Price and value

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Price and value of articles are often remote from each other. For what you will pay for a good Commando, you can probably buy an excellent modern Ducati. In the end it all comes down to values. I still own the Seeley 850 I built in 1978. I value it more than any Ducati. My advice to any young guy is, if you own an old bike - never sell it unless it is a complete piece of garbage. Just make room for it in your garage and cover it up to stop it from rotting.
Some people buy Harley Davidsons for only one reason - they are completely rebuildable. Old British bikes are the same. They are not throw-away items.
 
Are you saying my Duc and Guzzi are not rebuildable ?
 
Any bikes are rebuildable, depends on how deep your pockets are and what your willing to spend or how much time you are willing to put into them.
Young people today just want to buy them, flog the crap out of them, sell them and buy a quicker bike, thats if they don't kill themself's first, how many under 20s males are killed each year from speed or inexperience whether motorcycles or fast powerful cars.
Kids today are thinking differently to when we were young, our goal was doing the ton, their goal is to live fast die young, we see it all to much on the news every night.
How many would know how to kick start a bike these days even new dirt bikes have ES these days.

Ashley
 
I am a fairly experienced road racer, however I would not dream of getting hold of a modern 600cc sports bike and riding it in my usual manner. I once rode a VFR400 Honda, that went around corners as though it was on rails at 170 KPH. But it would not go any faster. I later found out they are speed limited. With old bikes, they have usually reached close to their maximum development potential. Even when we had Z900 Kawasakis, no racers fitted anything like a real race cam. With them top end was never a problem. With modern bikes, most of the development seems to go towards making them more rideable. Top speed is irrelevant once you get past a certain point. In the hands of kids, modern bikes are probably deadly. Whatever speed you do, that is the speed at which you must be prepared to fall off.
 
I have a friend who was a top driver in Formula 5000 racing cars. His last car was a Reynard. He had the late life divorce , so his Porsche was stolen and the racing car sold. He kept the Ferrari . At age 57 he decided he could race bikes. So he bought a modern MV Agusta and taught himself to ride it. Then came the 600cc Suzuki sports bike, entered at Phillip Island. In his first race, as he went over Lukey Heights, he saw an opportunity and went for it. - Lost the front - landed on his head and broke a few ribs - air ambulance to hospital - nurse stuffed the oxy and almost turned him into a vegie. Got golden staph in his back. But he's all OK now.
His head was quicker than his reason.- What really shit me was that three of us told him exactly what was about to happen before he did it to himself.
 
I've been rebuilding my Pantah for 5 years now and am about 80% there (almost time to start reassembling). Getting parts for it has not been without drama, a couple of gears had decided to shed their case hardening and you can guess where all the really hard itty bitty bits ended up. In that same time I've had no trouble in doing some major work on the Commando with all parts available inside of a working week at worst. Comparative value of both bikes on the market? No idea and don't really care. Value to me - priceless.
 
Not trying to be an ass but I see folks our age giving grief to the younger guys/girls ... yup they different but very similar to what we were doing back in the day .... yesterday a guy from Alberta leading 4 other bikes on tour hit a deer and died he was 49 ..... just saying take an honest look as much as things change they remain the same .... some comments on here I heard before when I was a young fella .... I got lots of time for the younger set ! they can do wonderful stuff and have helped me in many different ways .... especially with their know how with the phones and the new electronics on bikes ....
 
Totally agree Craig,
I work with young people and they are frequently level headed and not totally “risk ignorant”
They (and us) live in a world where manufacturers attempt to reduce our risk - traction control, air bags, rigid steel crash sections, ABS, automatic braking systems -and ok this is referring to cars but it leads ALL of us to be a little less careful and a little more reliant on the technology. The major difference between the generations is experience - we have crashed/fallen off etc.. and been hurt (pride or body) so we are (usually) more careful. Add to that the fact we have other people relying on us or dependent on us and life experience - only available by living longer - is factored into our decision making processes.
 
In summers I ran municipal pipe crews install , maintain and upgrades ... I always had a few studuents spread around each crew, for the most part great young people who earned their minimum wage with a smile .... some lasted for 5 years and were always cheerfully welcomed back by my permanent workers .... young guy across the street is starting trade school in fall , he works at mountain bike shop full time , in his free time he is modding up an old miata , not to my taste, but he really has transformed it ,all in his driveway ... just like back in the day .....
 
Take it easy on us youngins, were gonna have to spend next 50 years fixing all the shit y'all messed up...;)
 
Take it easy on us youngins, were gonna have to spend next 50 years fixing all the shit y'all messed up...;)

I am 77 years of age. I am very grateful to have been born when I was. I think we have seen the world as good as it is ever going to be. When I was young, we had everything before us. These days there is much less opportunity for development and application. I don't think there will ever be another time when you might build a road racing motorcycle from scratch out of bits and pieces and actually race it, to prove what you have achieved. If that is ever going to happen, there would have to be a complete change of mindset.
 
