[Shop-talk] changing times...

[old dirtbeard]

Hi David,

Yes, I agree with you completely.

I have a 1972 BSA B50SS that I bought new in '72 when I was a high school
senior, and when I ride it out on the street now, it draws attention
because it is seen as an antique (a single cylinder, air cooled, a kick
starter, it is loud and vibrates, etc.).

Then I realized that my 2001 Sportster is over 21 years old now, and has a
carburetor and no electronic engine controls, no ABS, and it is seen as an
ancient and curious artifact.

I also work at a university where the majority of the students now were
born post 911, and that highly impactful event now is seen as an ancient
historical moment like WWI or the assination of JFK.

Time moves forward gradually, but then at moments you realize that the
boots you are wearing  are 25 years old, and older than the person to
whom you are speaking.

I just had an epiphany when I realized that more time had transpired since
I graduated from high school than had transpired from the end of WW1 and
when I had graduated from high school. When I was a HS student, I used to
think WWI was a century before with biplanes and infantry warfare...

I think it means that we are fortunate to have lived long enough so that
although much of what we know may no longer be meaningful to subsequent
generations, it still is meaningful to us.

I am still tearing around on that '72 BSA B50SS, even if twenty-somethings
do not understand it.  :-)

Here are a couple photos of the "antique":
https://gopro.com/v/JbB9XPeDdg6kK
https://gopro.com/v/7a7zwvLy4KD8e

Here is a video of it running up a hill:
https://gopro.com/v/rDpnZ2GVK1w9E

best,

doug

On Mon, Apr 18, 2022 at 3:05 PM David Scheidt <dmscheidt at gmail.com> wrote:

> The other day, I was at my local habitat restore, browsing tools. It's
> very close to me, I pop in once a week or two, to look.
> They clearly have gotten the estate of an old car guy, as various bits
> of old test equipment and speciality automotive tools have been there
> (when they get a bunch of stuff like that, they tend to parcel it out,
> instead of putting it all out at once) over the last couple months.
> The other day, there was a twenty something year old looking at a
> tachometer/dwell engine analyzer.   he asked if I knew what it was.  I
> attempted to explain.  I'm pretty sure he had no idea what a
> distributor was, and the idea of points baffled him.   I'd said old
> cars had them, he said 'like from the 80s?'.
>
> --
> David Scheidt
> dmscheidt at gmail.com
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