| Author | Message | ||
     Milar |
I'm headed tomorrow, but watched some of the auction today on the internet. Here are the results for 4 tuber's. 1997 M2 Sold for $1100. https://www.mecum.com/lots/LV0118-314501/1997-buel l-m2-cyclone/ 1996 S2T sold for $2800. https://www.mecum.com/lots/LV0118-325457/1996-buel l-s2t-thunderbolt/ 1995 S2: Bid to $2700. Did not meet reserve. https://www.mecum.com/lots/LV0118-314573/1995-buel l-s2-thunderbolt/ 2001 Lightning: Bid to $3K. Did not meet reserve. https://www.mecum.com/lots/LV0118-325458/2001-buel l-x1-cyclone/ Mike | ||
| Williamscottrobertson |
Was that a blast windscreen on the M2 lol | ||
| Lake_bueller |
Damn those are some cheap prices. Especially for that S2T. | ||
| Williamscottrobertson |
Yeah, tube frames are at the bottom, I hope. They don’t bring bo-diddly. It seems like they would be more desired because of the XL motor and parts availability with H-D vs the Buell only XB. I haven’t seen an XB (12) in decent shape listed for less than $4k lately. | ||
| Odd |
Just means I can afford to buy more tube frames! | ||
| Bsanorton |
oh man that S2T was sweet and the price was fantastic! Can you bid online? | ||
| Andy350 |
Yes but it costs $200 to register as a bidder | ||
| Milar |
Prices have been very, very strong. A 1969 BSA Rocket 3 hammered $21,000. A first year Katana 1000 for $14,000. A Black Lightning at Bonhams for around $850,000. I suspect the prices on the tubers reflect current value. The X1 and S1 went to the "and bid goes on corral" where sellers can take offers. The X1 sold there, likely for less than the $3,000 bid. The S2 is still for sale as of Friday night. Mike | ||
| Ltbuell |
...dang it that its not televised.... | ||
| Hootowl |
Bitcoin used to sell for pennies. I’m holding on to my tubers. | ||
| Ebutch |
Milar thanks 4 posting.  | ||
| 1313 |
 Will be DELAYED television coverage... | ||
| 1313 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMirroXLsF4 | ||
| Ebutch |
 | ||
| Blackm2 |
On that youtube link, Buells/EBR's of interest begin at 6:53:45 Whomever bid 6000 on a Blast didn't know what the hell they were bidding on. | ||
| Led |
Yea....I cannot sell my Tuber for what the market is today. I don't understand why they have no value? I will be long dead before they will realize any collector value.....  | ||
| Big_jim59 |
I paid $2700 to join the Buell M2 club. It was the 2002 model in complete but well used shape and the seller was a bit apologetic. He said that he would entertain "offers." I could have gotten it for less but it was the bike I wanted and I thought the price was fair. I have the feeling the the bike market is soft but that's just my feeling. I have a 2005 Honda VTR Superhawk for sale at $2600 and a Honda CB1000 Big One also listed on CL for $2600 and have been offered $2000 for each one. These are nice bikes but i don't think people have any cash. | ||
| Gvelox |
Welcome to the club Big Jim. The U.S. motorcycle market is soft. It peaked in 2006 and never recovered. There's an interesting graph here: https://www.statista.com/statistics/183549/us-sale s-of-motorcycles-since-1990/ The younger generation aren't into them. I live in a college town and there are a lot of bikers but they all seem to be old guys like me. When I ask youngsters if they're interested in motorcycles a lot of them say they'd be afraid to ride. Here's a quote from a recent article about the industry problems: "many millennial consumers were 'bubble-wrapped for safety in their youth' or raised by overprotective parents who discouraged risk-taking" The full article is here: http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-mot orcycle-summit-20171214-story.html The article does a good job of pointing out other industry problems including a broken dealership model. | ||
| Gobadgers |
Thank you for the articles George. One quote stood out in the LA Times article that I have wondered about myself: “There is a very real risk of motorcycling being completely cut out of the conversation for future vehicle infrastructure systems,” the panel concluded. “The single biggest threat to motorcycling overall … will be the incompatibility between autonomous vehicles and existing motorcycles.” | ||
| Upthemaiden |
That's something that's always on my mind. Someday all the cars on the road will be self driving and electric(or something entirely different, but not gasoline). I'll be perfectly content on an electric motorcycle, almost looking forward to them, but someday decades down the line they're going to stop selling gasoline for vehicles and they're going to only allow self driving cars on the road. I'd love the thought of spending a good part of my retirement in the garage working on old motorcycles, but there's a realistic opportunity that 25 years from now the roads are going to be very different. I know Honda makes a motorcycle that can drive itself. Not sure what that would really be like to ride though. It'd be more like a rollercoaster than a motorcycle, and chances of you getting tossed when it made a sudden swerve to avoid something in the road, are pretty good. Motorcycling might become entirely off-road, between MX and track bikes, and even at that they'll all be electric and any therapeutic benefits of sitting in your garage with a bunch of wrenches will be gone. | ||
| Court |
