Commando prices...

DogT said:

As someone told me you can buy a perfectly good modern bike for $8-10K. Yes, it's not a Norton, but that list is diminishing. I haven't a single nibble on mine at 9K but I need to try Craig's list again. It's not that I need the money though I've probably got 10K in the thing, but that was fun.

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Yep, $10K new bikes are now MOSTLY single cylinder / Chinese / off-road...

grandpaul said:

Yep, $10K new bikes are now MOSTLY single cylinder / Chinese / off-road...

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Hmmm...have to disagree with that. Was in a Triumph dealership yesterday. New, WC Bonnevilles with listed pricing around $10k (and that's in CAD currency). The new RE's are quite a bit lower than that. I'm sure the less trendy styles of Triumphs and other brands are even less again.

My take on the vintage market....it's not just the old timers decreasing in numbers...there are very few young guns these days with the mechanical aptitude to take their place. I'm constantly amazed how many folks I see riding around that have never done even simple things to their rides (oil change, filters, adjustments etc). Seems we're becoming enslaved to dealership/professional shops for everything.
I have a buddy who started riding same age/time I did (5 yrs ago) and we both got modern retro Bonnevilles. When I got the Commando, he was seriously thinking of getting a real vintage bike. I made him realize his lack of willingness to turn a wrench on his bonneville did not translate in to vintage ownership happiness....he now has a 1200 KTM which he rides cross continents regularly.

Well, not so true. I bought a NEW 2016 Yamaha FZ-09 a little over a year ago for $8000 out the door. It is a very sweet sport bike.
I also have a deal with my nephew to buy my Commando (with lots of goodies and upgrades e.g. cNw electric starter)
for $12,000. He will introduce himself here in the coming months. I wouldn't have sold it to anyone else, though if I wanted to sell
it and stripped it back to total stock conformation I expect my price would be $9,000. There seem to be quite a few nice
Commandos on the market lately in the $9,000-$12,000 range. I don't pay any attention to the fools asking $15,000-$25,000
except maybe raise my eyebrows when a cNw bike comes up.

While it's true that many of us were involved in the heyday of these bikes, there some younger people. My 50 something stepson is very into Norton. My 21 year old grandson calls himself a "BSA Guy". He has two B50s and one B25. My youngest grandson wants a Triumph 500 and he will probably get one when he turns 18 unless his mother stops me. I have a 40 something customer who got a BSA B25 as his first bike and now has moved up to a Triumph 500 (little guy).

So, have some fun and find a young person to entice into being a British vintage bike person!

I believe it was John Jacob Astor who said he never bought at the top or the bottom of the market. For most of us it is just a matter of time
running out as we are getting on. We will keep the bike until we cannot ride then maybe a bit longer and then time to sell it on. DogT has
reached this point and the market is what the market is now no time left to wait.
We all have so much money sunk in these boat anchors so little chance of recovering most of it.
As Dog says it was FUN.
...not ready to sell yet. Think Ill ride this afternoon!

Tornado said:

...there are very few young guns these days with the mechanical aptitude to take their place. I'm constantly amazed how many folks I see riding around that have never done even simple things to their rides (oil change, filters, adjustments etc). Seems we're becoming enslaved to dealership/professional shops for everything.

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The numpties in charge encourage the hands off approach. I tried to buy a seal kit for the Brembo master cylinder on my 850 recently from the local Ducati dealer. They wouldn't sell to me, can only be installed by a workshop allegedly.

The Brembo seal issue is sorted by buying the KTM kits for the same caliper, available online. Thats how I got my kits, Brembo have got them stuck in some product liability alternate reality but KTM ignore it or have taken it on themselves.

Fast Eddie said:

I don’t buy the ‘dying market’ argument to be honest. Look at older bikes, and cars, from times when all their customers of the day would now be long gone. Generally speaking, prices continue to rise.

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Ask the guy with Model T’s...
Model A’s...
Think Hemi Cuda’s will be trading North of a quarter mil, when Baby Boomers are extinct, and Millenials are bidding?

kommando said:

The Brembo seal issue is sorted by buying the KTM kits for the same caliper, available online. Thats how I got my kits, Brembo have got them stuck in some product liability alternate reality but KTM ignore it or have taken it on themselves.

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Good news, thanks.

concours said:

Ask the guy with Model T’s...
Model A’s...
Think Hemi Cuda’s will be trading North of a quarter mil, when Baby Boomers are extinct, and Millenials are bidding?

