True value

It’s only expensive if you can’t afford it

I’m writing this in mid-January at the point where many of us are struggling with cashflow, thanks to the walletstretching excesses of the festive period, and the long, long wait between paydays that’s brought on by that self-same holiday. Consequently, I find it ironic that Ducati chose this point of the year to be launching a limited-edition version of its muscle bike, the Diavel. Now, the basic (i.e., not really very basic) version of the V4 Diavel isn’t a cheap bike, at twenty-three-and-a-half grand, but then that’s hardly surprising given that the manufacturer is something of a premier brand and 168bhp is never going to come cheap.

And when a company adds a ‘limited-edition’ tag it’s unlikely that it’s going to be a cheaper version of the model in question…

But the Bentley Diavel isn’t just a little bit more expensive that the ‘normal’ V4 Diavel. Yes, it does have a few rather trick components that the vanilla version doesn’t have, and they come delivered in a special wooden crate (!), but the price increase is still rather surprising. It takes no great stretch of the imagination to assume that most of the 500 Bentley Diavels (or the 50 Mulliner versions) are going to end up in private collections and not being actually ridden, as those who have the wherewithal to actually be able to purchase one (and, remember, they’ll sell out really quick and will be bought by those folk who have the cash at hand) are far more likely to keep them as investments rather than as a bike to actually be used. ‘Yah, I’ve got a Dewcahtee, Yah. It matches my Bentley, yah. It’s on the wall in my library…’ Of course, there will be the rare few who actually do use their £58,000 Bentley Diavel, and maybe even someone who uses the higher-spec Mulliner version (at £71,000 a pop and, to add insult to expense, you have to be a current Bentley owner in order to purchase a Mulliner Diavel…), and I doff my hat in the general direction of those people. If they exist.

Now, compare the price of the ultra-exotica to the likes of the new Honda CBR600RR. This bike, according to numerous posts on social media, is ridiculously overpriced and is nothing other than blatant profiteering by the manufacturer. At £10,499 I’m failing to see that it is particularly expensive. Okay, so it is many times the price of what I have ever spent on buying a motorcycle, but if you saw the current Manning fleet, then that would come as no surprise. But just because it costs more than the nine bikes that are crammed into my nowhere-near-big-enough garage (with some overspill into the house, and the company lock-up), then don’t be expecting me to agree with the statements regarding an excessive price tag.

Those who are claiming that it’s overpriced are, in the main, of that opinion because

‘it’s only a 600!’. Regardless of the capacity, a modern, fuel-injected, water-cooled, inline four cylinder engine will cost the same to make as any other modern, fuel-injected, water-cooled, inline four cylinder engine. And the electronics and research and development of a 600cc sportsbike will be much the same as the electronics and research and development of a 1000cc sportsbike. A litre capacity sportsbike such as that same manufacturer’s CBR1000RR Fireblade, retailing at £23,499. Factor in the fact that the larger machine’s higher price is, in part, thanks to the cost of bought-in parts such as the Öhlins forks and rear shock, and the high spec Brembo brake calipers (while the 600 has ‘mere’ Tokico radial calipers), and has the financial burden of slightly more in the way of electronic trickery, then you start to understand that the smaller capacity bike is, in actual fact, something of a bargain.

Although the term ‘bargain’ is, of course, all relative. To put it into context, last year I bought myself a secondhand motorcycle. A bike that, much like the Honda that started the whole conversation off, is a 600cc inline four machine, albeit not an especially modern one. It does, admittedly, need some tender, loving care (and probably the swift application of a soft-faced hammer in some areas, too), and my plans are to get it up and running and use it through the summer. It cost me £400.

Fitting into the middle ground – somewhat appropriately given that they feature in this very issue – are bikes such as the Suzuki GSX8S (at £8199), the Honda Hornet 750 (£7299), and Royal Enfield’s new twin, the Shotgun (£6699). What would you prefer, a fully-spec’d, limited-edition musclebike with four-wheeler connotations, or a midrange parallel twin for you and nine of your friends?... (or over a hundred beat-up, non-running knackers from the Nineties…)