* * Sticking with the old stuff

I am really not that much into stuff.  And I seldom shop.  However, I own and ride four old motorcycles.  Coincidentally, all of them were made by Honda.  Here is my list:

1998 VFR Interceptor sport bike

1989 Hawk GT

1989 Pacific Coast

1981 CBX

Recently, one of the sales guys at the local Honda dealership asked me to come over and test ride a new model VFR Interceptor.  I said, “No thank you.  I am not really in the market.”  The new bike is a 1200cc wonder machine with an incredible amount of power and features.  My equivalent bike is 12 years old and while it is certainly not as fast as the new model, it is completely adequate.  No, it is way more than adequate for the type of riding I like to do.  It will navigate a curving mountain road as fast or faster than I would ever want to go.

But the sales guy insisted and I relented.  I drove the motorcycle in his escort down Christiansburg Mountain eastward toward Shawsville.  We never went more than 55 mph.  This motorcycle is probably capable of going 170 mph.  It has six gears.  At 55 mph I could ride in third, fourth, fifth, or six.  It really didn't seem to matter.

The new bike sells for around $15,000.  My old one is worth about $3000 and one just like it can be bought on eBay most any time.

When we got back to the dealership, the sales guys excitedly asked me what I thought.  I said, “It is too much.  It has too much speed and power.  It has too many features, many of which I would seldom if ever use.  It is way too expensive.  And it would break my heart if I broke it.”

My 29-year-old CBX is such a favorite that a few months ago I bought a spare.  My CBX has 72,000 miles on it and it ain't going to last forever.  The one I bought has only 900 miles and cost $5200.  Obviously, none of its previous owners rode it much.  I’m going to put it into service and sell the “old” on shortly. 

The motorcycles made in the era from 1980 until 2000 seem to have all the reliability, power, and ease of maintenance and operation that I ever need.  What is the use of spending a significant amount of money on new models that don't do anything that I need done better than the old ones?

This line of thinking also applies to the computers I have owned in my life.  My first computer was an IBM clone, bought around 1985.  It ran on an antiquated operating system called MS-DOS., which was clunky and obtuse.  And yet, it would still allow for some incredible functions.  A friend of mine who was a corporate bookkeeper told me how amazed she was when she first saw a computerized spreadsheet which automatically recalculated tallies for rows and columns after the entry of every piece of data.  Computer users everywhere eagerly anticipated new versions.  Over time, however, a funny thing happened.  All the additional functionality that new computers seemed to bring were of little additional value. 

Perhaps 10 years ago I got a computer that ran Microsoft Windows and the corresponding word processing and spreadsheet programs.  Every new release I have seen since then provides virtually no new functionality and merely takes the old functions and puts them in places where I can't find them anymore.

The computer market seems to be flooded now with all sorts of handheld computers and communication devices.  But like with my motorcycles, I cannot perceive the value.  I guess I have reached that age where my curmudgeonly tendencies have taken over.  For me, the era when new technologies actually provide for a better user experience or higher quality of life seems to have closed.