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Forgive me concours, but I don’t understand your point.

ntst8 said:

The numpties in charge encourage the hands off approach. I tried to buy a seal kit for the Brembo master cylinder on my 850 recently from the local Ducati dealer. They wouldn't sell to me, can only be installed by a workshop allegedly.

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Fast Eddie said:

Forgive me concours, but I don’t understand your point.

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I was referencing the Vintage car market in the US.
All the old dudes are dead. And only a tiny smattering of younger gearheads give a damn about those old cars.... less demand, same supply. Prices go down.

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-vi...nd-1965-aston-martin-db5-sells-for-6m-dollars

The day will come, that not many people remember or relate to JB, all around cool cat and general badass.

Ok, I got your point now.

That’s the thing with investment markets though, we just don’t know what will be.

Your hypothesis may be right, you’re certainly not alone with it.

But I still wonder, these ‘millenials’ will also grow older and richer, and be looking for cool things to own and invest in.

Plus, there’s an argument to suggest that as life becomes more digital and dull and homogenised, folk might just look to things like these quaint old fossil fuel burning antiquities.

Until then though, I’m gonna enjoy my motorsickle !

" there’s an argument to suggest that as life becomes more digital and dull and homogenised, folk might just look to things like these quaint old fossil fuel burning antiquities."
I think you may be right with this hopefully!!
Maybe a small section will turn their backs on computer games etc and things that can't be repaired and have to be replaced
My son is into swordsmithing and he is 28 and loves old hand tools
Sadly he doesn't share my love of motorcycles (I have tried) cheers

Don’t push the point with your son too hard Baz... never a good idea to pick a fight with a swordsmith !!

There are too many Commandos for them to be a "valuable collectable" so they don't fit into that market, unlike, say, a Vincent Black Shadow. So that means that the market is, as has been noted, for somebody who's REALLY intro retro (as in a real vintage bike as opposed to a retro-styled modern bike) and the required maintenance. Also as noted, that market is becoming smaller and smaller as we age.

I have a 25 year old niece that is into bikes - has a KLR - and likes learning to do her own maintenance but she is the only young person I know with such an interest. None of her friends share that interest and her 27 year old sister absolutely could not be bothered using any product, technology or otherwise, designed or created anytime before "last week!"

I think the Commando market will continue to reduce in size. Sure, a pristine, unmodified, like new example will probably always bring a decent price from a collector because even though there were a lot of Commandos, there are very few low mileage unmollested ones which is what always brings the most money.

I'm always amused by the fascination for "original" examples for anything other than collections - vehicles that will sit in a garage or wherever and not be operated. Because back in the day, an unmodified moto or especially a muscle car just didn't exist on the road for very long after purchase. I don't know of any owners back in the day that didn't immediately slap headers, an AL intake manifold and a different carburetor(s) on them. So a "normal" muscle car was a modified one! I drove a 440 Road runner from the dealer to my house (37 miles) and immediately disassembled the engine to install higher compression pistons, and the aforementioned headers/manifold/carbs.

"there’s an argument to suggest that as life becomes more digital and dull and homogenised, folk might just look to things like these quaint old fossil fuel burning antiquities."

Not sure I agree about fossil fuel burners but vinyl - what we used to call "records" - seems to be doing quite well. Local sounds shop has 4 turntables in the front window! Go figure...

And dont forget PETROL....no bike worth a snot without it!

My buddy just sold his 1975 Ducati 750 Sport for $35000 US. I think it's pretty much the same market as a Norton, though somewhat rarer.

The agreed value of my 74 850 between me and my insurance company is $15000 USD. I ~might~ be able to replace it for that much, but likely I'd buy a modern bike if I lost the Norton.

My son would not let me ever sell my Commando - he wants it when I'm gone. That's investment enough for me.

I'm 30, I live in the most affluent city in the US and none of my friends have more than 2k in their savings account. The idea of spending 10k on a 50 year old motorcycle is outrageous for a person my age but maybe I just hang out with poor folks.

in my experience us "Poor Folks" are way more interesting since we think about much more than just our net worth , eh

Maybe in Canada Craig. Down south being poor means you're a lazy slob. Maybe if we had just worked harder we could afford that 250k cancer treatment.

Norton owners over valuing their Nortons.... whoda thunk