My bike is a future classic because...

[Poseidon]

The game is simple and inspired by every other advert on ebay/autotrader claiming that their rusty heap of shit is a future classic, a perfect example of a barn find that will only increase in value once fully restored. Rather than being told what will be a classic by someone trying to offload their failed project for a hopelessly inflated price, I wonder what people who do not have a vested interested the value of their bike think about its classic status.

If you have an interesting bike that in a few years will increase in value, be the envy of collectors/enthusiasts and cause friendly men with beards to flock towards you and strike up a conversation about your machine, then here's your chance to state the case for your bike.

There's no criteria for what makes it a classic (looks, performance, rarity etc)... That is for you to decide when justifying the future classic status of your steed. The only rule is that the bike must've been in production within the last 20years (Footman James criteria for classic insurance) and therefore technically not yet a classic. That's not to say your bike must be under 20years old, just that your model was still in production less than 20 years ago. Obviously not everyone will agree with you, but therein lies the essence of the game. People can refute your assertions, counter your points etc etc. It's just a bit of daft on a fairly mundane weekend.

Naturally, I wouldn't have started such a thread if I didn't want to put forward my own case (call it a mixture of curiosity, vanity and boredom) so here goes:



The T375 Triumph Trident (1991-1998).

https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Gallery%20%20A/Triumph%20Trident%20750%2090.jpg

In its day, the poor relative/bratty younger sibling of the 900. Unwanted due to its lesser capacity. Why get the 750 when the 900 is the same weight, dimensions and more powerful to boot (not to mention the 900's throatier sound). But it is the very fact it was overlooked that makes this little gem a future classic worthy of the name. It's rare. You don't see very many for sale and even fewer on the road. Add on to that the fact that actually, the 750 is only a couple or so horses short of the 900's power and the increased rev range of the 750 means it has an added level of grin factor, when those on the 900 would've had to clutch in and kick it up a cog.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and arguably, the tridents were not a pretty bike. But they are undeniably triumph in their nature and they were there for the glorious return of what has become one of the most desireable marques of our time. This ladies and gentleman helped triumph rise from the ashes of history, just like the proverbial phoenix. This bike is a little slice of British history. It is massively over engineered, making it feel as safe and reliable as your grandma's Sunday roast. It's fun to ride too. In this age of supersonic two wheelers, with 200mph easily achieved by anyone with a few grand to spare and the knowledge to apply a couple of modifications, the trident is happiest when pushed along at not much above legal speeds. Buffeting the rider enough to make him feel like he's flying, even at speeds that wont cost you your licence. Cornering is not a knee down, death defying feat that makes you double check whether or not you have adequate life insurance for your loved ones each time you hit a bend. The trident is more playful than that... More like an energetic young springer spaniel. Sturdy enough to take a good bit of rough and tumble and it just keeps begging for more without any hint of aggression in its nature.

Finally, they had an Achilles heel. That damned sprag clutch. A very delicate part that meant when these bikes hit the bottom of their price curve, enough were scrapped/stripped/lost to the annals of time to ensure they keep their rarity as time goes on (and give you plenty to talk about when the friendly bearded chaps have you cornered). This fact, coupled with almost all parts being interchangeable with the more common 900 tridents and trophys, will ensure a solid supply of spares. This will not be a museum piece with owners too afraid to ride it for fear of breaking something. It's not destined to live its life under a blanket and only wheeled out to be polished or put on a pedestal at shows.

So there we go. My case for the modern Trident 750. Rare, well built, interesting, iconic, useable and already increasing in value. Having spent its life living in the shadow of its bigger brother, this plucky little machine is ready to step into the limelight. And lets face it, everyone loves an underdog!
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1977 Honda CG125
2002 Ducati Monster S4 (currently restoring)

[kgm]

Good thread idea! Unfortunately I can't see my ER6 being a classic. Maybe the CG125 in a long time because they're a little iconic in their own sense but I can't see it ever being valuable as such. I think my 1980 CX500 is already a classic, they've started to appreciate but I think that's partly thanks to the cafe racer thing that's going on just now.

[Polarbear]

Excellent idea

Unfortunately none of my stable will ever be classics.

My Trophy, while a wonderful bike, just isn't the sort of thing to invoke feelings of longing and lust.

Fazer 600, to common and too UJM.

ER6N, probably, amazingly the one most likely to (one very future day) ever to be called a classic.

I've owned many bikes that are now regarded as classics/desirable. Sadly when I owned them they weren't and hindsight is a wonderful thing.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[M.C]

Mine will because not many were sold and err... that's all I've got They're cheap right now, not long out of production, but there are lots of low mileage bikes about so they probably won't die out as quickly as other models.

