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Keep or sell?

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mickwinf:
I wish i were in your position, many of us can only afford one bike at a time so tends to be one in so one out! If i had the money i would have more but everyone is different.

Orcade-Ian:
This topic is coming up more and more as we get older and not so many young ‘uns are joining in our hobby.  I’ll be 70 in June and planning to reduce the collection starting with my early GL1000, one of the 400 fours and a 350 Featherbed Norton single.  They are definitely going but still dithering about the GL1500 Wing, which doesn’t get enough long trip usage now but it’s still hard to beat when needed and easily ate up a one week 1300 mile round trip to a funeral plus a Highland fling last year.  I still have a useable, relatively modern bike for longish trips and a C90 for when things get really tough.  As with the OP, it’s not all about the money or space but probably now realising that if life was only one day long, then the News at Ten has just finished!

Ian

MrDavo:

--- Quote from: masonmart on March 08, 2019, 10:04:14 AM ---The real killer though is selling a phenomenal bike in a very weak market.

--- End quote ---

Tell me about it. I'm trying to sell a classic car and bike at the same time, but in the current climate there's very little interest out there other than scammers and chancers. Nearly all the potential 'next' cars or bikes I've been keeping an eye on have been for sale for months. The odd ones that are very good value don't last long, but until I've sold something I haven't really got the space or £££ for my next project so I can't really bid on them.

I was having a chat with a mate who is in the classic bike trade last week, he reckons the bikes that are sought after now because they were the icons of our youth will become less so as we eventually get too old or pop our clogs. I'm not as sure, there can't be that many of us around who are old enough to remember Brough Superiors and other pre war classics from when they were the current 'bees knees', but they still command eye wateringly high prices.

Green1:
If your not emotionaly attached to it sell it and spend more time on the others.
Its alot more difficalt if you are attached to them 
My dad is in a simaller situation at the moment wether to keep his Triumph Trophy 1200 my mum bought it for him out of the blue one day about 20 years ago. It hasn't had much use in the last three years since she died and he finds it a bit heavy now as all Hinkley Triumphs are heffalumps. Its not worth anything as its covered almost 90,000 miles and could do with an overhaul as its burning a little oil now but the parts alone cost more then what its worth

masonmart:
While I've had up to 14 bikes (when I was working away) I've never been a "collector" always a user except for a couple of RC Hondas which are just too good to use, so the concept of keeping and not using is alien to me. So the meter moves toward sell. I'm "attached" to VFRs in that I've had 8 since they came out but the concept of "attachment" is a foggy one that perhaps should be given little weight? Further to sell then? There is perhaps a good justification to keep it though. I bought it for £2k just to do a ride down to the Dolomites in Italy and that was the upper price they had fallen to, it was one owner in beautiful condition. Looking on e-bay last night similar bikes have an asking price up to £5k (yes, ridiculous) so perhaps I shouldn't rush into selling but keep it in great fettle and use it when I can?

The market has collapsed yet genuinely collectible bikes still fetch strong prices and go quickly. The prices asked for Triumphs like my Bonnie have collapsed after pushing up toward £20k at one time (thousands of US imports didn't help), I paid £7k for mine. Yet, I phoned last week about a Bridgestone 350 GTO (stunningly beautiful bikes) which is a disc valve twin like my Kawasaki A7 and it had sold immediately for its asking price of £13k. As said above, it's not only bikes we yearned for as youths that are becoming icons but I think that there's a move away from modern sports bikes towards the functionality and beautiful form that classics have. Imagine a CB500 four now run on modern petrol and synthetic oil? It would last forever, never depreciate and have a performance just right for modern traffic and avoiding points, a perfect road bike? It would also be a focal point in a car park full of sports bikes because it is different. Have a look at prices for Kawasaki Z900's, they are really climbing so it isn't everything.

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