When I built my Seeley 850, I bought a rolling Mk3 Seeley chassis, a motor and a gearbox - then cut out a set of engine plates by hand. That was it - the rest was just nuts and bolts. Try and do that these days.
 
My youngest daughter and her BF are into jap drift cars and spending a lot of time and money on them but they are smart and never race them on the streets, they do track days at Willowbank and drag strip, but they still get hasseled by the cops even when they are doing the the right thing, they both work at Auto Barn but the BF is in his last 6 months training to become a Paramedic so he has his head screwed on, but they have lost a few of their young mates to speed and road crashes 2 on high speed motorcycles, going to fast in between traffic, all young males with not to much experience, but of course I have lost a lot of friends over time from motorcycle accident but all from doing the wrong thing, but also a few from no fualt of their own, just todays motorcycles and cars have more HP and are just rockets on wheels and mostly young males getting killed to prove themselfs.
The biggest thing these days is the young gangs stealing HP cars, some drivers been caught as young as 12 and no more than 16 not even old enough to have a licence and the way they get caught is wiping out other innocent drivers from high speed crashes and also taking out there passengers who are in the car with them, yes times have changed, not all young ones are bad but a lot of young ones have no respect for others and yes I worked for 31 years with young people and have seen the good and the worst.

Ashley
 
Acotrel .... while you do have a couple years on me ....and we all have our issues no doubt .... however I sure hope I don't end up as bitter as you sound on this forum .... folks around here are still doing the things I/we did in our younger years , maybe you should get out more and try hanging about with some young ones and see for yourself .... I still believe in that sayin' " Ain't Life Grand" .... just one kick at this can and I'm determined to do it with a smile ! .... take care
 
I am sure the world will survive even if its only on FB, the rest of us can struggle on in the shed.

Price and value


Price and value


Price and value


Price and value


I know one thing with being 60 this October..... The day you stop wanting to learn new things is the day you start waiting to die.
 
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Well I turned 60 last November and I am still doing the same things I been doing all my life and I am still learning and we learn by our mistakes lol, I still ride my bikes the same as I did in my youth, I still ride my dirt bike the same, as well my Norton, except my CRF450X, is a lot more powerfull than the old dirt bikes I started on, and my life time mates I still ride with to this day we haven't changed, its a race to see who gets to the tight twisties first, just like our dirt biking days racing each other to see who gets to the creek crossing first, we haven't slowed down, just the body takes a harder hit and a few more niggerly aches and pains but it hasn't stopped us yet and if I break something I got to fix it.
Its even better for me being retired for over 5 years now and I can get out on the bikes anytime, my wife lets me go off on the bike traveling anytime I want, she is a good girl, she has never stopped me not like most of my mates they are hen pecked and don't get away with what I do, life for me couldn't get any better, well I could win the lotto, but then I get by on little money from my self funded supa pension, still have 7 years to go before I can get my old age pension.
Hopefully I will stay young till I am 105 , just enjoy life and take each day as it comes.

Ashley
 
Not trying to be an ass but I see folks our age giving grief to the younger guys/girls ... yup they different but very similar to what we were doing back in the day .... yesterday a guy from Alberta leading 4 other bikes on tour hit a deer and died he was 49 ..... just saying take an honest look as much as things change they remain the same .... some comments on here I heard before when I was a young fella .... I got lots of time for the younger set ! they can do wonderful stuff and have helped me in many different ways .... especially with their know how with the phones and the new electronics on bikes ....

When I was young, I had an H1 500 Kawasaki triple, Wheelies everywhere, especially with willing female passengers. Did everything I could to mitigate the hinge in the middle of the frame. Painted it a beautiful metalflake purple. Hotted up the motor. Kids these days!
 
When I was young, I had an H1 500 Kawasaki triple, Wheelies everywhere, especially with willing female passengers. Did everything I could to mitigate the hinge in the middle of the frame. Painted it a beautiful metalflake purple. Hotted up the motor. Kids these days!

One of my old school mate had one of them and with expansion chambers on it, went like a rocket in straight lines, he didn't make it to his 18th birthday on it, couldn't take a corner at high speed and hit a mango tree, never forget that night, he just lived around the corner from me.

Ashley
 
I started out on triples, everyone else had RD's and Hustlers so got a 74 S1B 250 in 1977 ($995), followed by a T100T ($350).. by 1980 it was a 750 H2B ($1600)(which I still have) and picked up a couple of H2A's in the 1990's ($1700 for the two).

I was fairly safety conscious from the 'get go so always had the head light on.

Price and value
 
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