Vehicles: Why do motorcycles retain their resale value ?

[Z]

As we've all aged, so has the curve of what vintage stuff is in demand. The current 'thing' in vintage bikes is many of the Japanese (UJMs, or universal japanese motorcycles, as some would say they were all alike) bikes of the '70s. Some are very collectable, such as the H1/H2/H3 widomakers from Kawi, the '69 sandcast Honda CB750s, early Kawasaki Z-1s, and to a lesser extent many of the other Honda CBs, the Yamaha RD350s and RD400s, the CBX, the racing versions of various bikes. The 'cafe racer' boom of recent times has also helped drive up demand for cheap bikes to modify / chop.

Soon enough it'll be the early '80s bike, the original Ninjas, the early turbo-charged bikes (for quirkiness/rarity), the Eddie Lawson KZ1000Rs, GPZ1100s, early Honda Interceptors, etc.

[mrbigstuff]

it is my experience that motorcycles drop quite rapidly in value.

none more so than H-D, which drop like a... like a lot of iron.

the point of the post, though, is that vintage bikes are, well, no longer produced and the original value ($1800...?) may command many times that amount.

[cbelt3]

I'll also note that 'custom' motorcycles appear to drop even more catastrophically. We have a guy at work who was trying to 'trade' a $50K custom chopper for cash or a mint 60's muscle car.. I think a Roadrunner ? He's now asking $20K for it. I don't think he's gonna get it.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Z wrote:
Soon enough it'll be the early '80s bike, the original Ninjas, the early turbo-charged bikes (for quirkiness/rarity), the Eddie Lawson KZ1000Rs, GPZ1100s, early Honda Interceptors, etc.

The original Ninja was so BAD-ASS when it first came out...

[chopper]

1975 Z1 900?

There's duffers out there who think they're "as fast as an R1" and feel they need to have that evil handling monstrosity.

Any modern 600 made will smoke a Z1.

[OWC Jamie]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
It depends on the bike. Is this a 750 Widowmaker? Why do people pay so much for a 1965 G.T. 350 Mustang?

I owned one of the 1973 MachIII "widowmakers"
Fortunately I learned to respect the sheer acceleration capacities of the triples with a 500 before trading it in on a 750 or I'd be dead.
That 500 pulled me feet dragging all the way across a shopping mall parking lot learning to do wheelies more than once.
Cops couldn't catch ya though. :-)

[NewtonMP2100]

......according to The Lion King......it's the CYCLE of Life...??????

[JoeH]

billb wrote:
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
It depends on the bike. Is this a 750 Widowmaker? Why do people pay so much for a 1965 G.T. 350 Mustang?

I owned one of the 1973 MachIII "widowmakers"
Fortunately I learned to respect the sheer acceleration capacities of the triples with a 500 before trading it in on a 750 or I'd be dead.
That 500 pulled me feet dragging all the way across a shopping mall parking lot learning to do wheelies more than once.
Cops couldn't catch ya though. :-)
Oh yes, the Mach III models... One of my friends in high school had another friend who had a 500 in '73 and took him for a ride. They ran into a bad merge situation at a "Y" with a little old lady driver and ended up laying the bike down instead of being able to ride out of it. His leg got caught under the bike, he lost half the calf muscle among other injuries and was out the rest of the year. Anyways, they deserved the nickname, more than a few riders found themselves quickly out of the stable envelope.

[OWC Jamie]

If you like acceleration they were the bike to own.

ning-a-ning-a-ning-a-ning-a-ning