StephenB wrote:Anybody?
What's happening to this site? We used to respond to these kind of request ... and if only to degrade the threat!
But not even that? That is outright criminal!
Unless nobody actually knows what I am talking about ... which would put me far ahead of the curve, wonit!
Stephen, I was wondering myself why there is less activity. What I came up with is that there is less activity. By and large (my take anyhow) though we do get a few new members, what we have left is a core of Boxerworks fans. And the old time denizens of Boxerworks have been there and done that. For them not that many technical questions come up that they need help with. I'm speaking primarily of Post 1970 Airheads.
As for Speakeasy, it's a similar thing. There is a core of participants who are pretty much well behaved. In other words a pissing contest is rare. Remember all the posters we didn't like, or at least who irritated us? Well, they are gone now. Now we seem to have a lot of rational discourse and mutual respect.
Be careful what you ask for, eh?
The big question in my mind is whether the excitement regarding airheads has essentially moved to Adv Rider? I haven't been on it for quite a while, but what I seem to remember seeing is quite of bit of technical improvement discussions.
You're building a bike and you've posted. Would you have posted much if you weren't building a bike? This is not criticism on my part. I'm thinking that's simply how things are nowadays. Plus there's a lot more information in the internet regarding airheads, or so it seems to me.
Remember when Duane came to the forum? Wow! Here was a guy who knows airheads inside and out. He'd written a lot of information and put it on a website. And he was (and mostly still is) available to deal with airhead problems--or at least problems that don't have answers easily gotten from the internet.
Duane was here for the rally at my place this spring. I don't remember a single technical question being asked of him. Duane as much as said that he was available at the rally for airhead questions, but the people here at the rally had already talked about syncing carbs by ear, or how to align front forks, or how to bench test a transmission. So the rally was about friendship and fellowship mainly--which is delicious. But not much technical ground gets plowed.
Look at me. When I came on to Boxerworks Nathan was still posting. I greedily soaked up information like a sponge. But I've changed too. I no longer seem to be hungry for the most minute airhead ephemera. Now it's unlikely that I will ever change out a crankshaft or camshaft or build a bike to satisfy a particular "need/passion" (like you were with your GS).
I sometimes wonder if pissing contests betray passions, which can polarize as well as educate. But wonder as I might, I'm not going to be in favor of the "bad old days" at Boxerworks.
I wonder what it's like on the Model A forums nowadays. Or for that matter, the Harley biker forums.
Disclaimer: On the other hand I might be full of shit too. Anybody else want to address Stephen's concderns?
Ken
