ArcaMax

But like the Hellcat, increasingly like a supermodel behind a plate glass window. Bill Joel may be able to date her. Joe Sixpack not so much.

If the MSRP (and forget-about-DIY service) doesn't keep him away, the cost to insure such a bike usually will do the trick. And the cost to insure the thing ties into the cost of fixing/replacing the various car-like "safety" and other electronic systems now being grafted onto motorcycles. Just wait till they mandate air bags (the Honda Goldwing already offers them).

Which brings us full circle back to the old stuff. Which does not have computers, ABS, wheel speed sensors, TCS, fuel-injection, 02 sensors, catalytic converters, "maps" or "programs." And forget - hooray! - air bags.

Maybe not MotoGP material - but (for the most part) DIY fixable with basic hand tools. And - key point - fixable almost forever. At least, as long as you will probably be around. It is not, as they say, rocket science to keep a 40-year-old bike like my '76 Kz900 road-ready. Because it was not hard to do that 40 years ago. A few turns of the screwdriver here, unbolt this, clean that - reinstall - and you were good to go. It will not be hard to do this 40 years from now.

Hence, affordable, accessible - and (wait for it) fun. The reason most of us throw a leg over in the first place. Which by the way includes tinkering with the damned thing.

The current stuff? You can't fault 'em by the numbers - well except the numbers on the sticker - but they are more like iPads (in a very real sense, they are iPads) that you use until they stop working and then throw them away. Interchangeable, replaceable. Disposable. For as long as you can afford to buy in.

As new bike prices continue to track upward in tandem with the agglutination of complexity - including ever-more-elaborate "safety" and emissions stuff (as with cars, expect direct injection to replace regular ol' fuel injection before the end of the decade if not sooner) the desirability - and hence, the price - of the older iron is going to go up, too.

Which is why it's a damned good time to think about getting in now, before that happens. Before new bike sales begin to wilt. Which they will. Because they must. Most people who ride are not rich and keep bikes for... fun. They are mostly young - 20s and 30s - and that demographic cannot deal with $20,000 bikes that cost $3k a year to insure that they can't fix themselves. The economy sucks and people - young people's - incomes (if they have any) will not support $20,000 toys.

It's cool to see what the engineers can engineer; that it's technically possible to offer a 200 MPH 9 second through the quarter-mile production bike that could compete in MotoGP right off the showroom floor. But if the kids - and semi-young - who desire such bikes cannot afford such bikes... The bubble's real - and it's about ready to burst. But old bikes abound. And, they're cheap. For the moment. Better hurry.

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www.ericpetersautos.com or EPeters952@aol.com for comments.