When I was sixteen I bought a Norton 75 for 99 guilders
When I was forty I bought an M72 for 250 guilders. An almost spotless Honda CB750 cost me nearly two grand. A Suzuki GT 750 with three in a Reino pipe and a Velorex sidecar was for me for three thousand guilders. So there is progress in my purchases. A 99 Dominator is worth serious money these days. And such a Russian BMW clone can now yield five grand. By the way: That puts him at less than a third of the value of his historically equally important and equally reliable 'colleague', the Harley-Davidson WLA or WLC models. In the early sixties, those were machines that you had for 200 guilders.
Youth sentiment and emotions
What something is worth depends on the time, the market and the available amounts of money people are willing to spend for something as pointless as a classic motorcycle. By the way, if you look at the new prices of modern motorcycles, the classic prices are not that bad. But somewhere in time, all of our now-beloved classics had a moment when they were worth next to nothing. In the November issue of Auto Motor Klassiek we have the story of the Honda CB750 F bought new fifty+ years ago. It is still with its first owner, who, when he heard that his four-cylinder would only fetch 500 guilders when traded in, decided to repaint it in JPS colors and keep it.
Currently there are classics for which huge prices are being asked
A CB750F K2 has been roaming the internet for ages, the price of which has now gone from € 8.500 to € 7.000. A neat thing. But to get it completely original again, another mille or six is needed. In the south of France there is an MV 600 for sale. With only a few miles on the clock. The asking price? €1.000.000. On the other hand, Japanese motorcycles from the early 900s to the mid-600s are worth very little. You can get such an almost indestructible Yamaha XJ1.000 or Diversion 2.000 for less than € 1.500. And for € XNUMX you should have a moving GoldWing. You can also find plenty of Japanese sports bikes from the Tupperware era and yoghurt suits for less than € XNUMX. If those are engines that you don't like at all, then those prices are just not interesting. You could be right about that. Because they have never been history-changing special, outstanding masterpieces. But that doesn't have to take away from your youth sentiment.
In the meantime, I'm back to square one. My Ural side valve has increased in value
But of course I won't let it go. My Chang Jiang M1(M?) on the other hand is convincingly worthless. A lot of the shameless copy of a BMW 75/5 were made for Chinese government services. Some of those mind-boggling rabbits with their mix of fifty years of BMW plagiarism across three model generations are unknown and unloved here. And if you look at such a thing critically, you are right. But looking critically makes even the prettiest girl ugly. So you have to surrender uninhibitedly to falling in love.
My 750 cc OHV of what is said to be 33 hp cost change
Many parts from the stocks of used greasy parts from Ural and Dnepr specialist Richard Busweiler also cost next to nothing and fit on the Chinese. And then there are also many BMW /5 items that can be transplanted without any problems. It is apparently easiest to score genuine original parts if you are proficient in the Chinese language. But bottom line, such a thing is so simple that you can even put things together without a workshop manual. It is precisely that plus and that selection that makes it fun. What if I dream about how much my Chang will be worth in thirty years or so? How important are those 33 horsepower when I just celebrated my 97th birthday? I do not care.
Maybe I should check if 'www.changjianglub.NL' is still available. And if anyone else has a front brake back plate… Or a telescopic fork. Because the shed is too small for two sidecar combinations.
In the early 60s, 200 guilders was a lot of money. My parents then bought a building plot of 500 meters for 1 guilder per meter at an expensive location in Brandant.
That's right. And so you see: every example weakens the argument. I read that a 1963 Ford Thunderbird cost 13000 guilders. Gross modal was then something like 8500 guilders. But there were many people then who could only afford a Harley
a brand new ural with 400km on the clock cost in 94 in luban (pl) a thousand d-mark, or was it a dnepr ?
it was grey/green with sidecar and driven sidecar wheel and I was interested in it, but still preferred to buy tools, calipers, bracket screws, micrometers, a trunk full for 300 weevers ...
Well, that was the choice between two beautiful options. That could only end well. Just google a Richard Busweiler, Genemuiden. Then you see what the Russians are currently doing!