What's Your Bike Worth

Hehe.

Yeah, I tell people I didn't get to be a millionaire by spending lots of dough. I gots me a 2003 Taurus in the driveway.

A guy I worked with told me that I was "The Millionaire Next Door" which caused me to look it up. Yup, that's me. I didn't fall into the "middle class trap" of needing to impress people.

He drove me home on my last day of work (I retired) and when we pull up in front of my place with the ratty lawn and the sawhorse workbench on the front porch I says to him;

"Does it look like a millionaire lives here, total stealth baby"

He just busted out laughing.

Pops told me when I was young "Son, you can make a million a year but if you spend a million a year you ain't never gonna have crap"

Well he used the "S" word, but you know. Pops was a wise man -

Yeah. I've been saving dough since I was young. I didn't get to be a millionaire by spending lots of dough.

All my bikes are customs and not for sale. I've sold a few Whizzers because they're replaceable and I have more. I enjoy the DIY builds and all the engineering that goes into them. About the money invested, well, I have over $600 in my homemade 2-speed tranny on my race bike, not to mention the bike itself and the motor, etc. etc.
My friend Mike had his Henderson style replica in Hot Rod Magazine and sold it for what he called an unbelievable amount. I can't imagine selling my one of a kind bikes.
As far as value, I would think around $3500 for most of them. But the potential buyers won't see that much value without building one themselves. What I'm trying to say is they're worth a lot more to the builder than you may get offered.

To me, my personal builds are priceless and not for sale. They are built for a specific purpose and the cost in the building of them really has no limit.

With that said, I might sell this race bike for $4,000 cash......



......but not until I race it on October 18th. 2014. And if I should be so lucky as to win another race on this bike again this year........ya might wanna offer me $5,500 It will come with just one first place trophy and neither will be shipped, local pick-up only!

But in reality I only have about $3,000 invested in this machine and more hours than you can imagine. Like I was saying, to me......priceless!

And my only other personal build, along with the awesome tandem (atm) are not for sale......period. (cheap but priceless) It is what it is

If you would like me to build you some sort of custom 4-stroke bike, I can put you on an ever increasing waiting list that has no light at the end of the tunnel, if ya know what I mean.

Mike B said:

Hehe.

Yeah, I tell people I didn't get to be a millionaire by spending lots of dough. I gots me a 2003 Taurus in the driveway.

A guy I worked with told me that I was "The Millionaire Next Door" which caused me to look it up. Yup, that's me. I didn't fall into the "middle class trap" of needing to impress people.

He drove me home on my last day of work (I retired) and when we pull up in front of my place with the ratty lawn and the sawhorse workbench on the front porch I says to him;

"Does it look like a millionaire lives here, total stealth baby"

He just busted out laughing.

Pops told me when I was young "Son, you can make a million a year but if you spend a million a year you ain't never gonna have crap"

Well he used the "S" word, but you know. Pops was a wise man -

Yeah. I've been saving dough since I was young. I didn't get to be a millionaire by spending lots of dough.

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I guess the Taurus is just getting beat too death by the Sun everyday......lucky lawnmower!

EDIT: the only thing in my garage with four wheels is a "skateboard" !

KCvale said:

(just shakes head)
A bike is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Granted $3500 is a lot for a bike but that is not the point...

You contend that adding a motor assist turns an expensive bike into a $25 POS because everything good about them can't be used?

I guess we build differently because all of my 'expensive bicycle' builds take advantage of all the great bicycle parts I have to work with and they don't loose value.

Perfect example sitting in the build bay now.
Well not in the bay, the wheels are too big, but this customer shipped me that Surley Instigator frame with all the good parts he wanted on it.

This is only about half done but you get the jest, over $2K in bike parts that will play nice with a jackshafted Yang Dong (Skyhawk) 66cc to fit the customers needs and budget, which is big.

And that brings us around to the whole point of 'What's your bike worth'...

For many builders here it could be priceless, or it could be something they wouldn't pay $25 for, but worth is what somebody else would pay for it.

