Modern day classics

[firko]

I'd like a Cannondale 440MX, the Hesketh of dirt bikes. This is the bike that should have started the modern 4 stroke revolution but they were let down by problems with the EFI and ignitions....and engine unreliability and valve breakage and clutch problems and a shitload more quirky anomolies. Cannondale did their dough on the bike and its equally bad quad brother and went back to what they know best....making pushies. Despite the problems they go like a shower of shit and supposedly handle really well. You can pick 'em up for DT1 money on eBay.

[Lozza]

Title says 'Modern Day Classics' makes no mention of mx bikes.

Forum title is OZVMX in my language thats Vintage Motocross

In 'General Disscussion' that means general discussion

[Mike52]

Sachs Mad Arse or is that Madas ?
Google it.

[090]

What about a Vertemati.. i know where there's one lying around in a shed in Brisbane coming up cheap in a separation sale

Ha ha very funny Martha Focker!
I'm hoping it will be.

[crash n bern]

I'd like a Cannondale 440MX, the Hesketh of dirt bikes. This is the bike that should have started the modern 4 stroke revolution but they were let down by problems with the EFI and ignitions....and engine unreliability and valve breakage and clutch problems and a shitload more quirky anomolies. Cannondale did their dough on the bike and its equally bad quad brother and went back to what they know best....making pushies. Despite the problems they go like a shower of shit and supposedly handle really well. You can pick 'em up for DT1 money on eBay.

ATK bought them out and ironed out all the problems and also sell an upgrade kit for the 'Dales.  They also suffered from weak big ends. ATK still race them and have had some success.

The biggest problem for Cannondale was the bean counters releasing the bike before the engineers were finnished with it,  I can't recall exactly if it got bad press or not but it may have and that would of helped kill it.


Some one bought a container of the ATK/dales to Aus so there are a few floating around.  Had trouble selling them and was told at the time that I could get a new one in the crate for a good deal.  Saw one on Ebay a few years back in Sydney.  Tempted, but thought that I own enough white elephants as it is.


As for  future bikes.  Probably the YZ400.   It's the garden variety bike that everyone had that usually becomes the most collectible.  It's the hardcore enthusiast that usually goes for the exotic.

My pick, KTM 950 Super enduro.  Balls out 185kg 100 hp dirt bike that never sold well and went out of production after a couple of years.  I bought one new because I saw the light.  Starting to get sort after now as people realise and prices are creeping.

[TM BILL]

I think the late 90's Husaberg's.....afterall thats what Yamaha copied....they'ill be like the funky Euro stuff from the late 60's/70's....and when everyones riding there modern 6 stroke 300cc bikes they'll shit themselves when they see a 600 Berg or Husky go wizzing by......faarrk...did you see that...a full 600cc running on that enviromentaly unfriendly petrol stuff.....How the hell do they start those things with that little arm and it hasnt even got EFI.

Listen Joan enough with the Hindenbergs  just cos Joel Smets could pedal one quickly dont make em iconic 

Ditch that one of yours quick before you do more dough on it  tell you what ill swap it for half of the worlds biggest farm bike colletion  Marcs already taking the other half to take to the scrap with that handsome hardly doughntson of his 

[Nathan S]

Exotics will always be exotics. To predict that the six Vertamatis in the country, or the four pre-94 TMs will be considered 'special' in the future, is like predicting that Dave A will be selling a bike in the next six months...

The challenge is predicting the mainstream bikes that normal people could/can afford.

I agree with the 500s being on the list. They're already worth way more than they 'should' be, if you were to measure them by normal standards.

I reckon the 93~96 CR250s are likely to become collectable, thanks mostly to the McGrath influence.
The 97 CR is my vote for the 'so bad its good' collectable of the future, kinda like the P76 is.

[Marc.com]

Marcs already taking the other half to take to the scrap with that handsome hardly doughntson of his 

Hey Bill that wasn't the deal, I was swapping it for the KX250 collection and you were going to join the Filthy Few .... by the way I will throw in the home security system

[Husky500evo]

Depending on how modern we are talking about, I also agree that the 500cc two strokes will be on the list of modern day classics. Especially in the near future the '89 CR and KX500s will become more sought after because of the inevitable introduction of a pre '90 class. That is why I recently crossed over to the dark side and purchased an '89 CR500  . But I have heard lately of low hour CR500Es (the road registerable ones that were the last of the CR500 line) , selling for more than you could buy them new from Honda. As far as exotics go, I always liked the look of the VOR 530s with the Ohlins forks and even came close to buying one at one stage. I don't know how you would go for buying parts for these down the track though .       

[firko]

The challenge is predicting the mainstream bikes that normal people could/can afford.

I don't get that Nathan, one mans "exotic" is another mans mainstream. The so called exotics are usually cheaper or at worst on par with the 'Joe Average' bikes after their glory days have faded.
Are people who prefer something less mainstream 'subnormal' or 'abnormal' as opposed to those mainstream 'normal' folks?

[Nathan S]

Stuff like CCMs and Vertamatis were big dollar bikes in their day. They were the dirt bike equivalent of a Lambo or Lotus - most/all of us would drool over them when they were new, but very few of us would actually buy them.
This makes them very safe bets as collectables in the future.

Similarly, everything becomes collectable when it gets old enough (BSA Bantam, EJ Holden) - predicting that is predicting the obvious.

Where the whole idea of future collectables gets interesting, is when you look at the stuff that is/was cheap and common either when it was new or now. If anyone had predicted the prices that the Falcon Squire wagons or 186 Monaros would reach, they'd be both rich and lauded as a genius.

The fact that so many of the older exotic bikes are worth no more than mainstream bikes of the same era, shows how much the mainstream bikes have become collectable.

[Big John]

35 to 40 years ago there were so many makes to chose from, but due to the domanance of the japan and KTM there is no real stand out over the last 20 years, that I can see. The yz 400f did change motocross and the 500 two strokes that are now gone :'(. I think most people look back and want to relive there youth and get the bikes they rode or wanted to ride in there youth. So in thirty years it will be a fifty year old man with faded tatto's wanting a Japanise 450 with a genuine 2011 metal mulisia graphic kit.
 I'm wanting to put a big bore two stroke into my stable, but I still carrn't bring myself to get a water cooled four stroke.

[SAABCOMBI]

I suppose my bike,67 model will be called veteran in 15 to 20 years.

[Husky500evo]

Where the whole idea of future collectables gets interesting, is when you look at the stuff that is/was cheap and common either when it was new or now. If anyone had predicted the prices that the Falcon Squire wagons or 186 Monaros would reach, they'd be both rich and lauded as a genius.

Using the car comparison as above, the example that has really surprised me with the huge increase in prices lately, is Valiant Chargers. They seemed to be the poor man's option if you couldn't afford a Monaro or a GT Falcon back in the day, but prices for a good one now seem to have gone through the roof .

[frostype400]

The chargers are a cool car I don't know if you can put that many new mainstream cars in the collectable category now.

KTM 360 380 would be good to have but wether they would be collectable or not, the cre500 are rare and I think guys want them more because you can register them they are probably the most powerful dirt bike that can be registered would give any 450 an absolute smashing.

Maybe the cr450 and wr450 etc etc will become collectable for a runner in 20 years time because there won't be to many left how many are at wreckers already.