Commando values

One of the local vintage motorcycle guys asked me to join him next week to speak with an 83 year old that has a ‘75 850 mk3 he wants to sell. He thinks he should be at $7500 which I agree is a reasonable price……But. The US economy stinks right now and nothing used is selling. If he needs to unload it soon only a lowball price is going to attract the very few who might be in the market. I’m holding on to the ‘72 that I’ve owned for 28 years.
 
I, also, am proud of all the work I've done over the years on the bikes I've had/owned as nearly all of them were puchased as older, non-running "sitters" needing a wide variety of work done on them. I have never had a new bike. I can appreciate everybody that does their own work, and can build a bike without much to start with, but I find it curious that most riders have, as you put it "a modern run around bike", in your case your mentioned 2016 Thruxton. My modern run around bike, which I purchased as a non-running sitter, is a long ago purchased, nearly 40 year old '86 Gold Wing. I know, a lot of guys look down their nose at Honda or the Gold Wing, but once I got it running and ridable, I've logged a good amount of miles on it, with nearly no issues. As you posted, I was one of those guys who would have liked to have had a Norton back when they were new but simply couldn't. As much as I like this bike after the journey of getting it running and ridable, reality has kind of set in and I realize it just wont be used as a regular rider, or maybe much at all. Thankfully, at least for now, I'm not one of the guys giving it up because I can't kick start it any more.
Well, thank you for caring for this particular Commando and hopefully finding a buyer who wants a vintage 70's motorcycle that was fast and nimble. It was all that for those who were capable of maintaining high performance vehicles. The same for cars of the era.
 
Can I suggest that you don't view it as an investment, but view your ownership as a hobby, learning and enjoyment experience.

I recently sold my restored and sorted 72 Roadster in Australia for AUD$16k or USD$10.5k. That probably doesn't cover the cost of parts I spent on it, let alone the original cost of the bike.

I was a bit sad to see it go having done so much work on it over the last 10 years of ownership to get it sorted but it was time to say goodbye and let someone else enjoy it.
 


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