Is it that bad?

[Wasp]

Advertised my YZ 465 the other day . I never use it and it only takes up room . Spent lots on goodies on it and converted it in to a top bike . I thought 6.5K was a fair price , still less than what I spent on it . Are you sitting down ? Best offer was 3 K . Has interest in VMX bikes dropped that much ?

[pecrazy]

I have noticed the same thing, just hard times, same if you are selling a house, bike or car.

[OverTheHill]

have a 490k on trademe for 3500 for a year or so with no interest of speak of. No doubt not as tidy as your 465 but have a spare pipe & muffler & plastic side numbers i did have shown in pics but been mucking around with pics & missed those out this time. Had this plus an IT250K with a yz465H motor in it & put them both together for a few weeks for 5500 think it was--no interest whatsoever. Been following a 490J up there for 4250 for a long time & see he's reducing his price now too. The olds saying--sign of the times, but hope not. Might improve when the weather fines up [over here--nz]
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1142487540. Cost me 3950 in the shed here & came from ebay california about 10 years ago. Good luck with selling yours.

[Slakewell]

I have my 78 KX 125 A4 for sale which is arguable the most collectable 125 with only 700 made. So far not even an offer.   

[Tomas]

It could be that the sport is less popular and not everyone is keen to spend money on a bike you end up riding once a year. Used to ride a dirt bike almost every weekend when I had time. Could ride along the river whole day no dramas. No helmet just sunglases so you dont end up having a big fly stuck in your eye. No rangers or cops. And I still do. Get more riding time in a couple of weeks when i am visiting my family than I used to get here in a year. Sport is just too controlled and too much bureaucracy is involved. Even if you have a block of land to ride your bike someone will still have a whinge about something. Big brother is always watching=people are not interested in old/new dirt bikes as much as they used to be.

[LWC82PE]

Most bike forums in general seem dead these days too. Everyone seems to have become lazy and dependant on ‘easy’ posting of classified ads,  tech questions & discussion topics via mobile phones mostly direct onto Facebook. The same questions get asked over and over again such as ‘how to polish plastics’ ‘best paint to paint an exhaust’ ‘how to make tank decals stick’ ‘where can buy a gasket set for my bike’ We discussed this stuff on here way back over 5 years ago. Its all been asked and answered before. Nothing much has changed since then. Not many people one seem to know how to use search function or use Google search engine. They just want easy to find info spoon fed to them via Facebook and want it now. A lot don't bother to buy a workshop manual for their bike anymore. Can afford to buy a bike but not a $25 manual . They just want everyone to tell them the info without having to do a little work themselves.

[bigk]

I don't think it's a bad as everyone perceives, just a little different. 5 years ago it was fairly hard to find a decent VMX bike but when the Aussie dollar was buying $1.15 US, all of a sudden there was a big influx of VMX bikes bought in by some guys trying to cash in on what was then a fairly exclusive market. Unfortunately the market became flooded, now instead of maybe 1 or 2 '79 Honda CR250RZ's (for example) to choose from, buyers suddenly had a dozen or more to choose from. There's a thousand or more VMX bikes available right now here in Australia without considering the world wide market it is today. Garden variety bikes, Japanese high production models ( eg: Wasps YZ465) are a hard sell for decent money as a result. However if you have something at least a little rare or out of the ordinary they can still command the money they deserve. The trick is to pick the right bikes & tell the truth when selling them. While a lot of sellers don't tell outright lies, they rarely volunteer information. Buyers should ask the hard questions as well. New buyers to the sport who have never restored bike generally have no idea of what is required to do it properly & can't understand why a 35 year old bike is more expensive than a 1 year old 4 stroke MX bike.
The moral of the story is to roll with the times & adjust accordingly.
K

[evo550]

The market as definitely changed over the years, bikes where usually found and rebuilt only to race by the owner with an average price of $2000. Bikes that where high dollar resto's where done by the owner to be kept in the pool room till the day they die. There was no industry within the sport (outside Vintage Iron in the U.S.) and nobody tried to make a living from vmx.
Scroll forward 15-20 years and it's a very different Landscape. Businesses everywhere, people wanting to be compensated for spending a couple of Saturday afternoons in the shed drinking beer and working on their bike. Just because you've spent $6000 in parts, 6 months of Sundays and an original purchase price of $2000, does not make it a $10 000 bike...
Some models will always be collectable and demand above average prices, but the majority of VMX bikes on the market at the moment are fools gold.

[smed]

Big bores are top of the market too, It only gets worse as the CC's go down CR500's in particular are being advertised for top coin, wonder if they are getting the asking price

[Nathan S]

There's been a few very, very good bikes go for good money lately, but the prices disappear rapidly as the quality/desirability drops.

I know that I've seen an awful lot of middle of the road bikes advertised for LOTS more that I've been able to sell comparable bikes for and/or have seen comparable bikes sell for.

In the specific case of Evo bikes ATM, it seems that their value is being hurt by rule uncertainty. Not saying that it is halving the value, but I reckon it is knocking at least 10% off the price, maybe 20%.

[Tony Two Times]

No single answer I reckon but...........

- How many VMXers are there in Australia? Let's say 1000.
- How many are in the market for a YZ465 or any other specific bike (i.e must have that make and model) at any one time? Let's be generous and say 30.
- How many want a running bike that is not restored? 10 of those 30? So they're out.
- How many want a cheap project? 10? Out again.
- How many want a resto'd bike and will pay? 10. Sounding better.
- Of those 10 how many like your specific resto? 5? Yep we're a fussy bunch.
- Of those 5 how many have the cash on hand? 2? Nice tax cheque just landed!!
- Of those 2 how many can get the time off work/away from kids sport/a trip interstate to get serious and make a deal?

Point being, It's a small market that gets fractured pretty quickly I reckon. And as much as we love them they are just old bikes/boats/cars/whatever. And it's a bold man that goes into any of that expecting those assets to pay for themselves come sale time. They might of course. But it's a risky venture by any measure.

[ghostrider]

 a lot easier to live in the virtual reality world of entertainment/ pastime choices , it is a new age . From a retail perspective more disposable funds these days are directed to living in an easier environment , the argument exists  why should I spend lots of money on something that requires effort to be pacified , I believe its a generational characteristic --its now easier to be lazy . So I can see why a past time like vintage MX is undesirable to the younger generation -hence value becomes reduced on items that were previously sought after

[William Doe]

No single answer I reckon but...........

- How many VMXers are there in Australia? Let's say 1000.
- How many are in the market for a YZ465 or any other specific bike (i.e must have that make and model) at any one time? Let's be generous and say 30.
- How many want a running bike that is not restored? 10 of those 30? So they're out.
- How many want a cheap project? 10? Out again.
- How many want a resto'd bike and will pay? 10. Sounding better.
- Of those 10 how many like your specific resto? 5? Yep we're a fussy bunch.
- Of those 5 how many have the cash on hand? 2? Nice tax cheque just landed!!
- Of those 2 how many can get the time off work/away from kids sport/a trip interstate to get serious and make a deal?

Point being, It's a small market that gets fractured pretty quickly I reckon. And as much as we love them they are just old bikes/boats/cars/whatever. And it's a bold man that goes into any of that expecting those assets to pay for themselves come sale time. They might of course. But it's a risky venture by any measure.

Best post ever on this subject 

[pecrazy]

A little off topic but I have had the opposite at times, interested in a couple bikes, left messages, emails, flat out getting a reply, couldn't even get a phone number from one bloke, didn't sound like he wanted to answer any questions.

[Nathan S]

Scammer or idiot.