Commando prices...

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Cars are getting faster, no question. Trying to best some of these autos on an interstate or motorway with a Commando is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. If you challenge them in their element, you lose. The Norton's turf is the twisty secondary roads; you can best almost any car when the Norton is in it's element; true it requires more brass, but is is quite doable.

I have an '016 Polestar tuned S60, I'm sure that it will hit it's speed limiter...

Modern sport bikes with 3 or 4 pounds/RWHP is a new story; most car drivers will run out of brass when they cross the felony speed barrier, which in New England, in general, is any speed above 85 MPH.

So, why hunt sharks with a diving knife? I want my old English rides to be around for a long time; every time I think about besting the ton I think about the English roads they were designed to shine on...

Best
 
Blew the little I made on bikes until age 42. Then sold off and quit ridding for 20 years. Worked three jobs rennoed a house got a girlfriend with a job and a house and we saved it all. Now retired with a pension and a good house and savings.
It is like investing: simple but not easy.
I call it the immigrant method, make it save it and live as cheap as possible.
Back on the bikes now until I cannot start them!
 
The Norton has some of the best visual lines ever produced on a bike and a ride to go with it.
Old motorcycle engine technology is just that....old. I don't even consider comparing it against some of the modern day high tech marvels out there, whats the point?

But, I can't go out on my Commando without someone asking about it, telling me about the one they used to have (or wanted) or a yell of "Nice Bike!" from someone walking down the sidewalk, babes included. I have seen very little distinction in age groups sharing their attention be it male or female including all the in-betweener's floating around. The Norton is one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever designed and I certainly don't ride my Norton for speed. But its performance is certainly respectable even by today's standards.

Today's new riders want monster tech on 2 wheels with speed that will blind you. This offering https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s/ with more torque than a Ducati 959 Panigale, all instantaneous, won't be getting beat off the line or at the finish line either...except maybe by another electric....this is where the kids are looking and IMHO our fossil fuel fed blast from the past will just become that much more sought after and desirable.
Cause' they look good and sound better. Chin up fellas, its all good.

Commando prices...
 
I do not think the US market for the Commando is the same as that of UK. Nor do I think 'prices' are solely about our perceptions of bikes but include other economic considerations .
On the car/bike front the 750 was claimed to do 0 to 60 in 4.6 secs. Yes there are cars that will do it a second quicker, but how many? Of course many will score on top end the Norton is not especially fast but it is still surely quite quick and a fair contender in traffic light GPs?
 
Fast Eddie said:
I’ve read that 80% of BSA / Triumph production in the 60s went to the US.

80% to one country... 20% for the rest of the world!

So yes, there are a few over there.

I would imagine it was a fairly similar picture for Norton.
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Yes the USA was by far the biggest customer for Norton, Triumph, BSA etc.…

In France, the price of commandos, for several years, is the new price of the time, but they are no longer new… … …...:mad:
 
oldmikew said:
I do not think the US market for the Commando is the same as that of UK. Nor do I think 'prices' are solely about our perceptions of bikes but include other economic considerations .
On the car/bike front the 750 was claimed to do 0 to 60 in 4.6 secs. Yes there are cars that will do it a second quicker, but how many? Of course many will score on top end the Norton is not especially fast but it is still surely quite quick and a fair contender in traffic light GPs?
Click to expand...

Teslas hit 60 in less than 2. In my neighborhood, seems there are more Teslas than not.

These are old bikes. They are fun to ride and are challenging to tinker with and keep running well. Thinking they are anything more than that is deluded.

Motorbike sales are at an all time low, due to (what I like to think, anyway) the obsession with safety, or the perception thereof.

Add to that, many Norton owners have for years (decades?) artificially inflated the market by hoarding. Suddenly, some of the older guard are trying to cash in on their "investments", but the potential vintage market ("the kids today") has been alienated by the high prices, and has moved on to Hondas, Suzukis, and Yamahas, just as they did (for the same reasons) in the 70s. The rebuilt Cb750s are easier to unload at higher prices than any Commando, yet the dream of selling that fake proddy for $20k still exists.

I tried to buy a Norton owners club shirt from my local club, only to be told they hadn't printed any in my size in 20 years. I wear a medium or large...

Don't know what it's like where you live, but the schools around here are funded by property taxes. The older guard have cut taxes and therefore have cut funding to schools' shop classes, art classes, music curriculum, and anything more than the bare minimum, because they don't want to pay for the education of someone else's kid. Suddenly no one's kid has any of those skills, but it sure sounds nice to bemoan the ignorance and self-centricism of "the kids today".

As the kids say, "just sayin'".
 
Craig said:
Read in paper today my generation is last to have it easy , those born from’81-96 milenials ? find it more difficult .... my wife and I both went to work each day for 35 yrs .... I mostly had second job and renovated couple houses built a couple cottages to make a living , always lived poor .... no debt now but time is so short , maybe did it wrong ....should have lived it up young and died with mountain of debt
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A man should be born old and die a baby.
 
t ingermanson said:
Teslas hit 60 in less than 2. In my neighborhood, seems there are more Teslas than not.

These are old bikes. They are fun to ride and are challenging to tinker with and keep running well. Thinking they are anything more than that is deluded.

