Good places to look for bikes offline.

[koolio]

This is specific to old school bikes really so late 70s and older really.

I've had varied success buying bikes online and I get somewhat pissed off with people flogging crap with vague but suggestive descriptions and blurry photos not to mention the overinflated prices you get specifically on ebay with older bikes. 1 out of 3 bikes I've bought online I would say are true to the value of what they should be.

I prefer selling at a reasonable price and buying at a real value face to face, only trouble is this is a rare random occurence, like talking to someone in a shop about bikes and then discovering they want to flog something (doesn't happen everyday let alone every year).

Wanted to ask if anyone knows of any good sources or ideas for hunting down bikes, people say local papers? But I have no idea what kind of papers these bikes come up in! Looking around Lancashire for example??

[jjdugen]

The 'classic' scene is nearly done to death. Anything with a reg letter at the end seems to command daft prices. Even Hondas worst bike ever, the absolutely crap in every department G5 250 is being hawked as a 'classic Honda', when, in actual fact, they were bad when new and just get badder with any form of usuage.
Anything good was snapped up years ago, now you are left with the rusting wrecks holding up an old chicken coop.
Even the eighties stuff is now 'collectable', if you really want the spaggeti frame, non working brakes, dodgy electrics buzz. When garbage like MZ's are starting to fetching quite serious money its time to leave it to the serious nutters.
Look to the ones overlooked from the 90's, anything other than a Fireblade was considered second best, but the FZR's and GSR's were damn good bikes, just not in the same league as the 'blade. Here is a tip, look for a Moto Guzzi, any of them. Simple to work on and can be made to look quite appealing. I'm open to suggestions for any other worthy machinery.
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The CBR900RR has been sold. Aprilia Falco worms its way into my heart.
Try Soi 23 on Amazon for a good read.... Self promotion? Moi?

[junglejim]

[spetom]

[Jamey]

The value of something is simply what people are willing to pay.

If buyers are prepared to pay more than they were a couple of years ago then the simple fact is the value has gone up, because that's what value means - what people will pay for something.

The issue here seems to be that you don't think the items are worth that money, and therefore the value you place on them is lower than the value other people are placing on them, so the seller ends up selling to somebody other than you as they can make more money.

That's not something you can do much about unless you want to pay more competitive prices.

I doubt there's some secret stash of cheap bikes waiting for you to come along and start buying them. The only advantage of buying "offline" is that you have less people looking at the item because it's restricted to people who are physically in the vicinity, whereas an eBay auction can be viewed by anyone in the world.

That's why sellers with half a brain sell online - they have more people interested so the value automatically jumps up to whatever the highest bidder will pay.

Seems to me that if you want cheap bikes you pretty much have to find the most local, unpopular, restricted sources you possibly can and hope that something you want turns up in that source. And even then it's pot luck as to whether you're competing against another buyer who places a higher value on it than you do.

Here endeth the lesson.

[.Chris.]

Classic Motorcycle Mechanics magazine has a reasonable classified ads section, but obviously won't be specific to your area. Old Bike Mart might be worth a look, too.
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Chris
1985 Kawasaki Z550F

[koolio]

[Jamey]

Cool story bro, and best of luck finding your offline stash through an internet forum.

[koolio]

[Babba]

If you're after old, unused & forgotten/neglected (but once cherished) bikes that have been stored in the backs of garages or under tarp's for the past 20yrs, & aren't even necessarily for sale, then you can't get any better intel' than window cleaners.

Binmen used to be good in the days when they actually moved the bin from the backyard.

Bought a good many bikes this way in the past.