the modern XS650 community, are basically filtering out the bad things that have happened to the XS650 bike population over the years and re-creating what Yamaha had in mind in the late 1960s when they designed the XS1: a simple, safe, reliable and pretty motorcycle that was enjoyable to ride.
....and it is working.
One by one, we are creating some really nice motorcycles that are safe, reliable and fun - and it is a good thing in my view. I suppose someday, there won't be any more XS650s that haven't been
chopped, improved or made
original again - and then we can just keep riding whatever we've got. And in my view, that is the key point: these "original" and "improved" XS650s, really are
great all-around motorcycles.
Riding or driving most "antique" or "classic" vehicles almost always comes with some serious compromises in comfort, safety, reliability or on-road performance and the people who operate those vehicles are aware of those shortcomings and accept them.
However, while the XS650s may not be as fast or have handling quite as sharp as more recent offerings (and who
really uses all of those amazing capabilities anyway?), for everyday "ridin' around in the breeze" (as in the song
"End of the Line" by the
Travelling Wilburys), they are
very competitive and in my estimation, they're better than most other bikes or any age or type.
With the improvements most of us are making, they are just as reliable and safe as modern bikes - but they have those beautiful lines and sounds that the modern "blender sounding / transformer look-alikes" simply cannot match. Anyhow, that's how I see it.
Very cool and lots of good fun!
Cheers,
Pete
thank you
