I miss my 86 cb700sc 🥲
this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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Motorcycles
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Without seeing the video:
- Oil leaks
- Forks that flex
- elextrics that fail when wet or just because
- Disc brakes that don’t work when it’s wet, drum brakes that don’t work
- genwrally bad tyres, with inner tubes
- truly terrible headlights
- theres more - someone help me out
Drum brakes, but for ABS reasons rather than performance. He skids his drum to prove it.
16" rims, with which bias ply tires are mentioned as part of the appeal
That's all you got close
- Frames that flex like a pool noodle
- Batteries that lasted for mins
- Analogue dials that were unreadable due to vibes or the needles wobbled in a 15deg arc so you could only guess your speed.
- Piss poor charging systems.
- Really really floppy frames.
- Carburators
We should do a list of stuff that should be brought back, I'll start.
- Carburators
- Kickstarts
Oh, fuck a carb 7 ways to Sunday, EFI is a million times better
I get the thinking, but carbs are 19th century black magic that only strange people truly understand, and most of them died decades ago (I say this having cut my teeth working on carbs...ewww). Haha.
That said, bike carbs are way simpler than on cars.
That said, bike carbs are way simpler than on cars.
This suggests to me that you have not dealt with a 4 carb setup on a 4 cylinder bike before.
Never fucking again.
Unless I stumble on a cherry CBX1000. I'd make an exception for that glorious 6-cylinder monstrosity.
Or a bike that has multiple tuned carbs per cylinder that have to be balanced together. Thanks BMW.
I have, and those carbs are still far simpler than on cars.
Balancing can be fun (figuring out why the hell does this one always pull more mercury, and how do I balance so they're all reasonably similar).
Have a bike like this currently.
But bike carbs don't have the crazy vacuum lines everywhere, or an EGR system mucking things up.
Never did have to deal with a carbureted vehicle with EGR. Lucky me I guess!
4 CV (vacuum operated) carbs on a 30 year old inline 4 cylinder bike is where I topped out. There were definitely several dark magic ceremonies required to get those to run well (at all throttle positions). God forbid you want to change the intake setup.
My point of view as connysewer of cheap and disposable bikes, is that a carb can be fixed with a screwdriver on the side of the road. A GOOD efi will enter limp mode and get you home, but I don't do good bikes...
I've had way more failures with carbs than efi.
I've had EFI run for 20 years with zero issues, on a single vehicle. Zero maintenance, not even sensor replacement.
One current vehicle is from 1985 and the EFI still works flawlessly... A 1985 EFI.
Once EFI transitioned from analog to digital, lots of little gremlins just went away. They became a lot more consistent and robust.
I've owned early analog EFI... Whew, talk about a persnickety system.
If you live in a relatively flat area then sure…carbs. I live in the mountains and can change 5-6K feet of elevation on one ride. The carb will not run great somewhere along that trip. I will mention the Euro5 emissions throttle/fuel maps on EFI can be janky. Carbs do have a smoother power delivery in general…when working.
My 2024 Grom has #6. No matter how I adjust it, it just doesn't light up very far down the road.
If any Grom owners have a solution, I'm all ears.
Anything on Fortnine is an insta-watch.