Help! Dilemma! Thinking of selling my CB500

[Chris400F]

Hmm, a dilemma indeed.
Let's assume that as you have posed the question you have somewhere you could store the bike, and with your mechanicing skills you are well placed to know how best to prepare the bike for storage (although I'm sure folks on here could give tips on what they would do if it came to that).
In your opening post you said that although you had had several 500's your current bike is very special to you as you have owned it since 1991 and it has been rebuilt to a very high standard as well as having had the various mods done to improve reliability. Yes, you could sell it and if you so desire buy another at the end of your travels, but would you a) manage to get what it is worth to you, and b) manage to find anything similar when you came to buy another. It sounds as if you know every nut and bolt on this bike whereas it is likely that any subsequent bike you bought would be something of an unknown quantity and you wouldn't be entirely sure what was inside the engine cases or anywhere else.
I don't envy you having to make the decision but I have seen what the majority vote so far is. Please keep us posted!

[RGP750]

PM sent with an idea.
Rich

[Nurse Julie]

No Rich, you cannot use it to bomb around the fields and woods at your place whilst Charlie is away on his travels 

[Colonial-Clive (yindi)]

Keep it! It's taken me 40 years to get another one and the process of rebuilding it is pure pleaser wish I'd never got rid of my first 500/4 biggest mistake of my motoring life!

[masonmart]

Charlie, all enthusiasts will tell you to keep it and that is a good recommendation if you have both excess funds for travelling and storage space for the bike so that the impact of not selling is low. Any economist would tell you to sell for real cash now and buy again when you return when your needs are well defined. As you're going travelling, the money may give you pleasure in excess of what a stored bike will give you and this is important.

What I see is that these good bikes aren't real investor grade yet, CB750's are definitely increasing in value again and CB400's are flavour of the month. CB500/550's don't really seem to fetch the premium that they deserve over the 400's or justify the discount they suffer over the 750's. If you can get a reasonable price now I would sell, should you want to buy when you return then there is likely to be no shortage. The key thing is not to have irrational expectations of what the bike is worth, they aren't Vincent Black Shadows.

[Charliecharlcomb]

Again, very wise words from Masonmart, thank you.

[Trigger]

Charlie, all enthusiasts will tell you to keep it and that is a good recommendation if you have both excess funds for travelling and storage space for the bike so that the impact of not selling is low. Any economist would tell you to sell for real cash now and buy again when you return when your needs are well defined. As you're going travelling, the money may give you pleasure in excess of what a stored bike will give you and this is important.

What I see is that these good bikes aren't real investor grade yet, CB750's are definitely increasing in value again and CB400's are flavour of the month. CB500/550's don't really seem to fetch the premium that they deserve over the 400's or justify the discount they suffer over the 750's. If you can get a reasonable price now I would sell, should you want to buy when you return then there is likely to be no shortage. The key thing is not to have irrational expectations of what the bike is worth, they aren't Vincent Black Shadows.

I disagree with what you have stated. I have owned and restored every SOHC and the most difficult to find parts for is the UK, 500 and 550. New parts for the 400 are cheap compared to the 750's and this is why you will always find them in good condition.
It was not that long ago that Black Shadows were sitting in sheds/garages going rusty, not worth much. I have always found a bike jumps in price once it is 25 years old and will jump again one it hits 50

[masonmart]

Trigger, the problem is that there is no shortage of good 400's, 500/550's and 750's and many of the subsequent offerings of the decade from, e.g.,  Kawasaki were arguably better bikes (like the Z1's). When you then look at the flood of imports from the USA there's no driver for significant price increases. I sold an immaculate K6 750 for £5500 about 18 months ago and a superb 400 with 5k miles on for £3500. I have a CB450 and CB77 and these have really shot up but they are iconic, very rare now and older than the 500's. It is also far more difficult to get spares for these than the 500's so I think that the 500's are possibly at least 10 years off following the 60's bikes. The 2 Honda 4's were my only "misses" so I'd say if you have 15 years then buying a CB500 will yield returns and enjoyable riding but if you're looking at just the next few years as Charlie is then I'd say that they will be as plentiful and low cost then as now. If they were a real investment buy I'd have one already The economics of keeping a bike that isn't in short supply and increasing in price are poor unless you have other reasons. I'd expect at least 10%/year tax free on the money in an ISA and that's what I'd recommend Charlie do or that he just blows it enjoying his travels. Don't get me wrong, I really love the bikes but not as a collectable yet, I want one as the perfect road bike for an old boy like me that is unlikely to depreciate (the bike not me).

