How much fo you think my bike is worth around

73 850, Finally got it running properly, how much a commandos like this going for? not that I would never sell it, just for insurance purposes.

Has, tri spark ignition, single coil electronic conversion, new tires, new clutch, new electronic regulator/rectifier, new wiring harness, electronic warning light assimilator, powder coated frame, rebuilt master cylinder, will have all new rubber foot pegs on tuesday, rebuilt carbs, k&n intake, rebuilt front shocks, two brand new exhaust tips, new throttle and clutch cable, and a bunch of other replacement parts to long to list

I would say at least 8,000$ for insurance purposes. If it is an "agreed value" policy type collectors insurance you might want to see if they will go higher. I recently increased the coverage on my 72 when I completed the restoration and got it back on the road. I increased the value from 8,000 to 12,000 and it only cost an additional 30 dollars a year.

I have my 73 850 insured for an even $10,000 from Hagerty Classics Insurance for $182 a year, stated that i ride it more than one thousand miles a year and it does not leave my sight when out for a ride, all essentially true

no appraisal needed

over 10K then appraisal needed, and that costs about $300 just to get someone in the area or flown in that is certified to quote value to insurance companies, so I did not bother

She's a beauty yet would need the handlebars flipped up rightside in my insurance book, what's with the black areas on the fork tubes ? I'm about to get Crazy Combat appraised for Classic insurance purposes here in Canada as the regular quote I just got was in the $750 range Yikes. Never had a ticket or claim ,what do they look like ?

Cost to replace it would be anywhere from $7,500 - $10,000 USD, depending on what is available for sale at the time you go to look for a replacement.

My original owner 850 MKII is insured with an agreed value of $15K. I upped that from 10K after a low speed crash that cost $1800 to restore brought me to my senses.

Photos of the bike and the box of trophies she's won are enough justification for my insurance co.

I owned several Commandos and never paid more than $600 even for one that was in good cosmetic and mechanical shape, no way they are worth anywhere near what these guys are quoting.

$600! Wow! When was that? Last century I take it.
These days $600 won't even buy you a half decent tank.
You might want to check out some of the completed sales on ebay. You might get a surprise.
$600! If you can find them I will take all that you come across and give you a 10% commision. Deal?

Last century was only 13 years ago. I have not bought a Commando since the 1980s. I have seen how the prices of them keep going up and it is very strange isn't it? I guess they are just keeping pace with the price of new bikes though. It is funny to watch them go from being old used bikes that people did not care about to trendy collectibles.

The first Commando I bought was a 1971 roadster, the most common year and model probably. I went and looked at about 15 miles away from my home and liked it because it had the same gearbox as the Matchless bikes my father sold and raced in the 50s and 60s. It was a running complete bike and the guy wanted $300 for it. It had a bad bearing noise coming from the engine when it was running, so I told the guy I would give him the $300 if he could ride it to my house and deliver it, I figured if it made it that far without blowing up then the noise could not be too serious a problem, which he did.

I bought another 71' Roadster off a guy a few blocks from my house, in really nice shape and running for $600. The owner surely weighed about 500 pounds and was about 6'7" tall. He kick started it and took it up and down the street looking like a bear on a tricycle to show me that nothing was wrong with it.

A posting on the bulletin board at a small local bike shop had a 73' 850 for sale, I went and looked at it and it was by the original owner, a black roadster, for $500. All it needed was tires and a battery and I rode it hard for years until it was pretty worn out. I picked up three more 850 roadsters, two complete but not running, a 73' and 74' and a 75 E-start all three for $450 total. I eventually parted them all out even though I had titles for them, I just did not think anyone would want to fix them up as one need the engine rebuilt and one had a broken fin and some rust, the other bent front forks from an accident.

A friend of mine still has one of the 71' Roadsters and he bought the parts to make it look like a production racer, my brother-in-law got the other 71' for what I paid for it and keeps trying to sell it back to me as he does not want to ride motorcycles anymore. I traded away my nice 850 rider along with some extra parts to a guy up in Michigan north of Detroit quite a few years ago for a complete original Harley XLR racing bike and the rest all got parted out and scattered to the four corners of the earth except for a frame up in the rafters and miscellaneous parts laying around. I got into the featherbed bikes a few decades ago and liked them much better and picked up a bunch of those just like I did with the Commandos.

The writing is on the wall though. In the eighties the bikes were not too outdated and they were cheap fun, just like me. Now we are all old and obsolete and running out of time, it takes more and more money to keep both of us running, and with cell-phones and other factors introduced to city riding, I wonder what the future holds for motorcycle riders. One person I know well just killed a friend of a friend by running into the back of their Sportster at a red light in their SUV. A day after a guy on a cell phone came over the center-line on a curve in the road and tried to hit my wife and I head-on. Everything is getting ridiculous. I can see why some guys quit street riding and switch to racing only, at least that way getting killed on the bike is your choice.

beng said:

...no way they are worth anywhere near what these guys are quoting.

Click to expand...

Are you living in a parallel universe that only intersects ours here on this forum?

grandpaul said:

beng said:

...no way they are worth anywhere near what these guys are quoting.

Click to expand...

Are you living in a parallel universe that only intersects ours here on this forum?

Click to expand...

Yes, let's buy in his universe and sell in ours.

grandpaul said:

beng said:

...no way they are worth anywhere near what these guys are quoting.

Click to expand...

Are you living in a parallel universe that only intersects ours here on this forum?

Click to expand...

and what type of paper work is required to buy a bike in said universe and transfer to ours? I've got $2000 burning a hole in my pocket and would like a new lotus.

pvisseriii said:

Yes, let's buy in his universe and sell in ours.

Click to expand...

