ORIENTAL ANGLES

Purchasing an old motorcycle is absolutely no different from buying virtually any other commercially available item. Sitting in the background is a long, long supply chain, and it would do all of us a favour if certain folk remembered that when they go to buy their next project. Those of us who live comfortably within the third decade of the 21st century are fully aware that the prices of old bikes, regardless of state, have consistently risen with time. Part of this is due to inflation; apparently there’s a really good economic reason why low level, controlled inflation is actually a good thing, but life is too short etc. The other cause of the increased cost is supply – fewer old bikes and more people chasing after them. That the rough project you are considering is now more, in terms of actual pounds notes, than you paid for an identical one new in the 1970s is utterly irrelevant – and quite probably fiscally inaccurate. It’s a fact of life that costs generally increase, but then so does income if you care to do the maths. Unquestionably the vast majority of old Japanese motorcycles come from America these days where they were sold in huge numbers. While our colonial cousins have woken up to the value of the iconic stuff, a lot of the other machines are still cheap – often disgustingly so. A low mileage trail bike that spent most of its life in a barn is often less than $500 so it’s a bargain, right? Even if it’s missing a few parts? So why might that very same machine be some £750-£900 when it arrives here in Blighty? Internal shipping stateside is costly because of the distances involved, and getting a container’s worth of bikes to a dockside from countless disparate sellers simply isn’t cheap. Next, add on handling and loading onto the ship, the cost of moving a container across the pond, reversing the above procedures in the UK and then onwards shipping. Oh, and of course there’s the import duty and NOVA paperwork to cover. You did want your new project to be legitimate and easy to register didn’t you? So the importer/dealer now has a crate of ‘cheap’ bikes? Not exactly. He or his agents had to track down, inspect, assess and negotiate each and every machine, and these activities come at a price. Then there’s the costs of running the dealer’s premises and his staff to pay. Suddenly that $500 barn find is going up in price. Now consider the network of smaller dealers and specialists who buy direct from the importer/dealer. They have a living to earn out of this as well. Many of these guys will buy up all the junk bikes... the ones missing wheels, front ends, tanks or whatever. Why? Because they have others back at base that will be donors to or recipients of the parts. Again, another often unseen cost, and these guys will also have business overheads. Should anyone think this is all just hokum and flannel, perhaps it’s worth trying to import a bike as an individual? This column has been there, done that, got the T-shirt, etc. It’s not cheap, easy or quick, and the chances of buying a real, genuine, inflation-proof bargain are somewhere between zero and bugger all. Seriously! By all means haggle with your friendly dealer, bike trader, importer and the like, but be prepared and be realistic. These guys have a bottom line, mouths to feed and families to look after. We all love a bargain but, in our classic world, they’re getting fewer by the day.