Great article, BMW have certainly done their fare share in bringing technology into the sikkle market place, and as motorcycling has evolved into what it is today a lot of this technology has bought with it reliability too, which is important to all the people who dont want to get oil and grease under their fingernaills at the weekend and just want to saddle up and go.I am of the age now where I too, am adverse to repairing unreliable machinery and would rather be  out there enjoying the twistys instead of sitting on a stool with a copy of a Haynes manual on the floor open to the relavant page of the piece of broken stuff I am repairing......however I am glad that I was bought up in that era where motorcycling was all about the bike and not all about the immage and wizardry...I feel uncomfortable sometimes sitting astride a machine that could leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere just because a piece of electronic hardware/software decided it was time to die.....You couldn't beat riding around the country side with a Belstaff Jacket full of bits of wire/ spanners/spark plugs/red hermetite/ duct tape and spare nuts and bolts, that was what the original breakdown insurance policy was Ha Ha thank God I never fell off...they would have had to surgically remove the jacket from the impact zones....Heaven for me, would still have to be a normally aspirated 750 bonnie with the luxury of electronic ignition and an engine put togeather with todays gasket technology.....one day maybe such a machine will once again grace my garage with its presence.....maybe if the luggage reads this she will start putting some money away for my 60 ith.... now where did I put that manual HmmmmmmmRegardsRincewind

Ahh The Belstaff jacket, and aviator googles what memories !!! only mine also had a pocket full of clutch corks for my BSA Gold Star, which due to having a close ratio gearbox would sometimes necessitate having to stop to replace the burnt out ones and it was usually on the North Yorkshire moors freezing cold, but ee by gum it was fun.   ;D

Ah the memories indeed, my Daddy had one of those and he said when I had the strength to kick it into life without using the decompression lever he would teach me to ride it.....unfortunatley at nine years old, he knew I would be at least 18 before I had the brain or the muscle to work that one out, and he sold the machine before I had a chance to perfect the technique, didn't stop me from having a sneaky try every now and again though !!!!RegardsRincewind