[RhynoCZ]

Motorcycles that are available now and will be worth quite a lot of money soon enough:
ZX7R, VTR 1000 SP01/SP02, Ducati 748/996, Zephyr 750/1100, BMW R series (boxers, R45, R65...), Blackbird (not yet) and other motorcycles of this sort. The VTR SP01/SP02 value is already rising.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[chickenstrip]

[ReadySalted]

It always makes me laugh when people offer bikes up (which are just old) as future classics. I think a general rule of thumb is that bikes which will end up being 'classics' and worth a bob or two one day will actually be cheap as chips today.

Think of classic mini's, old landrovers etc. 10-15 years ago they could both be had for a couple of hundred quid. Only recently have people started to offload them for much higher prices due to all the reasons the OP has stated. I think true classics just creep up on you without you knowing.

[rcbikeracer]

MuZ Skorpion, every time I park up them bearded bikers appears. and if the rain stops its going to the Teesside classic bike show this afternoon.

[chickenstrip]

[andyscooter]

mine will be as they seem to have stopped making them

https://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb129/andyscooters/14390922_10154595208243854_1457235843546072517_n_zpsg23c1y2l.jpg
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gilera runner vxr200 (chavped)
if its spelt wrong its my fat fingers and daft auto correct on my tablet

[Rogerborg]

Enfield, probably not. Positives, it's the very last of the carbed bikes with a separate gearbox before they went all fancy and modern. However, it's not as bad as the iron barrel model, which I think perversely makes it less desirable. Hard to tell, there's too small a market for them.

Nazi Tractor, I doubt it. It's rarer than the 1200 and the (actual) 650, but that's because it doesn't have anything like the cachet (or notoriety). It's just a very decent bike that gets overlooked in favour of the proper midlife-crisismobile.

Ninja 250 is probably the best bet. It's a decent enough bike, but it doesn't have anything like enough performance to qualify as a bonkers toy. However, a significant number of bikers will have had one (or something similar) at some point while going through the old 25kW/33bhp licensing, so it might have some nostalgia value on that basis. That's why I got it, to recapture my lost middle age (4 years ago).
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[ZX-7R]

CX500 according to two deluded sellers in this weeks MCN.

1979 - 32300 miles - £4800

1981 - 26000 miles - £5500

Probably about double what the pieces of crap were brand new.

I could buy 3 ZX-7R's for £5500.
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Current Bike - 2000 ZX-7R

[-]

Just about any 2T sports production bike. Sitting in the shed doing nothing, they'll keep going up in value for a while now.

Some of the early 90's larger sportsbikes seem to be creeping up now. Fireblades etc... I have an old YZF750R in Boost colours in the garage, not worth huge money, but seems to be worth more than the £900 I paid for it a few years ago.

I suppose they have to be past icons, which people still want.

Even C50/70/90 Honda's can fetch good money now, when I was a kid, we used to buy them to ride on rough ground because they were cheap, plentiful and reliable.
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TZR250 2MA road, TZR250 1KT road, TZR250 2MA race, TDR250, YZF-750R Boost colours.
Jaguar S Type 3.0 V6 Sport R, VW Transporter T5 GP LWB Shuttle 140ps DSG.

[ZX-7R]

[M.C]

[ZX-7R]

You know once Practical Sportsbikes do a feature that any bike 20+ years old will be doubled in price by the sellers even if they were rubbish when they were being sold new.
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Current Bike - 2000 ZX-7R

[c_dug]

I don't own one, but I'm pretty confident that one day the ZX7R will be a sought after classic - It's looks are iconic, maybe not to everyone's tastes but personally I've lusted after one for years. I can think of many other 90's/00's Japanese sports bikes that get spoken about with such fondness, K5 GSXR1000 aside.

Personally, I currently have a Tuono 125 which will no doubt appreciate a little, I'm unsure if it'll be more or less valuable than the better known RS125, but I got it for a decent price so I don't have much to lose anyway.

I keep toying with modifying it, but as it stands it is very clean, and is bog standard full power - I can't see modifications adding much in terms of speed or value.
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[lingeringstin...]

My crappy 1976 MZ is apparently a highly desireable classic bike, or at least it WOULD be if I spent about four grand totally restoring it back to showroom (ugh!) condition. I've been watching with irate amazement as MZ shitheaps get bought and sold all over Ebay for stupid money much like Bantams did just before they went entirely extinct BECAUSE THEY WERE SHIT AND NOT WORTH THAT SORT OF MONEY.

I don't care how old or "unique" an MZ is, it's just a terribly dull bike originally manufactured on a budget as disposeable transport for a grim communist populace who couldn't get anything else.

Nowadays they've mostly all been snapped up by The Midlife Crisis Brigade who have hoarded garages full of Ebay MZ tat bought for FAR too much money and then they "build" (or have somebody build for them) a bog standard 1974 TS250 out of bits, spending far too much money on getting the insignificant little details absolutely correct (No, you're WRONG! They didn't paint the widget screw adapter until 1977!) in the end riding the thing twice a year to some cafe or layby where other sad old bastards congregate on Sunday afternoons to stand and stare at each other's bikes, and then once the magic has worn off (very quickly with an MZ I would think) they try to flog these "showroom" abominations back on Ebay for insane prices.

