Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

From a recently closed auction on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com:80/ebaymotors/ws/eB ... OTORS:1123

I am amazed at the sums people will pay for rudimentry NOS parts. A NOS
fuel tank, expansion chamber or seat I can understand because of the cost
and skill to recreate a quality example. But even a terrible kickstarter can
be restored to perfect condition, mechanically and cosmetically for a fraction
of the amount paid here.

I guess if I had an unlimited budget and everything had to be new and unused.

I dumped a ton of money on my '73 even though I had to restore probably 50%
of it because of scarcity of parts. I can only imagine what the cost of an all
NOS bike would be.

The lessons learned from that (my first) restoration was to find and learn new
ways to restore instead of replace parts. I am pretty far along on my '79 resto
and it looks like I will spend a third of the amount I spent on the '73 and I think
the bike is turning out nicer.

Here are a couple of pictures of my restored fuel tank ready to mount.

dogger

[img][/img]
[img][/img]

_________________
1973 CR250M
1979 CR250R
1993 CR250R
2008 CR500R
2009 CR250R

Beautiful! How'd you do it?

And where'd you find the stickers?

Seems like these prices for the 73-74 stuff has gotten (really) stupid over the last year or so.. There are a couple of guys (on Ebay) who restore the bikes and put crazy reserves on them and someone buys them... I have looked at some of their past buys on Ebay and they buy the parts (high bids and bid snipping) at crazy amounts. They also have purchases for chinese bearings that they must install in them also... I bought a trashed out 73-74 for $500 and put another $1200 in parts for a total rebuild. I didn't powdercoat every part because I ride it, but it looks good and rides great.. These prices drive up the cost of parts so much you can barely rationalize riding it. I also have a 78-79 that I restored a couple of years ago and bought a complete motor less head for $75.. The "restorers" seem to have gotten to them now! Even if I had the money I could'nt sleep well knowing I paid $8600 for a restored 73-74

Wow..so much for just giving away my CR125 kickstarters. Lets see $700.00 a pop and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & counting!!

w/o getting to politico it is more a function of the way income is spread out now. Was a day when companies would use stock to raise money for capital investment: Things like plant expansion, tooling, et cetera. Now they use it to reward mid level employees on up. Easily 1/2 the people of the company I left eventually became millionaires from stock options. One joker I know now make over $400k/year + stock options. He bought his house 30 years ago so I assume that $400k is pretty much walking around money for doing stuff like buying Honda kick starters.

Wages for working class in some fields have not gone up relative to inflation but holding steady when everyone else is losing is just as good. For instance, ~1985 I was dating a woman who worked as a bailiff and prison guard. She said the top deputy in the county made ~$103k with overtime. Twenty three years later I see law enforcement jobs now start at ~$80k/year and it isn't uncommon for a veteran to make 6 figures.

In my own field, I made ~$40k as a chemist in 1988. I would be lucky to make that now. Problem seems to be if you are anything that can be done overseas which is pretty much everything except law enforcement, management, or essential services like fireman or police, you are taking it in the chops.

Rick

There are a lot of folks that want a reminder or an investment or both, that don't have the time or maybe the skills
to do the job themselves. If they want to pay $$$$ for a restored bike, to each his own. The '73 Elsinore is and
has been a hot item and, like when it was new, eyeryone wants one. As a result of this and the passage of time,
the finite and diminishing supply of bikes and parts are getting more and more expensive. I have noticed this trend
beginning to start with the supply of '78/79 Elsinore parts and bkes.

This is a hobby (though a passionate one) and with that perspective, I can laugh at the prices some people are
willing to pay just to say this is a NOS part.

Frohrs, Lesson learned, don't throw or give away any more parts. If you wait long enough, they will be worth
their weight in gold.

JeffR, Thanks. The decals are available from Vintage Factory (check the resources icon). The restoration details
are lengthy, here are the highlights. Compressed air, ice, color matching, sanding, priming, blocking, guide coats,
color coats, clear, color sanding, polishing and sealing.

Here is a pic of the restored fuel petcock.

dogger

[img][/img]

_________________
1973 CR250M
1979 CR250R
1993 CR250R
2008 CR500R
2009 CR250R