RetroTours Newsletter - August 2026

We live in a throw away society, but to me, it is reprehensible to discard something that is quite functional. Twenty plus years ago we moved into our house and redid the kitchen. To save money and to achieve a “distressed farmhouse” look we had the countertops done in concrete. The surface was polished and coated with a glossy clear coat to achieve a nice finish. Several decades of normal use have worn away the gloss and the “distressed” look is quite apparent. The countertops are still perfectly useable, but my wife wants to scrap the existing top and replace it with some sort of plastic composite imitation marble. Not that I would ever stand a
chance to prevail, but this just seems wrong to me. It’s not just the (considerable) expense, it’s the idea of discarding a perfectly functional item that bothers me the most. That’s just how I’m wired, maybe an attitude passed down from a  parental generation that suffered through the Great Depression.

I had the opportunity recently to put a few hundred miles on a 1988 GL1500. It had 95,000 miles on the clock and had sat dormant for more than 10 years. In the end, it cost the owner a bit over $4,000 to have the fuel system cleaned out, new fork seals , brake work, tires, new timing belts, repairs to the electric reverse system and to the sound system. I was pleased to assist with keeping this machine out of the junk yard, which is exactly where it was headed when the owner was referred to me. It might not actually be worth all of 4 grand, but what would it cost to buy a similar new machine?

Besides the cost of replacement there is an environmental
cost. The energy required to produce a complete machine: raw material extraction and processing, production, and transport to market have all been expended, so why throw it all away?

There was at the same time, a GL1200 that came in for resurrection. I also put a hundred miles on this bike and while not as sophisticated perhaps as the 1500, it was far more enjoyable to ride. Less weight to deal with, less heat, and fewer bells and whistles to distract from the experience of riding a motorcycle. Which brings up another point. Why design a product that has more bulk, complication, and technical capability than needed to fulfill its performance
goals? Is bigger necessarily better?

Household heating system thermostats are a pet peeve of mine. IMHO a round dial that can be turned to the desired number of degrees is a darn good way to set the desired temperature. Digital programmable thermostats may have more capabilities, but if the end user is incapable of programming it correctly is it really better than a simple dial? Technical overdesign, like planned obsolescence, is the result of our capitalist economy that depends heavily on endless consumer spending. Just throw it away and buy a newer, more complicated, more expensive one!

I am no Communist by the way, but a mature design that has been incrementally improved over time seems more  desirable than an overpriced, brand new, unnecessarily complex replacement that the end user can’t understand or operate to its full capability, especially when that design is made to last only until the next upgrade is available, at which point it will be discarded, even if it is still functional, and replaced with an even more complex and expensive

so called improvement. Plus, besides the end user possibly being incapable of fully understanding or utilizing the unneeded features, what happens when the end of the designed in, unnecessarily short life cycle nears or when routine maintenance is required? Who will service or repair the latest electronic marvel, and at what cost?

In the end, these things that we presume to own can come to own us. Through RetroTours, we preserve the bikes of the past and a piece of history. We don’t just look at them, we ride them as the designer and manufacturer intended, and in so doing, we create the need for maintenance and repairs. They were designed in an era when owner repair and maintenance was considered to be an integral part of the motorcycling experience. In maintaining these machines, we control our own destiny, bond with the metal, and enjoy the full, rich experience of classic motorcycling..