Motorbike sales are at an all time low, due to (what I like to think, anyway) the obsession with safety, or the perception thereof.

Add to that, many Norton owners have for years (decades?) artificially inflated the market by hoarding. Suddenly, some of the older guard are trying to cash in on their "investments", but the potential vintage market ("the kids today") has been alienated by the high prices, and has moved on to Hondas, Suzukis, and Yamahas, just as they did (for the same reasons) in the 70s. The rebuilt Cb750s are easier to unload at higher prices than any Commando, yet the dream of selling that fake proddy for $20k still exists.

I tried to buy a Norton owners club shirt from my local club, only to be told they hadn't printed any in my size in 20 years. I wear a medium or large...

Don't know what it's like where you live, but the schools around here are funded by property taxes. The older guard have cut taxes and therefore have cut funding to schools' shop classes, art classes, music curriculum, and anything more than the bare minimum, because they don't want to pay for the education of someone else's kid. Suddenly no one's kid has any of those skills, but it sure sounds nice to bemoan the ignorance and self-centricism of "the kids today".

As the kids say, "just sayin'".
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And well said at that!

I love when boomers bash "useless millennials" like they weren't the ones that raised us.

Young folks ain't buying bikes because they are LUXURY items, today's youth (myself included) put what little money we have into experiences, not objects.

Unless you are dead set on owning and caring for an old Norton, you ain't spending 10, 8, 6 or even 4k on one. The fact we are having this conversation here only proves the point.

Now excuse me while I empty my commandos oil pan before tucking it in for the night.
 
Noisy, smelly, cantankerous old things aren't they? It all boils down to ' Ya gotta wanna' when it comes to owning and riding them.
 
NPeteN said:
................today's youth (myself included) put what little money we have into experiences, not objects.

..............
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I think we need to consider that as a very influencial state of mind today! Experiences are aspirational, objects are not the currency they were!

Hard to think that my younger son and his wife will spend thousands on an old vehicle for him to go into the garage and look at it, when they could use the money for another vacation together on the other side of the world!

We didn't take those trips because we could not! It wasn't on our horizon, it was something some old retired folks could do. If we ever thought we had the money we didn't have the time, if we had the time we didn't have the money.
 
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Torontonian said:
I don't understand the need for speed that all the vehicle adds push you to buy. Quality of ride , after all you will loose your driver's licence if excessive speeds as posted occurs.
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I wanted to say that a commando today costs, often, the new price of the time, but it is no longer new.
I sorry for my poor English language.;)
 
Whatever car or bike was coveted by guys in their late teens/early 20s is what gets bid up thirty to 40 years later. When those guys, for reasons of death or age, leave the scene, the prices fall back
 
What's it worth?
...whatever the next fellow will pay for it.
 
NPeteN said:
I love when boomers bash "useless millennials" like they weren't the ones that raised us.
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I don't "bash" millennials, unless they rate it. Most of the ones I've met rate it.

I raised three millennials (well, my ex raised the girl, for the most part), that turned out REALLY well. They are in the minority of non-cringeworthy millennials.
 
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It seems to me that the magic number for owners is around $10,000. Many people here seem to think that's about the right price to sell their bike, and still some others think that's a lowball price. I'm fairly confident if I put my bike up for sale with all the extra parts that I have for the price of $10,000. I wouldn't get a single offer near that price. I have a lot of aftermarket modifications and parts, but there's nothing really special inside the engine.

I think it would fetch $6,500. in a heartbeat, $7,500. with some advertizing, and $8,500. because I have both roadster and interstate tanks and side panels. All my other mods, cast wheels, givi bags, fairing, dual breathers, rear sets, kegler clamps, etc would probably help it sell faster, but I'm not seeing any of the local Norton commandos which are advertized for $10,000. sell on my local craigslist.

So my bike is for sale at $10,000. who's interested? :eek: Don't all jump at once...
 
grandpaul said:
I don't "bash" millennials, unless they rate it. Most of them rate it.

I raised three millennials (well, my ex raised the girl, for the most part), that turned out REALLY well. They are in the minority of non-cringeworthy millennials.
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So you've met most millennials then? I guess your own children are the Lord's perfect millennial angels? ;)

I will admit, there is some seriously strange shit stirring in the midst of my generation but for the most part we are normal folks working hard to better ourselves withing the confines of a system set-up (by your generation) to ensure our failure.

You-all inherited a booming, prosperous country you had no hand in building and what have you done with it? Cut taxes on yourselves, let our infrastructure crumble, housing market tank, cut education budgets, trashed the environment, stuck us in a 20 year war and funneled 99% of our wealth into the hands of 1% of our population.

"Cringe-worthy" doesnt even begin to describe the havoc your generation has wreaked upon the country and this planet.

But I guess millennials are ruining Christmas right?
 
I think I'll just take mine to the grave if the older son or grandson doesn't take it to have and to hold because I'll be damned if someone else is going to get their ass scratchers on it. It's MINE...We've been together for over 42 years, and I find it hard to fathom attaching a cash value on something which has been with you for that length of time and still runs reliably. Had my wife the same number of years......Nah...Toss up. I'll keep them both because they're younger than me by a few.
 
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