The computers used by the automotive industry aren't that sophisticated and use common PICs or Micro Controllers. A Sinclair ZX81 is smartere by comparison.
They'll always be either easy to fix or be replaced with 3rd party pattern replacements.
My list would be the V-Max, obviously.
Basically anything that does not sell well now, is pretty rare or self destructs rapidly.
I'd go for the current Chinese motorcycles, which, bearing in mind how the poorly built fragile 1960's Japanese motorcycles are now regarded as classics, will be tomorrow's classics.
Most of 2007's new Chinese bikes will be dead by 2009 through inbuilt gremlins, poor metallurgy and other poor design features. Chunlan 125s have a nasty habit of having their heads fall of of the valves after 5,000 miles.
However, in 20 years time, like the Japanese, they'd have moved up the learning curve and be producing reliable bikes (hopefully). By then people will be wanting to restore and own the extremely rare examples of the early mechanical disasters that they produced when starting out.
Nostalgia will cloud peoples memories, as it does with 1960's and 1970's Japanese bke fans, as to how bloody awful the bikes were in their hey day. Anyone remember how the Suzuki Super Six used to eat its 4th gear and wreck the gearbox when thrashed?? This was what always finished them off. The holed pistons on GT185s?? Suzuki CDI units?? Early Honda camchain tensioners?? Early Yam engine seals?? Suzuki GT250 joke 47 Watt electrics and bendy lollypop conrods??
Precisely my point!!
The same has happened with Brit bikes. C11s and C12s were god awful things but now nostalgia has clouded out any negative memories or describes breaking down in the middle of nowhere, always in the rain, as "character" and "quaint period foibles". They're now expensive classic unreliable crap bikes now, instead of the cheap and nasty hacks they were known as a few decades ago.
The current crop of unreliable, quick rust, Chinese bikes will have the same thing happen to them, just you watch.
To quote Homer Simpson, "Hey this relationship is falling apart quicker than a Chinese motorcycle!!"
Or to use the Chinese motorcycle dealer's motto, "There's a sucker born every minute!!"
I'd also add the Korean bike company Hyosung into the list.
Any Honda Step Through. Somehow the Chinese bike industry managed to replicate everything about the engine except the reliability and toughness.
The Honda CB250N Wetdream, so that future generations of motorcycle designers can see what happens when designers make huge mistakes. Also so that future generations of young bikers, moaning about the current learner laws of the day, can see just how god awful a lot of poor !"£%^%s had it during the late 70's and 80's.
The MZ ETZ 250 and 301 Saxon, just to show future generations what happens when motorcycling designers are allowed to over indulge in narcotics and booze.
The Honda CX500.
Aprillia's 1980's and 1990's RS 2 strokes.
Ditto Cagiva 2 strokes.
The 1968 to 1980 CZ 175 Trail, which already commands silly money prices from collectors and restorers, when compared to other CZs of the same age. It had a unique engine with special gear box ratios.
Any of the 1969 to 1979 Aprillia licence built motorcycles from the company's early days.
That's my reckoning, anyhow.
