Airhead popularity and values in twenty years

[MotoRevive]

Witnessing the price crash in most classics, Harley's etc has me thinking.

The value of anything is based on it's popularity and desirability.

Who will want to ride around on a classic aiehead beemer in 2045 ?

Will they all end up in hipster cafe windows . As cheap ornaments.Worth little more than their novelty value.

Perhaps it will go the other way. With so many being chopped up for projects, will the remaining few become extremely cool and collectable ?

Perhaps no one will be riding anything at all by then. Who knows

 

[GADGET]

Pure speculation, would be like to be around in 20 years time to find out, but will be 90, so I guess the odds are against it.

 

[snelly]

When it comes to some sort of long term investment i'am at an age and with a few problems where i'am asking;; what's my long term and should it be just live for the day and the time frame i see myself having;; as for the old air heads; if it's an itch that needs scratching and you aint got visions of a family heir loom just go for it and enjoy.

 

[Wicker]

I have my Dad's 1988 R80RT in the garage. An heir loom which needed a couple of thousand £ spent to get it running and roadworthy again.
I enjoy riding it as it's different to modern bikes, a bike for bimbling along country roads and whichnsuits the creeping appearance of lower speed limits. Mind you it can still hold its own at motorway speeds.
Have to use E5 petrol and the old yins don't tolerate E10.

20 years from now I'll likely be gone. No heirs to pass it onto. Probably couldn't afford petrol if that's still a thing then. If the R80RT is still around it will be a museum piece. How things used to be before the world went electric.

 

[steve hughes]

Ted I use a simple guide when predicting classic values.
Step 1 Classic buyers tend to be 50-65 just simply based on , no kids , mortgage gone or close to finish, kids gone , some disposable cash.
Step 2 Lets pick a 55 year old today 2025 so when they were 15/ 20 it was 1990-5
Step 3 What was a poster bike in 1990-95 ?
Step 4 look at anything from 1985 - 95

This is why 1960’s classics are dropping in value ( except Vincents Broughs pr Italian exotica)
1960 bike aspirate owner 20 year old eg born 1940 age today……85 given up biking

 

[Berin]

I have my Dad's 1988 R80RT in the garage. An heir loom which needed a couple of thousand £ spent to get it running and roadworthy again.
I enjoy riding it as it's different to modern bikes, a bike for bimbling along country roads and whichnsuits the creeping appearance of lower speed limits. Mind you it can still hold its own at motorway speeds.
Have to use E5 petrol and the old yins don't tolerate E10.

20 years from now I'll likely be gone. No heirs to pass it onto. Probably couldn't afford petrol if that's still a thing then. If the R80RT is still around it will be a museum piece. How things used to be before the world went electric.

"As of the latest data point at the end of December 2024, fully electric vehicles (also referred to as zero‑emission vehicles, including battery electric and hydrogen fuel-cell cars) accounted for approximately 3.4% of all road‑using vehicles in the UK"

It's not over yet.....

 

[Oldrat]

Ted I use a simple guide when predicting classic values.
Step 1 Classic buyers tend to be 50-65 just simply based on , no kids , mortgage gone or close to finish, kids gone , some disposable cash.
Step 2 Lets pick a 55 year old today 2025 so when they were 15/ 20 it was 1990-5
Step 3 What was a poster bike in 1990-95 ?
Step 4 look at anything from 1985 - 95

This is why 1960’s classics are dropping in value ( except Vincents Broughs pr Italian exotica)
1960 bike aspirate owner 20 year old eg born 1940 age today……85 given up biking

My thoughts are similar.
Newer ‘poster bikes’ are likely to be sought after by newbies, but the rarer old ‘wow’ bikes will always rise to the top.

 

[Davey B]

The problem for those of us in that 50-65 age bracket is that the poster bikes of our yoof were race replicas....which many on here have tried to revisit but domn't ride them ...as they can't. Expensive ornaments anyone ?

 

[bakerlonglegs]

Depends on the airhead…. I picked up my 1981 R100 restored, running and in good condition for relatively cheap dosh compared to what similar bikes were going for a few years back, much to the eBay seller’s disappointment. However g/s’s and Basics still seem to fetch strong money, maybe thanks to the ongoing adventure bike boom. I saw a mint g/s fetch more than a Vincent at an auction last summer. I expect the more hum-drum road bikes like mine to fall in line with Steve’s logic above, which is a good summary.

