Vintage bikes, why are they so expensive

Hustler

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I've recently joined the Vintage club and rather fancy, or should I say fancied, an old British iron.
Something like a Norton ES2, 500cc, pretty common in it's day, a go to work on type hack back then.
But the prices !
Doubled in the last few years people at the club reckon.
But why ?
You look round the Vintage club meetings and most people are of the retired age group and there are very few aged under 50.
So therefore membership should be on the decline as the reaper and infirmity take their toll, so therefore prices should be going down.
I know a few are exported and a few are bought as an investment but why are they so expensive ?
 
Why is a shitty old 1980's airhead worth £5000?

Why is a tiny house in somewhere like Rock worth £ 1/2m?

Because there is always someone with enough money to outbid you and buy them, and as long as there is, thats what their worth.
 
Classic events are now hugely popular and what better way of spending a summers weekend than zipping round the country lanes on a classic bike.

As Cookie says the interest rates are low so your moneys not earning anything while it's in the bank. Vintage bikes are increasing dramatically - doesn't make sense to not have one.

Theres a good show on at Newark on the 7th and 8th of Jan http://www.classicbikeshows.com/showindex.asp?showcode=NRK12
 
Rob,
Dates are 7th & 8th (Sat & Sun)

Re the prices, blame the septic's. I'm trying to start another classic project,and its taken me nearly a year to get a frame, due to the stupid demand from accross the pond.
I'll start a build diary when I get some more bits together, its a late 1940's Norton M19 (600 OHV) in a 1961 Greeves sports frame.

Neil
 
In a word ... desirability, something a Marina lacks.
 
Rob,

I'll start a build diary when I get some more bits together, its a late 1940's Norton M19 (600 OHV) in a 1961 Greeves sports frame.

Neil

That sounds nice. Looking forward to seeing some photographs :thumb2
 
It's not so much that things are worth so much, but rather that money is worth so little. I had a few Vincents back in the day. I sold my 1952 C Rapide for $2700 and my 1969 Velocette Venom Clubman for about the same money. I then sold my 1955 D Rapide for $5000. Wish I still had them.
 
Yes agreed, but, have you seen the price of BSA Bantam's lately ?
And they were hardly in the league of desirability, ever.

No I haven't but are they asking prices or selling prices? If they are selling prices then it will be desirability. On the other hand if they are asking prices then the prices will drop until buyers find it a reasonable figure to splash out.
 
In a word ... desirability, something a Marina lacks.


I don't know. I had a Marina Pick up painted in Porsche Guards red (inside and out) I thought it was the dogs bollocks. :D

These were getting a lot of interest at the Stafford show
 

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Very true.
But they don't make the Morris Marina any more either and I suspect that they are still on the inexpensive side.
I'd better shuffle quickly over to ebay to check on my suspicions now.

A car takes up more room and will rot faster than your hair recedes.

And blatting about on a summer sunday morning on an old bike is a lot more fun than bimbling around in the typical british leyland attempt at car construction while the protruding rusty seat spring gently probes your anus at every minor bump in the road. .
 
I am not so sure Vintage bikes are so expensive, it's just that they were too cheap a few years back. If you consider someone who buys a new bike over 900cc in January is probably looking at 50% depreciation over 3 years of, lets say, £5000: the same sort of money buys a tidy vintage bike. If people thought about it, they would buy a low milage 3 year old Jap bike and a decent old bike (you can service yourself) and probably lose very little money over several years and have a bit of fun as well.
My 3 airheads together cost me considerably less than my 1200GS did new, plus the 3 airheads cost less for DIY annual servicing (and all are probably more reliable too :augie :D).
 
You look round the Vintage club meetings and most people are of the retired age group and there are very few aged under 50.
So therefore membership should be on the decline as the reaper and infirmity take their toll, so therefore prices should be going down.
I know a few are exported and a few are bought as an investment but why are they so expensive ?

The population of the U.K. is ageing as we all live longer. Consequently there are more over 50's not less :blast

The current crop of baby boomers are the ones with the money and health to enjoy their retirement :rob

20 years from now we'll all still be working and we'll need reliable transport to get us to our jobs in the warm and dry. What price an unreliable old bike then? :nenau
 
It's a hard one to call re. future prices for vintage bikes. Those born after the baby boom are also the first generation for whom a bike was not automatically the first own means of transport. Those born more recently are progressively less likely to be drawn to something seriously vintage with all the juggling of levers, hand change, low power etc. There'll always be a few younger riders who will value pre-war and early post-war bikes, but even a 50% reduction in demand will translate to a greater than 50% reduction in price.

The above assumes a closed European/US market... things could be quite different if the Far East and/or South America gets interested in vintage iron and that's quite a hard one to call, but it could happen (although I still think 60s/70s superbikes esp. Japs would lead BRIC demand).
 
I would say that they are not dear at all for what you are getting but also I would say that they are only the price that people are willing to pay JJH
 
OP question

"Vintage bikes, why are they so expensive?"




and they're becoming rare... like there's less of them....:blast

...except for the models that are now apparently more numerous than were actually made :augie

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