Is $300 too much for a motorized bicycle?

hambro

hambro

New Member
I've been building these bikes for over a year now and I love building them. I can't afford to keep filling my garage up with bikes that I build so that means I can't keep them all no matter how much I love them. My wife says I can't build anymore until I sell the ones I have so I put them on the market. Here's where the $300 comes in: Today I loaded three bikes into the back of a pickup truck and took them up to the busiest grocery store parking lot in my area. I gave out a hundred cards with my phone number on it and spoke with at least 150 people who were interested in the bikes. Of course everyone wanted to know how much I wanted for the bikes and my cheapest one is for sale for $300 dollars. It's a Murray Westport cruiser that I totally rebuilt from the ground up. I have 250 bucks in the bike including the engine but when I tell people I want $300 for it they look at me like I've lost my mind. What do these people expect for this kind of money? You can't build a Huffy cranbrook with a new 66cc engine on it for much less than 200 bucks and thats buying the bottom shelf ebay engine. These people think that because I built these bikes in my garage that they deserve to buy them at garage sell prices I guess. Sorry folks I guess I'm just venting a litttle but it really pisses me off. :)
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

It's kinda messed up but oddly 'nuff true that sometimes you can sell stuff for too little and freak people out *shrug* It's happened to me a coupla times when selling tools and stuff (everythin' must go moving sale). When ppl see a almost new $500 item fer $75 or so - they think "OMG what's wrong w/it?" and bicker, mebbe even tryin' fer less.

I almost wonder ifn ya'd be better off puttin' "$500 OBO" on it and letting them "negotiate" you down to your actual selling price?

OFC in the world we live in, 80% of resale value is appearance alone - doesn't matter how well it works so long as it looks good sittin' there lol How 'bout a few pics of the bikes yer tryin' to sell?
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

I have seen complete bike kits for $830 from a reputable dealer, also made/assembled in a garage!
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

glad to hear.... im a chronic undercutter of myself..

the lesson to be learned in the above 3 posts is mentioned in the first or second post. Too cheap freaks people out!

I bet you would get more seriousness out of people by holding some sort of ground at a respectable price! chase away the tire kickers, reel in the deal strikers. Somewhere in between there should be a little bit of paper with the fine print :)


i have sold one bike for $180 (quick sale, i forced it onto the buyer and he took it and never came back, so i guess it was alright lol) and one that i recently bought back for $350, and got $400 for initially. And the guy who bought it for that much was given a "buddy price" if you know what that means. I felt like i made a worthy sale. Only reason i bought it back was the guy didnt know what he was doing and admitted to me he was over his head lol

*edit: Bottom line, dont undercut your hard work and sell your creations for toy store prices. These are custom built, one off machines! ****, if we had to buy the kits by the tens i bet these things would sell for a grand.
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

My thought as well, if someone thinks its to good to be true, it usually is, i dont believe thats true, but when i do get a "to good to be true deal" i wonder if the item is stolen, i recently picked up a specialized rockhopper complete bike for dirt cheap!!! and dont forget the amount of time you have invested in each one of your builds as time is money!!! Good Luck
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

I couldn't sell the bikes I build for less that $800 and make any profit at all. Even at $1000 I'd be making less than $5 an hour for my labor.

Deathcycle.jpg The-Black-Mamba.jpg hurricane.jpg
 
Last edited:
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

Fourty plus years of restoring antique furniture and selling antiques has proven what everyone has said is right.

People are funny in as much as they value what they buy, by what they pay.
At $300 you are selling to the bargain hunters who will only drive you down. At $800/1,000 you are selling to the serious buyers who won't be looking for bikes at a grocery store parking lot. Great to show them off but not to sell.

If you can, rent a storage room with electricity and put a carpet on the floor with two or three bikes. That way you can show people after work if you have lights in the room and it keeps the people away from your house so the crooks can't get to the source. A lesson I learned the hard way.
Seems if you beat thier brains out thier ears, crooks have rights.

Best of luck.

Steve.
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

My new motor alone is $370.00 American for my Island Hopper.....there are mountain bikes out there wthout motors that cost all the way up to 25 thousand.

$300 sounds awfully cheap for a complete bike with motor. I paid $600 just for my front fork and that was on half price sale.

I was in a store once when I saw just a frame!!! It was priced at $3,000.00
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

yup. I sell my cheapest for $600 with lights and secondary brakes already on (from a standard beach cruiser) and people here stick their nose up to it. I explain that the bike,engine, and parts run up to $500-$550 and that the rest is for the labor and they STILL go all craptacular on the idea. Usually I just end up saying "OK, go check out how much a 49-66cc moped/scooter costs and get back to me." Even more funny - when they go and buy the kits themselves then wind up calling/emailing me for help. I tell 'em it'll be $20/hr if they want me to do the build for them.

