Couple of comments on the brit bike space in Australia as it appears at the moment.
The strength of the AU$ means that there are a lot of bikes being imported from the US and UK over the last few years. Numerous dealers/traders have sprung up out of nowhere to cash in on the scheme. Buy a commando sight unseen for US$3-4k in the states and sell it here for $10k if its ordinary or $15k+ if it looks nice. People are buying bikes here for that money. The real issue is not so much the profiteering thats going on but the market and the 2nd line services that sit behind these expensive bikes.
There are very few specialist brit bike mechanics and service providers here now. Most old timers got out of the industry in the 80s when the bikes were being given away and no one really cared about commandos or bonnies. The resurgence in the market over the last few years means lots of bikes and no one to work on them. My view is the resurgence has come about partly because bikes are a relatively inexpensive hobby compared to collecting cars (ask me how I know!) or houses or whatever. In a struggling economy people want to spend as little as possible to have fun and old bikes are a good way to do that. Theres also the nostalgia factor etc.
Great example from last week. I was over talking to my mechanic (who is one of the old timers and was working on commandos when they were new) and a new customer has come in with a Mk3 that he had bought from ebay interstate sight unseen. This was a middle aged guy who owns a few bikes and wanted a commando. Wanted a Mk3 because of electric start etc, ok fine. He paid $16k for this bike and had to outbid 20 or so others for the privilege. So cosmetically this Mk3 looked quite nice and there was a long list of repairs that the seller had done (seller buys bikes from the US and fixes them up in his backyard and flips them on ebay for a profit). Closer inspection revealed not all was well. Most of its original parts were missing and it had an early gearbox fitted with the numbers rubbed off and some odd contraption to convert it to right hand change. Wiring was all wrong, wrong wheels, crappy aftermarket headers and pipes. Carbs were badly worn, jetted wrong etc. E Starter was working intermittently, it sounded like a harley and there was a strange noise in the bottom end plus a host of other things I cant recall.
So here's this guy who knows very little about Nortons bought a Mk3 for quite big money thinking he's going to ride off into the sunset and now he's being told it needs 3-4k just to tidy it up plus the e-starter, and trying to find a good Mk3 gearbox, cost unknown. Not a great situation for him as he's into the early 20s just to get it running properly. This kind of scenario is happening every day here and the effect could be something like what happened in the 80s where the market gets flooded with crappy bikes and no one wants to or could be bothered fixing them, if they could even find someone decent to fix it.
Talking of early fastbacks, I came across an early one in the mechanics shop a little while back and it was a nice example. It had been fixed up over several years, little bit of money spent here and there and now its an A grade bike and rides like a good commando should. Still needs cosmetics done but the guy has repeatedly knocked back $20k for it with the argument "where am I going to get another one thats as good?" He's right of course, there arent many A grade ones around and he would have to fight with other buyers to get his hands on it.
One gets the feeling that something is going to break soon as far as this situation goes here. It cant continue the way it is.
( and include the special Corbin made two-up touring seat it has !) Me thinks that a bike is only worth what someone will pay ... but he only needs one buyer. Kudos to the seller if he gets that much. I just think it's a little high priced IMO ...
