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Well I'm just sitting here wondering why it is I really love an antique motorcycle or plane or car or house for that matter. It's hard to say why I lean to the past for my inspiration. A retreat to a simpler time is certainly one reason. But knowing why may not be the best thing either; too much knowledge can take the mystery and attraction out of passion. Passion is rarely logical, but it's the spice of life.
I can appreciate the new from an engineering point of view and for it's practicality. I have a modern truck and my bike is from the modern era, well almost, 1978 BMW. But there is not much passion there, just utility. Where's the adventure? Retreating into the past provides a peak into an era I just saw the end of before disappearing. It was stimulating, and then it was gone. I find the forms and shapes of what came before attractive, the developing engineering of the old bikes and cars in particular, fascinating. What people were able to do with these old evolving machines, keeping them running themselves, exploring the country, competing, all under a certain adversity, are elements missing in today's modern world.
And yet none of us really want to give up what we have for a harder life. But we seem to have given up comradship and fellowship and adventure for security. At least in the "vintage" sense. And the machines we love are still around if we want to restore them and if we can afford it, so we do. But the past is getting harder and harder to retreat into as the modern era becomes more pervasive than ever. We become islands.
The computer, which all of us here are using, and which is a very modern device, at least has the ability to allow our disparate voices to meet and form a common community of interest and engage in a dialogue. So not everything new is bad, it all depends on how one uses the modern.
I guess in the above are some of the reasons that "antique" for me is something that happened before the 50's, no doubt due to the fact that my perspective is formed from the environment I was born into in 1944.
Anybody else out there think they know why they lean in towards the past, why the love those old motorcycles?
Howard Petri
I can appreciate the new from an engineering point of view and for it's practicality. I have a modern truck and my bike is from the modern era, well almost, 1978 BMW. But there is not much passion there, just utility. Where's the adventure? Retreating into the past provides a peak into an era I just saw the end of before disappearing. It was stimulating, and then it was gone. I find the forms and shapes of what came before attractive, the developing engineering of the old bikes and cars in particular, fascinating. What people were able to do with these old evolving machines, keeping them running themselves, exploring the country, competing, all under a certain adversity, are elements missing in today's modern world.
And yet none of us really want to give up what we have for a harder life. But we seem to have given up comradship and fellowship and adventure for security. At least in the "vintage" sense. And the machines we love are still around if we want to restore them and if we can afford it, so we do. But the past is getting harder and harder to retreat into as the modern era becomes more pervasive than ever. We become islands.
The computer, which all of us here are using, and which is a very modern device, at least has the ability to allow our disparate voices to meet and form a common community of interest and engage in a dialogue. So not everything new is bad, it all depends on how one uses the modern.
I guess in the above are some of the reasons that "antique" for me is something that happened before the 50's, no doubt due to the fact that my perspective is formed from the environment I was born into in 1944.
Anybody else out there think they know why they lean in towards the past, why the love those old motorcycles?
Howard Petri
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