There are also a group of us . . . who, at this point in our lives . . . . are much more interested in "old" bikes for nostalgic reasons. I've kinda done the same with guitars . . . decorating with a variety of iconic guitars from the 60's. I've been doing the same thing with cars . . . bought 4 the last year and 1 was an "old" MGA to replace a fun but pricey to service German sports car. I can have the MGA completely serviced for 1/4th the price of an oil change in a Porsche. I'm on the hunt for a museum quality Honda CL77 305 Scrambler and a Honda S90. I've also got a bug for a BSA 441 Victor Special but suspect wisdom will prevent the actual purchase of the BSA. I've not a bad word to say about anyone buying the current crop of new bikes, including Harley-Davidson. I owned 9 at one time once . . . including a 1983 XR-1000 and 1977 XLCR Cafe' Racer than I bought the same day. They were a blast in their time . . . I had a great time and got paid to ride bikes in 44 states. But . . . . these days . . . I confess that the 1952 Cushman 711 Highlander holds as much trill as a brand spanking new $35,000 Harley FLH. Times are changing. | ||
| Gobadgers |
It will be interesting to see when California lane-splitting meets the autonomous vehicle. Further, how does the autonomous vehicle handle a grain truck parked halfway on the road in the fall, miss manure dropped on the road, or see that deer converging across the field to the side of you or distinguish between a deer and cow, one that can jump the fence and the other not. Court, share sentiments. I enjoy the bike, but it has become more about the ride. Enjoy riding thru the countryside and find I can put on a 100 miles without even thinking about it. | ||
| Upthemaiden |
I just saw an article the other day about lanesplitting and all of the automation in cars. I don't think I read the whole thing but I believe the general idea of the article was that it could be a plus for lanesplitting because cars and bikes could send information and the car would know they were coming. I remember an incident here in Pittsburgh where google was testing their self driving cars(as well as Uber). Someone on a bicycle stopped at a 4 way intersection with stop signs. He was doing a trackstand(balancing without putting a foot down, but not moving more than an inch or two in either direction), and the car didn't know what to think of it. I think they sat there in a stalemate. I have no idea how that event was big enough to make it into the news, but just points out that there's certainly unexpected circumstances and it's going to take them a long time to work out the kinks. | ||
| Gmaple |
Look at the soft motorcycle market this way. Right now you can buy a Ducati, Guzzi, Buell , etc.. for pennies on the dollar. You can buy just about any cool motorcyle out there cheap. At Mid Ohio I walked away from a Ducati ST4 that had 11000 miles and cosmetically was perfect for $1800. Ran great. I wish i had bought it! If your Buell doubles in price will u sell it? Most probably would not. | ||
| Big_jim59 |
There is word of a Harley-Davidson Livewire release in 2019. According to surveys, 75% of Millennial responded favorably to the thought of owning an electric bike. With brands like Tesla already breaking barriers to perception, I believe that the electric bike is here to stay. I have ridden a Zero and was mightily impressed. All we need now is charging infrastructure. Yep, I figure that I am going to have to lower the price on my bikes to move them but I will be driving a harder bargain if I buy any more bikes in the future. | ||
| Court |
>>>> I am going to have to lower the price on my bikes to move Do what I am doing . . . . I am putting chains on a Ulysses and hanging it from a tree as a swing for my grandchildren. You can sell them . . turn them into art . . . as long as the horn honks . . you're good to go. | ||
| H0gwash |
"Exclusive ride on first self-driving motorbike", or so claims UK based Sky news at https://news.sky.com/story/exclusive-ride-on-first -self-driving-motorbike-11406397 "...The bike swayed from side to side until it picked up speed - but the rest of the route was smooth, writes Sky's Thomas Moore." "...for now the prototype is being used in conjunction with AB Dynamics to test how autonomous cars react to motorbikes. Currently checks are done with soft targets, such as foam cut-outs, because the risk to a human rider would be too great." | ||
| Upthemaiden |
I'm having a hard time even wrapping my mind around the self-driving motorcycles, that'll probably be when I throw in the towel. I know Honda made one, and I fully get the concept of how they work, I just don't quite know about the user experience. You can sit as a passenger in a car... butt on the seat, feet on the floor, leaned back against the back rest, with your seat belt on, and not worry about what the car is doing. I can't imagine being perched on a motorcycle, and still getting any joy out of being on something that might have to throw itself a foot in either direction to have to try to avoid on obstacle. I think about the drastic movement it takes to swerve around an unexpected pothole, and picture myself trying to hold on to a motorcycle doing that when I don't expect it the next time a rabbit hops out in front of it. It doesn't sound enjoyable. I know a computer can think and respond much faster than a human, but if you've ever ridden with a passenger on the back of your bike, you know that sometimes even human speed reactions make it easy to catch someone off guard. I really look forward to electric motorcycles. They have a downside... they'll no longer have that therapeutic affect of spending a weekend working on the engine, and of course there's always the charging issue, but that really isn't an issue at all for me as a commuter since I consistently ride 25 miles a day, it'd be pretty easy to keep up with charging. |