That means you can only buy and sell here on the forum, where the two universes connect at his keyboard.

So far, in all the years this forum has been around, there have been exactly ZERO sub - $1,000 basket cases, much less decent runners.

Well, there's one seller on eBay no longer having to ask this question - his restored (and admittedly beautiful) MKIII sold yesterday in 21 bids for $15K.

grandpaul said:

pvisseriii said:

Yes, let's buy in his universe and sell in ours.

Click to expand...

That means you can only buy and sell here on the forum, where the two universes connect at his keyboard.

So far, in all the years this forum has been around, there have been exactly ZERO sub - $1,000 basket cases, much less decent runners.

Click to expand...

My first 850 was a free basket cast, pretty much a motor, transmission and a fer other bits. Botched chopper project, I did sort the title out for a small price.

I purchased my Combat, the owner called me, it did run after 5 minutes of work, for $900, but it had some title issues.

I also purchased a Titled 850 basket case from a friend for $1200.

These instances were all special situations, and I don't think I will ever stumble on them again.

If a bike is advertised for less than $2000, there will be little chance that you could get to it fast enough.

Heck, try to find a pre 1977 Yamaha XS650 or a SOHC CB750, or many other 70's and earlier bikes.

Face it prices are on the rise, supplies are drying up, and we have to pay to play.

I suggest beng is missing a golden opportunity to open a "Commando Finder" service and retire comfortably after a few short years buying them for $600 and selling for thousands. One indisputable fact is that there is a healthy queue of buyers to cater to.

I sure miss those days when old fixer-upper motorcycles where cheap.
Back then, I have even been given a few as people wanted to get that trash out of the yard/shed/garage.

But alas....... those days have passed.

EDIT:
wait, I completely forgot that I was given a 67 BSA Victor which is on my lift right now!
I amend my above comment to: those deals ain't as plentiful as they once were.

bwolfie said:

grandpaul said:

pvisseriii said:

Yes, let's buy in his universe and sell in ours.

Click to expand...

That means you can only buy and sell here on the forum, where the two universes connect at his keyboard.

So far, in all the years this forum has been around, there have been exactly ZERO sub - $1,000 basket cases, much less decent runners.

Click to expand...

My first 850 was a free basket cast, pretty much a motor, transmission and a fer other bits. Botched chopper project, I did sort the title out for a small price.

I purchased my Combat, the owner called me, it did run after 5 minutes of work, for $900, but it had some title issues.

I also purchased a Titled 850 basket case from a friend for $1200.

These instances were all special situations, and I don't think I will ever stumble on them again.

If a bike is advertised for less than $2000, there will be little chance that you could get to it fast enough.

Heck, try to find a pre 1977 Yamaha XS650 or a SOHC CB750, or many other 70's and earlier bikes.

Face it prices are on the rise, supplies are drying up, and we have to pay to play.

Click to expand...

As another data point on the history of prices, I bought my '73 850 in 1995 for $1400, it had been sitting for 12 years . I put new tires on it, rebuilt the carbs and master cylinder, new forks, new mufflers, a Boyer, and two new Roadrunner Universals. I think had it running for a bit less than $2000. At the time, it looked like running bikes were going in Walneck's for $2000 to $3000, depending on condition. I was on the internet around that time, but I don't think there was much buying and selling going on then, did eBay even exist? I think the internet has raised the prices on just about anything that's collectible, it makes it much easier to find a buyer. I've put a bit over 90,000 miles on it and the bike looks tired (not as nice as yours), I'd guess mine in running condition would be in the $4000 or $5000 range, but I haven't really looked at prices in the last few years. I imagine the bubble bursting probably hurt prices, the whole cafe racer craze has probably helped though.

-Erioc

Just for the record, basket cases for under a 1000 dollars do exist in this universe and during the lifetime of this forum. My avatar 850 was 500 bucks without the title. I finally coughed up another 300 bucks to persuade the original owner it was worth his time to file for a lost title. So 800 bucks with title in hand was the final price. And it sure is a beauty! Almost cosmetically perfect.



Since then I have acquired a '71 off of Ebay for less than 1400 dollars. It was one of those poor bikes that somebody had wanted to turn into a chopper and it was missing its seat and tank. I got an extra frame with it as the rear loop is hacked off the original, and a title. It is still in boxes waiting for a resurrection, but I considered it a good deal at the time. It had been sitting in a barn somewhere in eastern Oregon since the mid 80's. I bought it for the sole reason that I suspected it would be a lot harder to find in the future and that I was pretty sure that a good gearbox, motor and frame even without the other goodies would fetch the original price. Heck these days the TLS front brake fetches about 300 bucks. The clocks are pristine, fwiw.



Remember this bike?



It showed up a couple of times (three years ago) for about 12-1500 bucks if memory serves. Mostly we all made fun of it. Now I would probably snap it up at that price just for the motor and gearbox.

So what does this have to do with anything? Nothing really. The days of Commandos sitting in dusty corners and being considered rubbish are gone. Things are only worth what somebody will pay for them. Are Commandos trendy? You bet! I've loved them for as long as I have been aware of motorcycles. But if it wasn't for the internet I probably wouldnt own one (or three) now.

Russ

When they are running well and everything is setup, they are a great machine to ride. My 850 over 3,000 rpm is smooth as butter and the power from zero to well past legal speeds is enough to slide one off the seat. I was out on it last night enjoying it. I haven't had it on the road for a few years and had forgotten the rheostat throttle. How hard do you want to be pushed? Just twist the throttle to the appropriate spot.

When I look at Vincent prices, I dont understand why Commandos are not even higher priced than they are.
I guess it is supply demand, there were a very large number of them built over the years.

My guess is that Commando prices have a ways to run yet.

Glen