sounds a bit rich to me.
i didn't keep real acurate records but all up, i'd be surprised if i spent $2500 building my bike, including the purchase price. but then i charge myself zero for labour 
and have access to some pretty handy tools/workshop 
Couldn't agree more, although there are some variables:
Race bikes are easy, even if you have to spend more of cool/strong/better performing parts.
Pristine, back to orginal bikes are typically a lot more expensive - chasing the correct handle bars, and then having them rechromed is going to cost a heap more than $90 for a new set of Renthals from your local dealer - and this is just one example... Scott W has told me roughly what his restos owe him, including a component for labour which included his time on the web/phone chasing parts - suffice to say that he'd be very lucky to get his money back on any of the bikes, despite the awesome quality of the restos.
I also think that a lot of people often add costs to their rebuilds simply by replacing bits that don't need replacing. I'm not having a go at anyone who tries to put as much new stuff into their bike as possible, but it comes back to a lesson from years ago when I was right into the rotary Mazda scene.
The short version is that one bloke (Kevin Webb) could build motors a LOT cheaper than anyone else, and his motors were as reliable and powerful as anyone's (and better than many).
The difference was that he knew what needed replacing and what didn't - he could make accurate value judgements on a component's remaining lifespan, whereas the other builders would strictly, blindly adhere to the ultra-conservative Mazda specs, or they'd simply, blindly replace everything on the assumption that all new parts had to be better.
