It has been investigated. Besides rare bursts of spontaneous love for classics, our passion is usually formed by 'the motorbike (or car) of my father / neighbor / uncle, grandfather'. And then there has been an age that we were very receptive to dream engines. Because as an 12-20 year-old, you did have the opportunity to find out everything about Honda's CB750 OHC, BMW's R75 / 5 or the latest Norton Commands via the weekly magazine Motor in black and white. Say we are talking about the seventies. Because from that time Honda's credo 'You meet the nicest people on a Honda' had caused motorcycling to be reborn.
But that such a machine was within your reach. No way!
As a youthful motorcyclist you were happy that you could ride a Matchless single-cylinder or a Honda Dream. An old thing from the late fifties or something from the first half of the sixties. The time when you made it clear by riding an ex-army Harley that you really had no money. And if those dream bikes from your early days became available second-hand a few years later? Then the then dreaming adolescent or young adolescent was usually already in a relationship. With or without a few children. That's how it used to be. And so a dream engine remained a dream.
Until the kids could take care of themselves
Then some money was released and it became possible to make dreams come true. The trade in classics picked up. People bought the bikes they dreamed of in the past. The toppers of the time. The machines that were ever the largest, fastest and most expensive. A tension arose between 'the engine of my dreams' and 'status'.
In that battle, the engines of the second plan remained largely unexposed
Until the toppers of that time, just like then, fell outside the financial possibilities of the dreamers from the present. Because € 30.000 for a perfect BMW R69S is a lot of money. € 12.500 for a perfect Suzuki GT750 is a lot of money. € 150.000+ for a Münch is a lot of money. This development ensured that interest in feasibility for the 'lesser' models grew. And now serious money is already being paid above € 3000 for a very nice Honda CB 450 K1, CB650 or for a BMW R60 / 6. And a very beautiful Suzuki T500 that once went into the ramshaus for f 3.999 as 'edeljawa' recently got a new - and happy - owner for twice that amount in euros.
A conversation in Lelystad
And so you suddenly find yourself in a meeting with Mike Buttinger, the man behind CMSNL, a global leader in the field of NOS and replica parts for classic Japanese, young timers and 'recent stuff'. Mike comes to the conclusion that two very strange things are at play: Nobody is interested in what was Honda's global breakthrough in the 'heavy' class: the C72 and C77 Dreams. And really early Goldwings, which were really revolutionary, no one wants to pay any money for that either. As far as the Dreams are concerned, he understands that. Those were the last - and best - old school motorcycles. They were pure utility motorcycles. Daily drivers for people who couldn't afford a car yet. They weren't lifestyle representatives yet. Had no status. And with that, their greed factor was discarded.
They were used up and thrown away
But those early Goldwings? They were high-speed powerhouses. Actually very sporty machines. And they were revolutionary. With the growth to ultimate touring bikes, the Goldwings has done quite well. But there is almost no movement in the stock of C72-C77 parts. And the former USA Honda dealer who has a C71 in a crate and asks for $ 149.000 for that? He has even less chance of success than the company in Dronten that offers a top restored copy for € 12.500.
