Has e-bay as a shop window inflated prices , what with the fees for selling and all. I have been watching two stroke mid seventies to mid eighties trail/enduro's and frankly some of the prices seem ridiculous. Having said that I can source a 78 TS 185 in great condition for £1000 - £1400 depending on my haggling skills ,whereas a comparable bike be it a Yam DT or TS 250 is far more on e-bay I was thinking of buying a dirt track bike to compete in what may be a one off event , the TS would allow me to run around at the back having fun and own a collectable bike in the process , one that I can use on the roads as opposed to a proper dirt track bike. So to end I know where there is a demand there is a price ceiling to pay but pre e-bay or advertising off e-bay things appear more realistic.
Look at any '70's or '80's bike and the story is the same. You have to remember they're 30-40 year old bikes now, and therefore collectibles. If you want to have some cheap fun look to the 1990's, buy cheap, then wait ten years...
People who used to have, or used to weant to have, 70's and 80's two-strokes are now in thge "disposable income" bracket, hence willing and able to re-live their youth... Look how many bike magazines there now are dedicated to that era and you can see that the interest is on the increase ( Practical Sportsbike, Classic Motorcycle Mechanics et al... ). Where there's an interest, there's an increase in cost. E-bay just makes it easier to advertise to a wider audience - but at the end of the day it's the people wanting to buy that are pushing up the prices, not the advertising medium...
When I were a lad just into bikes I read every magazine going, Bike, Superbike, etc, and the likes of Classic Bike, Classic Mechanics, etc (Razzle, Readers Wives...), and even then in the 70's old bikes were massively overpriced. I've ridden hardly any old British bikes, simply because I've never been able to afford them. Nothing has changed, 30-year-old bikes are still massively overpriced, the only difference is they're japanese now.
I find it interesting how dealers describe bikes in an attempt to justify the inflated prices. For example in dealer parlance "classic" just means old. "Rare classic" means old and so rubbish that no-one wanted it even when it was new. "Collector's bike" is another one that makes no sense: how many people actually collect bikes? Most people I know just accumulate them, which is definitely not the same thing!
Well I didn't buy the TS185 , instead I've bought a Yam XS 650 flattracker . I have plans to change it over the winter more to my taste.
They are getting silly, I sold my RS250 (okay so late 90's) for £2500 and it would now be going for around £4250, that's in 2 years that jump, as they get more rare and good ones get harder to find.