 

[wessie]

The problem for those of us in that 50-65 age bracket is that the poster bikes of our yoof were race replicas....which many on here have tried to revisit but domn't ride them ...as they can't. Expensive ornaments anyone ?

plenty of relatively agile younger boomers about and the price of bikes like the ZXR750 are quite spendy according to a couple of friends who still lust after them. Partly driven by them being eligible for classic racing at the TT etc.

 

[Larry Langford]

I have a 1973 R60/5 restomoded to a 900. It's been in the family since 1975. I've had it since 84, and is on the second fairing and third saddle bags. I was still using it until I bought my 22 RS. It runs good but needs some work, all the control switches on the bars are shot mostly. But it can still be rode around. I recently put an electronic asist ignition and a new front brake drum. I already had the Woody's wheel works SS spoke job with Sun rims, done much earlier. The brake drum is a big reason to upgrade to a modern bike for sure, although the double leading shoe brake was one of the best in the bis. If you have the muscle in the right hand it will stop ... When I went to the 900 top end it fit right on as all the / bikes tend to have the same lower end. But I had to put a 900 clutch spring in it and a taller final drive. It has about 130000+ and the topend has about 50000 on it.
But I don't really know what it is worth much. On craigslist you see prices on them all over but there is no doubt the prices are crashing on used bikes for sure, especially in the last three months.

 

[wessie]

Step 1 Classic buyers tend to be 50-65 just simply based on , no kids , mortgage gone or close to finish, kids gone , some disposable cash.

to a certain extent, buying the late 60s & 70s bikes their dad had, much like you see Mk1 Escorts and Marinas at classic car events now! You don't see many 50-65 year olds queuing up to buy a Bantam D3 or Ford Anglia E494A

My brother downsized his fleet of older Moto Guzzi and BMW bikes last year. He's 74 and some of the buyers of these more niche bikes were older than him, with one chap 83. Once people in this age range snuff it and their offspring seek to dispose of the bikes for cash, that is when the real collapse of the market for older bikes, pre 1965, will crash at some pace.

The brother has kept one bike a Guzzi 850T3 but not sure he has ridden it recently. He has had some health problems so cashed in the bikes whilst they still had some value he could use to support his grandson through university and replace his decrepit Iveco converted ambulance for a smaller, automatic van.

 

[bakerlonglegs]

…Once people in this age range snuff it and their offspring seek to dispose of the bikes for cash, that is when the real collapse of the market for older bikes, pre 1965, will crash at some pace…

True and may already be happening. I was chatting to a chap at a classic bike meet last week who said he went to a Bonhams auction recently where all the bikes were from deceased estates. Similar story on Bangers & Cash where a lot of the pre-70s bikes and cars don’t fetch the money they used to and may have come from a widow selling her hubby’s old vehicles. Quite sobering actually.
How-ev-eeeer, at the risk of sounding callous, there are some folks I’ve spoken to who say this market adjustment is long overdue, bringing values of these old rattlers down to where they should be without rose tinted spectacle inflation. I might get the Rocket Gold Star I’ve always wanted yet….

 

[Bubb]

I’m hoping that in 20 years I’m still able to ride my basic…..don’t care how much it’s worth ( or not)

 

[MotoRevive]

I'm pondering this because I fancy an airhead GS for some old school adventures. Probably an R80/R100GS.

And I want to increase the exposure of my business into airheads as many of the old guard hang up their vacuum gauges. I enjoy working on them far more than twiddling canbus lines on the newer plastic starships. And I feel the knowledge base is shrinking rapidly.

I watched a YouTube vid of an airhead expert workshop change a clutch on an airhead. He didn't even balance the assembly and clearly didn't understand how a clutch works. But hey. They're experts because they have a fancy logo and hundreds of thousands of social media followers.. blaah blaaah.

I helped a guy tune up his R100RS cafe racer a few days ago. For me it was a doddle. He paid me double my invoice fee because he was so happy. It had been to endless other workshops who only made it worse. But really I did feck all. Just synchronised them with guages and adjusted his idle. That's apparently high tech experience now.

I digress........

Airheads. They seem too expensive. And no matter what the seller says, it will need work. They always do. £5000 for a mega mileage R100GS leaking from everywhere is normal now.

I've wasted so much time and money over the years doing up bikes that were only going up in value at the time, only for them to deflate. Money and time down the drain. Bad business.