Once a bike's "worth" exceeds it's worth as a bike it is doomed. An old shitty bike is worth far more in FUN than as a monetary investment.

The upshot is that, like Bantams, MZ's will now totally disappear from use because nobody in their right mind would pay THAT much for THAT bike and they will sit unsold and unused in garages rusting away until the old bloke dies and his kids have it hauled off to the tip and sadly something that should have been a source of cheap fun and transport for new test pass riders evaporates like a fart in the wind and the only affordable thing left to new riders are cheap secondhand Chinese scooters that only serve to put anybody off bike riding forever.

The only thing still original on my unintentional ratbike is what's left of the frame, and although it's not worth a fiver to anybody I love it BECAUSE it's worth nothing, cheap to operate, easy to fix and totally unique. It gets me from A to B reliably with a smile for peanuts and I will ride and enjoy it even though it will never be a classic anything and will never, thankfully, become a museum piece bought and sold by classic bike nerds who never actually use it.

Ironically many of the bits on my bike that at the time you couldn't give away are now "worth" something, such as the classic BSA petrol tank, the vintage Japanese TLS front wheel, the classic car SU carb and the vintage air in the tyres.

[-]

[Howling Terror]

No way did I think the FS1E would be a classic, nor my old CB250RS which was used by the post office as a courier bike. Or the XL125 'farmer's bike' I first had.

Or the MKII Ford Escort or my old Vauxhall Chevette.

The Ducati ST2 is no way a future classic...

The Honda CBR600RR is a future classic. As it is to be discontinued.

Just remembered my first go on a 50cc Puch. Now a Classic.
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Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[Suntan Sid]

AFAICT "classic" status bikes fall into 2 categories.

Category 1:-

Bikes that sold in huge numbers, new and second hand, when they were contemporary. They were used, abused, crashed, bashed and finally scrapped or hidden at the back of a garage when they became uneconomical to repair.

Category 2:-

Specials, Limited editions and bikes that were considered cutting edge, when they were contemporary.

So for bikes of the last few years, from category 1, I'd say the SV650! Sold by the lorry load, used and abused etc. and when the generation that bought them invest in their rose tinted specs, when they hit 50, they 'll want to relive their yoof! Probably Striple's as well.

From category 2, I'd say the cross plane R1 and the Panigale R.

All IMO, of course.
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"Everybody needs money, that's why they call it money!"

[stevo as b4]

My bike don't meet your qualifying criteria as it's only been out of production for 14years now. Mine is 30years old tho and one of the first ones sold in the UK.

I agree with mpd in that anything sporty or fun that's two stroke will be a classic no matter if it's a H100 or NS400R for example. Some will always be cheap and relatively affordable like RXS100's etc, some like RGV250 VJ23's will be very expensive as they are so rare, and also because they were the last of the breed not the first. VJ21's are much cheaper and less sought after than 23's despite being 18years older etc.

Arguing my own case for the KMX I think it will be a sought after one of many 80's 125's simply because it was from the early days of the 12bhp law, and nearly every 125 was a de-restrictable smoker too. I think the 12bhp 80's-90's 125 is the next big class of small bikes that will go silly in terms of prices and nostalgia as the 40 somethings want their first hooligan stroker back.

Add to that 125's in the 80's were full of either race derived technology or Motocross tech ad thats what made them sell. The innovation in the class was every bit as competitive as it was in the 750cc superbike class, and the 250cc sports production strokers, but just the spec and quality of the parts was a little watered down to make them cheap enough to sell. Stuff like no adjustment on your USD forks and a cheaper rear shock for the single sided swing arm etc.

[kgm]

[Poseidon]

[ScottT]

This classic market is due to mostly the over 50's who now have spare money buying bikes they either rode when they were younger, or bikes they wanted when they were younger.

If this type of thing continues then in 20-30yrs time a sports 600 from the last 10-15yrs will be very sought after and worth a few quid. The sports 600 is this generations version of the 250 two strokes from the 70's & 80's, the generation before that had Bantams.

The other thing, given the prices old Japanese bikes sell for these days as people relive their youth, back in the late 70's you could pick up a good FS1E for £150-200 or less, now its £2000+. Even odd bikes, i keep seeing Honda 50's (PC, Express etc) going for £500 now and the Cub reaching silly money, they made 60 million of them, there cant be a shortage of them!!!
If i was 30yrs younger i would be filling a garage with a selection of Chinese bikes, the amount of youngsters riding around on Chinese 50's - 125's there might be a good market for them in 30yrs time when they have the money to relive their youth and you can pick them up for next to nothing at the moment.