How did I miss this? Sold for: £4,600 https://www.iconicauctioneers.com/1975-ducati-desmo-239-rec15993-1-nec-1125?pn=1&el=34465&pp=100 I bought a Mk III for £40 in bits in 1977, rebuilt it, crashed it and had to sell it. I have wanted one ever since and this was cheap
Had it been better advertised, there might have been to more interest and I’m sure the price it achieved would have been higher. Andy
I find it a little scary, I think it might be worse than we think. I've been watching a motorbike on eBay and predicting what it would go for, even in this depressed market, but it's been on there for a further three weeks without shifting.
There are many reasons these days to not spend any money on non-essentials and if anything, hoard cash for when it might be needed elsewhere. Investors call that “confidence” and at the moment, there isn’t any.
I am wondering whether it's the post-covid bubble, the fear of the finite usability either because of the way the world's going or the aging we're all doing, the increased costs or the decreased freedoms... it's hard to compare today with the comparative freedom of 2019 and not wonder what the hell happened. Feeling decidedly less carefree and likely to hop on a bike and head for southern Europe now than I was pre-pandemic. Had better not dwell on this too much, I'll get all sad.
Well I have just sold a bike on eBay after three months and at a decent price, to someone who is clearly not a frequent rider. I noticed this advert at the recent Bike Shed 10th birthday party. I think it symbolises the present state of biking, that for the next gen our pastime is inaccessible and unaffordable.
You touch on something there, it's a pastime rather than a mode of transport. Our first bikes might have been a 50cc 'ped, a 125 or an old hand-me-down that got us out there and independent, getting to work, off to see friends or exploring further than we could be bothered to pedal on our pushbikes... they were really important to us, and motorcycle culture was either a part of that, or we just liked our bikes for what they enabled us to do. Looks like it's 30 quid a month to be a member of The Bike Shed, and that's before you get the overpriced coffee and burger or get drawn into the haircut or the t-shirt... 30 quid is surely a couple of tanks of petrol and a ride down to the seaside? Squires never used to charge 30 quid to show up when you fancy and buy a coffee... but then we also used to ride in 501s, Pony hi-tops and a garish paddock jacket that probably didn't cost that much either, with a helmet you might have bought new, if you were fancy! Otherwise it had the same fit as a Lego Spaceman's hat.
You are dead right. Bikes in the 1970s were cheap freedom and a rite of passage. Now they are an unaffordable extravagance. I am working on a Youtube channel to bring biking to screens where I understand the yoof hangs out a lot
