Where have the cheap bikes gone?

chas

chas

Legendary Knight
I know we're all prey to the 'HowFuckingMuch' but the price of anything with two wheels that makes forward motion seems to have gone mental.
I had a notion to buy a cheap hack to dump in Germany to use when I'm over there to see The Prodigal. Bearing in mind about ten years ago I bought him a useable, MoT'd Z400 twin for £350. (ok, I had to drive to cardigan bay to pick it up, it did go cheap even for then)
Seems a very long way from buying my CD175 for £25 with a Belstaff Trialsmaster jacket and trousers thrown in :D
 
MartytheMartian

MartytheMartian

Legendary Knight
Hmm I don't know what things have been like in your neck of the woods over the years @chas but, here in Scotland bikes have cost a bleedin' fortune and been thin on the ground for as long as I have been biking (since the late eighties). My first bike was a Honda CM125 with thirty grand on the clocks, rattle can resprayed (over the dents) tank with no badges and basically just hanging together all round that cost me a few hundred quid and probably shouldn't have passed the MOT it had on it when I bought it in the late eighties. I think my decent condition, if you don't mind rust spots on all the bodywork and a weeping rocker cover,1981 Honda CB250RS cost me around six hundred quid about 1990 and was the only bike of over 125cc that I could afford at the time having been hunting for weeks. Fast forward to the mid 90's and I paid £1500 for a ten year old, 35,000 mile GSX750ES and, again at the time it was the first decent bike to come up in ages at the time for under two grand minimum. True you are hard pushed to find something for less than £1500 out there now but, for that fifteen hundred quid or so there are some serious good, pretty low mileage machines around. What would £1500 now be equivalent to in 1990 money? I'm guessing about £750 or even less.
 
BAD LUCK DUCK

BAD LUCK DUCK

Forum Duck
The local motorbike shop I use reckons that since covid19 they had a huge increase in interest in people buying bikes as an alternative means of transport..They struggled to get hold of bikes to sell in the shop as people started asking for silly money for bikes..All the bikes in the shop bar one were not the property of the shop but private sellers that again were asking outrageous sums of money even by the shops reckoning...
I'm always looking at bikes and have definitely noticed an increase in prices...
 
chas

chas

Legendary Knight
BAD LUCK DUCK said:
The local motorbike shop I use reckons that since covid19 they had a huge increase in interest in people buying bikes as an alternative means of transport..They struggled to get hold of bikes to sell in the shop as people started asking for silly money for bikes..All the bikes in the shop bar one were not the property of the shop but private sellers that again were asking outrageous sums of money even by the shops reckoning...
I'm always looking at bikes and have definitely noticed an increase in prices...
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Even since last summer I've noticed the surge. Before I bought the trip I had a second choice of a clean TL1000 that was about 1650. There was a fair amount of useable stuff sub 2k. Not so much at the mo.
 
Bad Billy

Bad Billy

Piemantino Rossi
Blimey, best put the Sprint up for sale a bit quick then, what do we reckon price wise? 1999 less than 9K on the clock , was dry stored for 12 years until I put back on road following all fluid, filter & battery change, 1 previous owner in very tidy nick with genuine Triumph panniers.
 
DD67

DD67

The Peace Keeper
Staff member
Bad Billy said:
Blimey, best put the Sprint up for sale a bit quick then, what do we reckon price wise? 1999 less than 9K on the clock , was dry stored for 12 years until I put back on road following all fluid, filter & battery change, 1 previous owner in very tidy nick with genuine Triumph panniers.
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With that mileage, I'd have thought it's potentially a future classic/collectors bike.
Try a 30 day classified advert on Ebay at £4000 Billy.
I think a classified advert is only £15? So not a big loss if you get no interest.
 
Bad Billy

Bad Billy

Piemantino Rossi
DD67 said:
With that mileage, I'd have thought it's potentially a future classic/collectors bike.
Try a 30 day classified advert on Ebay at £4000 Billy.
I think a classified advert is only £15? So not a big loss if you get no interest.
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Don't think it would fetch that sort of money mate, but you never know what someone will pay until you try .....

Not desperate to sell so might give it a go, but would need to replace it with something like a Speedie, Street or Tuono all of which are likely to be more money.
 
DD67

DD67

The Peace Keeper
Staff member
Bad Billy said:
Don't think it would fetch that sort of money mate, but you never know what someone will pay until you try .....

Not desperate to sell so might give it a go, but would need to replace it with something like a Speedie, Street or Tuono all of which are likely to be more money.
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For the sake of £15, I'd definitely give it a go mate.
It's a very tidy, low mileage 22yr old bike & it's under the magic figure of £5000. What does £4000 buy you these days in terms of an early 90's Fireblade?
Or worse still, something like a CBX1000?
People are even asking crazy prices for FS1E's & RD250's etc etc.
 
chas

chas

Legendary Knight
DD67 said:
You should have kept it Chas. Take a look at the mental asking prices now. Especially for an early/mint bike with the 16" front wheel! 😳
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Nah. Things have a time and a place. I outed the Z1000 as they were getting uber collectable and running it in hooligan trim (no indicators, no mudguard on the rear, K&Ns, 4-1, seventies arsehole guise) was starting to devalue it. Bollocks to riding a museum piece, bikes should show their age and be used as intended.
 
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DD67

DD67

The Peace Keeper
Staff member
Thinking about it...
I've never owned a bike that would now be worth a packet if I'd kept it 🙁
The closest bike would be a VF1000 Bol D'or. If I hadn't sprayed it black & removed half the fairing! 😗
Or an XS1100S (Midnight Special) I guess that might have some Hipster appeal now?
 
chas

chas

Legendary Knight
DD67 said:
Thinking about it...
I've never owned a bike that would now be worth a packet if I'd kept it 🙁
The closest bike would be a VF1000 Bol D'or. If I hadn't sprayed it black & removed half the fairing! 😗
Or an XS1100S (Midnight Special) I guess that might have some Hipster appeal now?
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Mate of mine had the Yam when I had my GSX11. I've not seen one pop up for ages, probably would be worth a ridiculous price ticket.
 
Doc Strange

Doc Strange

Legendary Knight
I'm with Chas on this - I can't really see the appeal of having a pristine 'classic' just because it's 'appreciating' - bikes are to be ridden.

While my 'fantasy garage' would have space for a Guzzi T3, I'd still want to run it regularly, albeit only in the summer.

Generally, unless I've blown them up, most of my secondhand buys have gone for pretty much what I paid for them - only one that increased was an XT350.

None of my bikes would ever be considered a classic - although I nearly had a heart attack when someone pointed out to me that an example of the learner bike that got passed around our group to do our tests on when we were kids, a Yamaha YB100, had been restored and was up on Ebay at £1500 - wouldn't give you £50 for one!

DS
 
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