You'd be surprised how many wealthy people like a new expensive toy.
Build 'em well and their friends want one too ;-}

Click to expand...

I don't care what they say, that's my dream bike

from my experience, most bikes will sell for about half of what you think they're worth.

labor counts as absolutely nothing to the average customer. spend a day modifying everything so you don't need a chain tensioner, and you just spent a day working for free.

design, cut, weld, seal and paint a custom, in frame gas tank, and your weeks worth of struggle might add 50 bucks to the price. compare that to custom motorcycle tank prices and you'll want to slit yours wrists. same goes for a custom pipe.

average joes see a pretty bike, but not worth more than a walmart death trap cobbled together for a couple hundred.

i got lucky with a few custom bikes and customers with deep pockets and some sense of style, but most people who can't do it themselves see a novelty toy that isn't worth much.

there's a few of you actually making a profit (at least you say you are) but the majority of sellers take what they can get. and that ain't much. especially if you have a cheap cruiser like everyone else's on craigslist.

my 40's colson cruiser i crashed on wouldn't sell after i completely rebuilt it to be better than it ever was, but sold instantly after i took the motor off for a great price.
i've built and sold a lot more motorless bicycles in

stupid phone...as i was typing...

i've built and sold more custom bicycles without motors in the past year for profit than any of the motoered bikes i built in the last 5 years.

i'm pretty jaded now when it comes to building motorbikes. i've got a pile of motors, parts, etc, but i'd rather build and ride a cool custom cruiser i have to pedal.

it's a buyers market. and not that many rich people are buying...

They just keep getting better and better. Keep it coming.

If it came down to it I probably wouldn't sell the cranbrook now that I think about it, I probably need to hold on to it a little longer in case the guy comes back that bought it. But I do think 3 years is long enough to wait. He bought almost everything and then changed jobs, maybe even moved. I finished it putting about $150 in it.

Buying a motorized bike is cheating yourself no matter how cheap you get it.
No pride of workmanship, no idea where it all came from or how it all works..
You might save money but you're missing out on knowledge and satisfaction.
I'd rather do it myself. Then it's really mine.

The simple fact of life here in Memphis is no matter WHAT it cost you in time and parts to build, it's worth about $400 come time to sell it.
That's why I build cheap stock kits. No point in building anything quality here.
I don't build anything I don't want to keep....just in case.

I got mine for $45 (Australian dollars) off a bloke who was not very mechanically able. The chain tensioner had bent in towards the spokes because of all the force. The chain had fallen off and gone between the spokes and the frame, causing the back to lock up. Since I hav lots of old bikes I put new spokes in the back wheel, and my dad made a bar to stop the tensioner from bending in. Then a few months later after getting a flat tire, I was putting the tensioner back on when I stripped the thread of the main bolt. Ended up waiting two weeks for a new tensioner. $17 got be back on the road, even though all I needed was one bolt. It was the bolt for the plastic pulley though. Ive since spent $15 on a puncture resistant rear tube, and thats about it. I wouldnt sell my bike for $400. I got it for a bargain, only spending $77 all year!

I build mine on the cheap too but I do tend to put a lot of time into the engines and the frames to make sure they're strong and reliable. The one I ride I probably got about $500 or so invested in since I bought the bike at a pawn shop for $70 then gota kit off ebay for $139, then a Fred head, and finally a Dax bottom end... and I also bought a better front end since I didn't like those springy cheap shocks that come on those cheap mountainbikes... Since this one isn't for sale there's a ton of labor involved which I couldn't even think about adding into the price if it was for sale, but the ones I see for sale around here go for around $500 to $700 for a basic cruiser bike with an ebay kit installed... Usually the bike is a WalMart special that costs around $120 or so and the kits they use are the standard ebay kits with no extras or upgrades.

Rudz said:

I don't care what they say, that's my dream bike

Click to expand...

It is the customers dream bike as well, he picked out all the bike parts and mailed them to me in boxes from the bare frame up.


http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=56829

I said it before and I'll say it again, a bike is worth what someone is willing to pay to get what they want.

The trick budding builders is show people there are more options than an e-bay engine on a Huffy.