May I loan your time machine.

[retrowrex]

May I borrow your time machine. Other than the obvious of going back in time for just a day and getting the lotto numbers a couple of weeks running, I will be a little more sporting and head back to mid December 1984.  I have just been given 3 old magazines, Trail and Track November 1984 x 1 and 2 Australian motorcycle news from late 1984 and 1983. 

Having a look through the classies and there is all manner of fair at super cheap prices (by todays standards). 

Jumping from pages so far, "Suzuki RM125E MX. like new condition. six months old original chain and sprockets spare piston kit. $1390 also  Suzuki RM500D MX ex-Team Suzuki bike. good condition, spare spocket, chain. $800firm. Must sell as buying new 500. (ph) Balarat."

The buyers guide price for a brand spanking YZ490 K with YEIS and CD ignition, a princely  $2199 in Qld.

To the  DeLorean DMC-12. Send me back Marty. To 1984!

Retro.

[MX?]

Seems good now retro, but I still remember as an apprentice in '76 having to buy a CB750 for some thing like $1700 on the road 'cos the Z9 was $2100 odd.....too far to stretch my meager wage.

[Mike52]

Got one in my head.
Sorta works.
Some times it exaggerates how good times were but ok otherwise.
I think.

[Graeme M]

I once read that a good rule of thumb is that over time money is worth half as much after a decade. Or in other words, after 10 years, you'd need $2 to buy what you could have for $1. Applying that here makes that $800 RM500 cost about $3500 in today's dollars. The $1400 RM125 would require $5600-$6000 of today's dollars. Good old ADB, about $1 back in 1977 would cost about $9 today. And as for that CB750 and Z1, the difference is between about $15000 and $18000.

Not a bad rule of thumb... Maybe that RM125 is not as cheap as it looks eh?

[Canam370]

I'll 'fess up. Canam did a bad thing.....
Like yourselves in time machine mode,I was perusing an old Trading Post - about 15yrs out of date and having a 'wish I had one of those now' moment (over an SL70 I recall). So,armed with a Bourbon, a phone and lots of optimism I added the appropriate extra digits to the number and dialled.......

GUESS WHAT!!!!




As you'd expect,the phone answeree was a little perplexed about exactly which bike I was enquiring after,which I took as a good sign as it indicated they were selling some sort of motorcycle . So I  described the ad and you guessed it......

it was sold :'(. I was disappointed but polite and thanked them for their time and hung up the phone. The moral of the story is to go for it if you want something. The odds were against the same people still being at that number after all that time,but they were,so I figure I just missed out. Now,there's a nice CZ250 on the next page so I'll try my luck again.........

[Graeme M]

Personally, I want the time machine to take me and a decent modern enduro bike back to the 70s so I once again race against the rest of my club level competitiors. Except that maybe, with 30 years of development in my trusty steed, I might do better than getting beat real bad? Or is a crap rider still crap no matter when he races? I'm with Retrowrex though, wouldn't you just love to open up a magazine or paper and see those bikes with thise prices listed...

[Nathan S]

I did kinda the same thing with some mid-late-90s ADBs recently. The funny thing is that current model 125s were worth about the same money as they are now: $7000ish. Makes 'em seem like a bargain now...

[VMX247]

I'll try my luck again.........

Keep going Telstra will love ya    also you may snag one that knows someone that has that dreamt about Canam or perhaps a RH    out back in the shed 

I want to borrow your time machine and go back to the events -film them all and smell the old fumes   
cheers