I think that we as builders need to start talking about our prices we sell these for, because really it's the people that sell them for $300 that lead to the buyers thinking you're swindling them if you ask a reasonable higher price. Unless you're taking the cheapest engine possible and using used crusty bikes (how many have I seen on Craigslist??) there's no way you're making any scratch off of selling that cheap, and it just bamboozles the rest of the market..
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

i've just been in the garage for the last two hours making gas tank mounts out of a solid block of urethane, with nothing more than a torch and a carpet knife to cut it, and a grinding wheel attached to a drill. my nose and clothes are still full of lead paint and 80 year old rust, copper dust, urethane shavings, and rattle can overspray, all in the attempt to make one of the greatest motorized bikes in recent history.

and you're at the grocery store trying to give away bikes like it's some kinda promotional item you get with a coupon off the back of a candy bar wrapper.

around here, Craigslist is full of people dumping department store bikes, with no custom work done at all, for the prices you're asking. i dunno who's buying, but the ads disappear, so somebody must be.

then there's companies like Ridley, Strider Rides and Deringer, that slap on moped tanks, paint them pretty, and maybe make some fancy CNC'd parts, and sell them for ridiculous prices. and there's a market for those.

then there's me. people ask me about my bikes, and when i tell them i won't take less then $1200, they roll their eyes and say "there's a guy giving them away at the supermarket." or, "i saw one on craigslist for 250..."

i'm not (really) trying to sound harsh, but it's people building cheap bikes and trying to flood the market that really grinds my gears.

if you rebuilt your Murray into a quality bike, you shouldn't be selling it for $300 unless you need to feed your family or a drug addiction.

i guess what i'm trying to say, is don't sell yourself short.

if i were selling a bike for 300, it'd be a spraypainted thriftstore bike, and an old engine in a greasy box. let them put it together...
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

lol - each and every post so far has been the gawd honest truth.. and is exactly why I won't sell 'em ;)

It's a good thing people do - don't get me wrong, it'd just drive me insane :p
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

Too MUCH? I'd say way too LITTLE! I've got $1,500 into mine...and that's not counting the price of the bike (that I bought at auction for $90) or any of the time/planning that I spent getting it together. Granted, mine is a fully outfitted Staton rack mount setup....but $300 is NOT too much to ask for anything motorized. I would say you take what you have into it in dollars and double that amount, which will help pay for the TIME that you spent building and tweaking it....and THAT would be a good deal for the buyer. Seriously.

Warner
 
Last edited:
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

Saw on CL a guy advertising u buy the bike and motor, I'll put it together for $60-$65
I assume this is only to hook them and by the time the buyer is done it cost them a lot!
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

i don't see how he could be "luring" them in with anything on that ad, Russell. If they buy all the bits themselves outright, he's just charging labor, and 60-65 bucks for that isn't really a bad deal, is it?
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

I bought the Huffy for my MB for $25 used. I figure that I have more than $250 in parts, and at least $300 in labor into my MB. I haven't had time to ride it much. In any case, I don't think I could sell sell it for what I would consider a reasonable price. Therefore, I'll just keep it for tinkering. Maybe in 25 yrs it will be an antique and I'll be able to get something for it. Fortunately, I didn't build it for the money. It's been educational and a much needed stress reliever, which is priceless.
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

Momentumgroup,
Well if you think that putting a MB together for $60 to 65 bucks is reasonable, I am doing something very wrong.
You are going to loose 1-2 hrs. just in communication befor the job is done. Then installing the cheap rubber & sprocket, your going to tie up an hr.(that is if you don't have to open up the bore on the sprocket. Now you have to mount the motor, another Hr. if the tubes are right and things fit. Now we have the carb, cable, throttle another hr. to get it right. Clutch, cable and adjustment a weak hr. if all goes right. Now let' mount the coil, spark plug, wire the kill sw, ground the cdi another hour if it fires ok when you finish, if not more time. Did you gap that plug? Shorten the chain or even worse lenghten it! Then the famous chain tensioner, to get those right another one or mor hrs. Chain guard, does it fit?
You can nit pick some of the things and times I've stated but the potential of these being longer are much greater than shorter.
Perhaps I just put too much value on my time, but it's certinly worth more than that!
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

Well here's the deal, I bought some used bikes, rebuilt them, even bought a brand new Huffy at the goodwill that was donated to them by walmart because the kickstand was broken. I bought that bike for 13 bucks and it was brand new. I put a 7 dollar kickstand on it. bought a 66cc BGF engine for it for 110 bucks did an outstanding job building it and sold it for 300 dollars. Thats 170 bucks for my labor and it took three hours to build it. My biggest problem with selling the bikes here is that they are not legal and I live in the middle of a bunch of broke ass rednecks who drink all their money up. I've decided from now on to build them on an as needed basis and sell them for at least 500 bucks from now on. If these people don't want to spend that kind of money on my bikes them screw em they don't deserve my bikes anyway. Nuff said.
 
Re: Is $300 too much for a MB?

Here is one of my bikes that I have for sale for $320 dollars. It took about 10 hours to rebuild the bike from the ground up and about 120 bucks. Then installed a 66cc engine for another 120 bucks. I have 240 dollars in the bike so I'll potentially make 80 bucks for my labor and these turds don't think it's worth it? Screw em, the price just went up.
 

Attachments

  • !cid__downsized_0130001955a.jpg
    !cid__downsized_0130001955a.jpg
    20.7 KB · Views: 138
  • !cid__downsized_0204002254.jpg
    !cid__downsized_0204002254.jpg
    25.2 KB · Views: 165
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top