Classics are NOT expensive

That may be just as brief as the cry that they have become unaffordable. But during one of the first serious conversations in the new year - and best wishes! - the idea came out tight. Nowadays, classics can cost quite a bit of money. But that doesn't make them expensive.

Expensive engines have again risen in price

But what do you compare with? In 1970 a Honda CB 750 F cost 6.500 guilders, say € 3.000. In the same 1970s the gross average YEAR salary was € 5.559 and that meant that Jan Modaal received € 427 gross or € 286 each month for whatever he did.

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So Jan Modaal really did not mindlessly cut out to buy a Honda CB750 F from Moto Mercuur, SAFE, van de Kuinder, Selling or whoever. Most of the people who bought such a machine did so on 'installment', which was still called finance. Motorcyclists were even younger then. It helped if you were still living with your parents.

If we look at 'us', many of us have experienced the process

Because such a super-tensile Honda CB 750 was just an expensive thing in 1970. We were so young at the time that we could only dream or hear about it among the lucky ones who could afford one. That 'permitting', effort was made for that. A well-known enthusiast was a well-deserved construction worker at the time. He was also a motorcyclist. And he did like walking and drinking. He rode Norton. The appearance of the CB 750 touched him deeply. He quit smoking and stepping and took a blow around. After two years, he went to the motorcycle store in his village with a cigarette box full of guilders, crooks, fives and ten. He had saved his CB 750 together. Of course it helped that he still lived with his parents. But it remained an achievement.

In the first half of the 80s, the CB 750 were just old engines

You bought a nice and good copy roughly between € 700-1.000. And in terms of price developments on the then already classic marketplace: A 1966 member of the Honda Black Bomber where we would now rate 9? It once cost me 3.000 guilders. The asking price for such a four-speed topper from then is now between € 8.500 and 12.500. The CB 450 was the Honda topper of the time. The most expensive, extremely sporty Honda now costs almost € 30.000.

Driving a new car is only expensive

If you look at the current prices of motorcycles from what is now the top segment, then you should not be afraid of amounts above € 20.000. To translate that back to 'early', you are on an amount of 44.000 legendary guilders. And count on it that you will write very firmly on that. For the most expensive BMW you pay around 66.000 mille, more than 50.900 guilders. At Harley last year the CVO Ultra Limited cost € XNUMX.

And a top tip for investors: the Harley V Rods are out of production and out of favor. Even more interesting: The millions of devouring Harley Live Wire stuff has stopped. We found the E Harley for just € 34.500 in the price list of 2020. But production has stopped. Things were only welcomed by the motorbikes, who could not do otherwise because of the advertising revenues. Managers and marketers saw The Future for Harley. The reality? The Harley myth is over. The customer is aging beyond the expiry date. Only the machines from before the Evo era hold value. And as a merciless sales flop, the Live Wire may also become a sought after classic when it comes to rarity. But that will be interesting for investors. Because do you want to be seen on such a thing? Oh no? But a neat Evo? You can already drive that under € 8.000. And classic BMW Boxers that are not by definition museums? You don't have to go deep into debt for that either.

I think we can just say that classic driving is (considerably) cheaper than 'current' driving

Of course, classic masterpieces are expensive. Very expensive. But we can no longer call it motorcycles. They are investment objects. They were actually withdrawn from traffic by heartless capitalists who once thought how they could turn the low interest rates into something positive.

Moreover, you then have machines where you can lose your driver's license while driving in first gear and which depend on their axes from the electronics. There is even an engine manufacturer that promotes its product as the ideal platform for your smartphone. You would feel sorry for the editors of modern motorcycle magazines. They review software instead of motorcycles.

So do you just want to really ride a motorcycle without having to pay the top prize? Stay or go classical driving!