Well actually, I was speaking for all modern vehicles, motorcycles, autos, backhoes, etc., etc. They are more complex but at the same time, perform better, last longer and are more reliable overall. Certainly there are more complex systems that require more specialized repair / replacement than in the olden' days, such as electronic fuel injection vs. a carburetor, but overall, the entire vehicle(s) are more reliable. When I was younger, it was nothing to see strings of cars stuck on the side of the road during a heavy rainstorm 'cause the distributors were full of water, and very common to see a LOT of cars that would not start when it was unusually cold, often in mall parking lots and so forth.
I cannot speak for the Valkyrie but I do have the utmost respect for Honda products in general, and the Gold Wing specifically. A reliable, tough and robust bike for more than 30 years now. And I have never owned any Honda road vehicle in my life (I do have a Honda snowblower).
But again, from my own point of view, I do not miss in the least wiping out distributor caps, replacing leaking and arcing spark plug wires, rebuilding carburetors, trying to coax a little more life out of an automatic choke that is stuck (and never did work quite right from day one) and on and on. And that is just the junk sitting on the actual engine to make it run, not any part of the engine itself; dive in a little deeper (Easy Boys!) and a lot of the changes in how engines are made along with the materials (our C-14's have ceramic cylinder walls: they cannot be rebored or even honed but then again, the do NOT NEED to be rebored or rehoned!) and the change in not only lifespan but how well old engines run now is almost unbelievable. It is nothing to find vehicles with over 150K miles that not only still run correctly and very well but also are not worn- they do not use oil, make blue smoke, become hard to start due to low compression and so forth. Like I said, I do not miss the 'bad old days', at least regarding road vehicles.
Excepting '34 Fords, '67 Mustang fastbacks (had one in British racing green), '55- 6- 7 Chevy's and a handful of others.
Brian
Tru dat! 72,000 and zero problems so far. Not even the infamous KIPASS failure. My brother keeps telling me his Valkyrie is the most reliable bike out there. But I have to remind him that between his 2 Valks and my Valk every one of them:
had clutch damper plate fail at ~50,000
had rear spline on the drive shaft fail at ~70,000
had starter butting fail every ~10,000 until installation of headlight relay
And mine also had petcock fail at ~60,000
The C14 is a remarkable bike.