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The Honda NTV is a great reliable bike. ABS would have been an improvement considering it's geometry. Once you get to fuel injection with air sensors you have much more power but some bikes suffered from poor fuelling at low speeds due to not reading each cylinder just the main exhaust. Late 70's BMWs are very robust with geometry to suit the poor brakes but heavy and slow by any modern standard. The 90's VFR was quite well balanced.
All depends what you want to do with it though. Ride round America - Gold Wing or Harley Ultra. Crossing Europe regularly - Hayabusa / Pan European / GS1250. Quick run to the chip shop - GSXR K5 :)
Most of the 'best' models have been running for years and the newer ones have more tech to offer but you really need specific knowledge of the model to know which one had the right wheels/engine/frame etc. Then you need to find a good example and have the money.
Personally I don't think there's a golden age, there's a sweet spot for the ride you want to do but not one winner for all rides and times.
tldr - all motorbikes are great, ride as many as you can while you can :)
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Airhead
@hvsds
Tried to write this question a couple of times but failed, so bear with me...
Full disclosure: I did a CBT 10 years ago, had a 125 for a couple of years after, nothing since. That, and that I'm not particularly mechanically minded.
That said, planning to do CBT/DAS this year if I can.
Basically I'm curious about opinions on any perceived 'golden age' or 'sweet spot' of sorts with respect to motorbike technology - any thoughts?
I find myself drawn to mid-90s(ish) bikes, stuff like the Honda NTV600/650 and most recently the Triumph Trident 750/900, particularly liking the relative simplicity and robustness - enough electronics to keep things running smooth, but not so much that it becomes tricky when something goes wrong.
Aware that these are often carbed/non-fuel injection, non-ABS bikes, and perhaps a decade or so later with stuff like the 2002-08 VFR800 have enough-but-not-too-much.
Maybe some kind of retro-romanticism is clouding my view and the more modern the better - aware I'm making this somewhat arbitrary judgement that there's such thing as 'too much' tech. Might also just be that certain bikes from certain periods can be considered indestructible warhorses, whereas others from the same time are made of cheese, and there's no proper answer to this question.
tl;dr - what's your favourite time period for bikes if you have one?