So I don't want to spend £5000 on a bike, pump £1000 of parts and a month of labour into it. Only for it to be worth £3000 in a few years time

Now I appreciate that value and cost isn't the only thing when it comes to your hobbies and passions. You can spunk £2000 on a forgettable easyJet holiday.

Or buy a new bike and loose the VAT on day one !!

 

[Engineer]

Witnessing the price crash in most classics, Harley's etc has me thinking.

The value of anything is based on it's popularity and desirability.

Who will want to ride around on a classic aiehead beemer in 2045 ?

Will they all end up in hipster cafe windows . As cheap ornaments.Worth little more than their novelty value.

The market will contunue to shrink for all classics.

 

[SIM]

I'm pondering this because I fancy an airhead GS for some old school adventures. Probably an R80/R100GS.

And I want to increase the exposure of my business into airheads as many of the old guard hang up their vacuum gauges. I enjoy working on them far more than twiddling canbus lines on the newer plastic starships. And I feel the knowledge base is shrinking rapidly.

I watched a YouTube vid of an airhead expert workshop change a clutch on an airhead. He didn't even balance the assembly and clearly didn't understand how a clutch works. But hey. They're experts because they have a fancy logo and hundreds of thousands of social media followers.. blaah blaaah.

I helped a guy tune up his R100RS cafe racer a few days ago. For me it was a doddle. He paid me double my invoice fee because he was so happy. It had been to endless other workshops who only made it worse. But really I did feck all. Just synchronised them with guages and adjusted his idle. That's apparently high tech experience now.

I digress........

Airheads. They seem too expensive. And no matter what the seller says, it will need work. They always do. £5000 for a mega mileage R100GS leaking from everywhere is normal now.

I've wasted so much time and money over the years doing up bikes that were only going up in value at the time, only for them to deflate. Money and time down the drain. Bad business.

So I don't want to spend £5000 on a bike, pump £1000 of parts and a month of labour into it. Only for it to be worth £3000 in a few years time

Now I appreciate that value and cost isn't the only thing when it comes to your hobbies and passions. You can spunk £2000 on a forgettable easyJet holiday.

Or buy a new bike and loose the VAT on day one !

I think your right in that good mechanics that can fettle old school bikes are getting thinner on the ground, but that’s the same with most industries.

I think if you buy something like a car or bike etc to think it will hold its money is unrealistic, but you know that, I am sure I won’t have lost anything keeping my R100gs for 11 years, but if I add in all the keeping it going costs it would be a few quid (that being said it has been very reliable, as it was a good bike to start with) Where you win is that you save the £40/hour mechanics rate.

If I had lost all the money I spent on my Airhead, I would not be too bothered, I have had some brilliant rides / holidays on it and have bought more modern bikes to go alongside and all those have been sold, because they just don’t have that thing my R100 has, I don’t know what it is because in reality its crap compared to a new bike, but when you ride it or when I sit in a pub beer garden with a pint and I look at my GS I could not be happier with the choice, when I see one on the road I think similar or the sound of the engine heading towards me….they are great.

I could not spend tens of thousands on one (Dakar) as I would not enjoy it, but £4/5k your never going to loose out, it will always be worth £2.5k and from my personal pov that would be less than £150 per year loss and that is nothing for a hobby.

Could you not buy through your business and write it down as a new business venture?

 

[Snowy]

I'd decided last week that I was going to try and sell my R60/5 (and a number of cycles) as my garage is bursting at the seams. I haven't been following the market at all but I don't think I'll be holding my breath now on the speed of the sale....

 

[Davey B]

I could not spend tens of thousands on one (Dakar) as I would not enjoy it, but £4/5k your never going to loose out, it will always be worth £2.5k and from my personal pov that would be a less than £150 per year loss and that is nothing for a hobby.

I think that this is the crux of it. People spend hundreds or thousands on cycling, golf, the gym etc....So 'losing' £3k over several years on something that gives you loads of joy is sod all (unless you haven't got a few hundred quid per year to pursue your hobby I suppose)

 

[MotoRevive]

Where you win is that you save the £40/hour mechanics rate.

You haven't paid anyone to work on your bike for a while have you ??

Your local BMW dealer is likely charging £160ph.

Most smaller shops are around £100-120ph

As a one-man band independent, I charge £75 ph.

£75 Sounds a lot. It does to me too. But it doesn't feel that way you see the outgoings. Running a legal and legitimate business in the UK is so expensive it's possitively hostile.