Didn't expect to see that old bollocks repeated on here.

More what you expect from Bike magazine. The only thing that is 80 years old is the configuration. It's still a flat twin but so was the 2CV, does that make it the same? And wearing my other anorak, the 2CV engine was totally revamped in 1970 to the extent that there were virtually no common parts.
The vast majority of cars use a water cooled in line 4 engine just like they did before even I was born, does that make the engine designs 100 years old? Of course not and yes I acknowledge that the idea of the air cooled flat twin goes back a long way but it's not the same engine. Wiser people than me can probably give a detailed history of the engine and maybe tell us when there ceased to be any interchangeable parts from the original type.
I cringe every time I see references in the (gutter)bike press about an engine dating back to 1923 or whatever but please let's not have such nonsense here.
John