Classic quandary
Mick Powell was slightly apologetic asking for advice about his 2001 Honda CB500, which he felt may not be considered ‘classic’. It got me thinking about that old chestnut: ‘what makes a classic?’ It’s a nonsense term really, because it’s short for ‘classic example of a…’ which could mean anything! From CB’S point of view there’s a loose cut-off year – but that’s mainly because we have sister titles dealing with later eras. I’d say my definition is this: all bikes start off as ‘current’, either new or at least still something a dealer would welcome in part-exchange. Then, when depreciation bottoms out, they become ‘hacks’ and maybe make a bargain daily rider – but they are no longer worth repairing if they go expensively wrong and most bikes end their days here, run into the ground.
But things improve for the few survivors. ‘You don’t see many of these nowadays,’ people say; they’re unusual, a conversation piece. Once enthusiasts join up, sourcing spares and figuring out ways to fix the bike that the manual doesn’t tell you, then I’d say any model enters the specialised world of the ‘classic’.
What about the claim that classics are the bikes we all remember (or always wanted) when we were young? Well, certainly that nostalgia is probably what turns most people away from ‘current’ to ‘classic’, but there has to be more to it than that – otherwise nobody alive would want pre-war bikes, yet they grow more popular all the time.
I guess collecting is always about finding the unusual – and the older the bike, the more unusual it is. So is the CB500 a classic? Maybe not yet... but give it time.