My advice to Charlie is only as a collector and investor rather than as a CB500 connoisseur.  It is what I would do if I were in the same position. No wish to argue of course, I just try to look at things logically.

[Trigger]

Are you talking about UK or USA units ? There is a big demand for UK, 500's, 550 F1 & F2 and also 750K's. I have sold a CB500K0 UK unit at £9250, A CB750K2 1972 UK unit at £15500 and a CB750K1 UK unit at £17500 in the past year. I do not deal with USA units because the market is flooded with them.
So please show me all these good UK units for sale? Because I have a book of customers wanting.

[Nurse Julie]

Forget the bikes, I would love to know what ISA's are paying 10% per annum, cos mine sure as hell aren't.  😅😅😅

[AshimotoK0]

I am  with you on all of the imports flooding the market  but it really depends what you are in it for.  To me, those imports are bringing young people into ownership by making good examples affordable and getting them  hooked on these iconic designs, which  can't be a bad thing. Those imports are also bringing decent condition rot-free  parts to the market to enhance the 'real' rising classics, which have always been and always will be in my view , genuine UK sold bikes. If it was available here, I always go for the UK model. I disagree on CB77's and CB450's rising in value to any great degree over the fours. Those bikes are also flooding the market too, with the exception of the 450K0 bomber. I saw an exceptionally tidy CB77 go for less than £1.5k sold by DK about a year or so ago.  I still think the 500 will rise to greatness over the following years to come and is still undervalued and my great love the 68/69 only CB250 SS (K0) is never going to flood the market as they were never sold in the USA and is  a model very rare in immaculate condition. The 400/4 is exceptional in that, I believe, people just couldn't bear to chuck them away and held onto them  so there are so many nice restored /  original examples around  that they are never going to command  really high prices. I still stand by my original advice that if you are not desperate for the money, then keep the bike or you may live to regret it.

[AshimotoK0]

Are you talking about UK or USA units ? There is a big demand for UK, 500's, 550 F1 & F2 and also 750K's. I have sold a CB500K0 UK unit at £9250, A CB750K2 1972 UK unit at £15500 and a CB750K1 UK unit at £17500 in the past year. I do not deal with USA units because the market is flooded with them.
So please show me all these good UK units for sale? Because I have a book of customers wanting.

Your telling porkies there Trigg ... Julie's charm sold it !    (500K0) 

[matthewmosse]

I'd rather use them and enjoy, but as investments go my cb500's have kicked my Isa into the long grass over the last decade, I'm used to paying well under £500 delivered for my bikes, but put on ebay. I reacon most would come in at not far off a grand based on what some pretty rough examples get there, thats without doing any more than assembling them. Best bit of that for me, I only bought as a stock of spares for my daily rider. Chatting to a friend / customer about bikes, he had a mate who went travelling on some old brit iron, back in the day, rode right accross to India, sold the bike to a shop whilst he went on to Australia and New Zeland ( inport too costly ) and then on return route, bought the same bike back 2 years later, rode back to London on that same bike. I wonder how many tankfulls of fuel that would add up to? Sounds like quite the adventure. Looking at 500/4 values since I bought my first ones, well, I reacon they are about 4 times what they were, and steadily going up as a trend, slowly but steadily. Bits used to be cheaper too. I still have boxes of Nos stuff bought off silvers on the basis that a bike used reguarly will need it eventually, even basic bits like primary chain and tensioners are double what I paid I think. Sell and you may regret it.

[Nurse Julie]

Are you talking about UK or USA units ? There is a big demand for UK, 500's, 550 F1 & F2 and also 750K's. I have sold a CB500K0 UK unit at £9250, A CB750K2 1972 UK unit at £15500 and a CB750K1 UK unit at £17500 in the past year. I do not deal with USA units because the market is flooded with them.
So please show me all these good UK units for sale? Because I have a book of customers wanting.

Your telling porkies there Trigg ... Julie's charm sold it !    (500K0) 

Yes Ash, probably but as I was wearing my Nurses uniform when I sold it, I think that clinched the sale  .
As I have said before, the right bike in the right condition will always sell, maybe not quickly but there is always someone out there looking for that 'something extraordinary' who will pay top money.

[mike the bike]

I hope you're right about that.  My Katana is on abay at the mo with about 10 hours to go.  There's only 1 bid and that's off a dealer, 78 watchers though.
Nice day for a blatt round the Vale of Glamorgan,  pics later.