Think groundbreaking designs can become overnight "classics"
Desomdeci for example, the first GP bike for the street!
Using DMNTD as a guide here....12-18 months!
I found it was when I could no longer afford the bike or the parts.I started riding bikes when the old British stuff was last decades flavour and unwanted.You could get a nice bike really cheap,and parts were everywhere,just a few bucks or swapsies for parts someone else wanted.I collected a mountain of stuff and had the time of my life.Then parts suddenly went through the roof - something that would be given away free was now worth serious money.I had to give up the British stuff and move onto the next cheap thing.
Now the next cheap thing has hit classic status.Yamaha XS650's are now getting to be worth something - I'm looking for a bit of a dunger for my next project,something around the $500 mark...but they have suddenly had a dramatic increase in price lately.I'll be lucky to find a bargain I think.
Yeah,although it didn't look it,it was a near original XS1 and I didn't want to cut it up when it would be an easy restore for someone motivated.But I don't mind going in boots and all on some old Special with years of neglect.Trouble is now they think this piece of shit is worth something - and the bad news is some dick head is willing to pay 3 times what it's worth.Like those $1 reserve TradeMe auctions that are sitting on $3.50....and some clown comes in with a $51 bid!
Lol Yeah I hear what you're saying. Mind you a bargin does come up. Better if it gets given to you though.
Delivered/abandoned on your doorstep for free even.......
Once I get Connies craft room sorted I'm sure I'll be able get another 20-30 yo plus steed to clutter up what remaining shed space I have.
The CB175 belongs to my son Alex, aka Romeo, and the 1969 CB750 and 1973 Z1 are mine.
I'm restoring the Z1 using NOS parts where I can but it's not cheap, more a labour of love. She's a 12,000 mile survivor and all the numbers are correct. She's a beauty. It's taking some time, the bike has been landed ex Atlanta USA since October 2007. If you ain't got the pink slip it's a hard road ahead.
The CB750 collected an award for "Best Restored Pre 1970 Bike" at the VJMC Rally in Blenheim a few months ago. So I'm a bit proud but I'm hoping that pride doesn't come before a fall, in this case.
According to some of the guys I ride with in the Classic Japanese Motorcycle Group here in Christchurch. a classic Japper is pre 1980, as that was generally recognised as the "Golden Age". Having said that, we do have members who ride modern bikes but the general intent of the CJMG was for the bikes to be pre 1980. Who can't say that a first year GSXR isn't a classic?
I figure me XN85 is a classic - and Jantars RE5 and other similar bikes, even if they are post '80.
Winding up drongos, foil hat wearers and over sensitive KBers for over 14,000 posts...........
" Life is not a rehearsal, it's as happy or miserable as you want to make it"
The RE5 does it for me as it's 1974-1976 and was ground breaking stuff, much like the way the Mazda Rotary cars were. The XN85, Mmmm, ?? no. I'm thinking classic motorcycles are:
Norton Interstate, or any Norton come to think of it.
Triumph Bonneville, and any Triumph pre 1980, as above.
Any number of BSA's
Aerial Square Four
Kawasaki Mach III
Kawasaki H2
Kawasaki Z1
Honda CB750K's but not F series, (sorry boys)
Suzuki T20 250 cc Hustler
Suzuki GT750 Waterbus, or Kettle, or whatever you want to call it
Suzuki Titan or Cobra 500cc two stroke
But everyone will have to agree that it's really what turned you on when you were a lad. I'm guessing that the 2015 "KTM Shagmaster Mark III" will be exciting some 50 year old in the year 2060
When my brother had his XN85 in Canada it was officially classed as a Classic,there was a special registration for it.There was also an onus on him to keep it in classic ''condition''.Too many changes and it would lose it's classic status....so he had to make sure everything he did to it as original as possible.
O.K Motu, It's obviously a generational thing. Each to their own. Good luck with that.
Classic doesn't mean old in my book, Ducati 916, TL1000, first fireblades, Early ZX10's, GSXR1000's, Early GSXR750's (which already are classics). Will all be future classics someday. Either slightly edgy peformance - ie "widdow maker" reputation or a leap in technology will make a classic.
Yep, even non bikers rate it.
Naw
Definitely
Hmmm, more the 900s I would've picked.
A little too cookie cutter, would've rated the first R1 more likely to be a classic.
Definitely, birth of an age.
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