On a recent trip I was able to swap back and forth between three bikes: a moden bonneville, a 1960's BSA 650, and a 1970's Honda 750. Visually these bikes all have similar steering geometry but to me they had a quite different feel.
I particularly liked the feel of the BSA, I would describe the handling as light and neutral - it was easy to start a turn or adjust the line. This is in contrast to my america which oversteers (wants to turn more sharply) at low speed and understeers(wants to go wide) at higher speed.
The Honda was next best but took a bit of effort to move off a straight-line and then wanted to turn a bit more than needed.
I expected to like the Bonneville but it just felt stiff. I didn't think to check for a steering damper but the bike just felt generally less responsive to steering inputs than either of the other two.
Has anybody else got any experience with vintage vs modern or is there any obvious reason for the differences? I looked for rake/trail data but didn't find it for anything except the modern bonneville which says its geometry(29 degree rake) is very similar to the vintage bike.
