By Eric Peters
For NMA
A riding buddy of mine urges me to buy a disposable bike – though of course he does not call it that. He means a modern bike – which means a bike unlike any of the ones I own, all of which aren’t computers on two wheels.
He ticks off all of the modern bike’s advantages, as he sees them. I myself do not see them. But I do see a number of disadvantages, the chief of them being the disposability of modern, computer-controlled bikes.
I point to my bikes as a counterpoint. Two of them – my ’75 Kawasaki S1 triple and my ’76 Kz900 – are nearly 50 years old and both of them will start right up whenever I want to ride them, which is a remarkable thing given they are almost 50 years old.
Actually, it’s not that remarkable – because they aren’t computer controlled.
My friend – who is a professional mechanic – says a modern, computer-controlled (and fuel-injected) bike will start right up, every time. But I pointed out to him that my carbureted bikes that do not have computer controls also start right up. The difference is what happens when they don’t start right up – the modern, computer-controlled bike vs. a bike without a computer.
If that happens with my bikes, it can only be due to a few things, easily checked and fixed with basic tools. The carbs (most multi-cylinder motorcycle engines have a carburetor for each cylinder) may need to be adjusted. In italics to make a point about fiddling with something vs. replacing something. Electronic fuel injection (EFI) works very well – until one day, it doesn’t. Often, you will not get any warning, either. Because electronically controlled things are like that.
Then you will probably need to replace electronic components, which means if the bike won’t start and you’re not home, you will need to get a ride home and haul the bike there, too. Or to a shop, if you haven’t got the necessary equipment (and knowledge) to isolate the problem and replace the part(s) that need replacing.
With carburetors, it’s rarely something that needs to be replaced. More usually a screw that needs to be turned, a choke adjusted; something cleaned, etc. There is nothing electronic to check and so nothing electronic to worry about.
If the fuel is flowing through the carb – easy to see because you can see (you can’t with EFI) then the only other thing left to check is the spark. Pull a plug wire off and put a spare plug in; ground it on the bike and crank the engine. If you have a nice hot blue spark, the ignition’s probably ok. If not, there are only a few simple parts that might need attention.
And all of those parts are inexpensive. Maybe $30 for a coil; $40 for a rectifier. There’s not much else to it.
Fuel, air and spark. Elemental, as a motorcycle ought to be.
I pointed this out to my friend, who maybe prefers the modern stuff because he likes to get new bikes more often than I do. I don’t because my bikes work just fine – so why replace them? I do occasionally add a new (old) one to the stable. But only because I found another interesting old bike that I know will start up for the next 50 years (provided I am around that long) with very little wanted from me beyond keeping the carbs clean and the gas tank full of fresh fuel.
My S1 (which has points) will start up even after an electro-magnetic pulse detonation. Not that I have it for that reason, but it’s a perk.
The biggest perk, though, is being disconnected from unnecessary, alienating elaborateness. I am not a Luddite but why does a bike need “drive by wire” throttle? Or an LCD touchscreen that is not going to last 50 years or probably even 20 and after five or so will be as cheesy-looking and dated as an Atari screen from the ’80s? When it glitches out in ten years from now, will you even be able to find a replacement for it? Can you find a ten-year-old working replacement smartphone and would you want one?
All of my bikes have analog gauges – real (physical) needles that sweep across a face screened with numbers. It is – to me – a counterpoint and repudiation, even, of the ticky-tacky smartphone emulating display screens that look cheap because they are cheap. Why do you suppose car manufacturers (almost all of them) have replaced gauge clusters with LCD screens? If you answered – because it’s cheaper to manufacture/install and so more profitable – go to the head of the class.
Such things are also more disposable – which makes things even more profitable. Especially if you have to replace the vehicle because its interfaces and controls no longer work – or are “no longer supported.”
Motorcycle manufacturers are headed down the same road – for the same reason. Plastic is cheap – especially when it is made in China. So are electronics. Things made of metal with mechanical parts wear but can be repaired, usually. They are thus inherently less disposable because they don’t have to be thrown away and replaced.
The entirely mechanical, analog speedos that came with my bikes when they were new 50 years ago are still working today, almost half a century later. The tachometers are mechanically driven, too – if you can imagine that.
Yes, I know. My bikes don’t have all those neat-o programmable “modes” and it’s up to me to keep the front wheel down and the shiny side up.
But I kind of like it that way.
Eric Peters lives in Virginia and enjoys driving cars and motorcycles. In the past, Eric worked as a car journalist for many prominent mainstream media outlets. Currently, he focuses his time writing auto history books, reviewing cars, and blogging about cars+ for his website EricPetersAutos.com.
Editor’s Note: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the National Motorists Association.
