30th Aniversary.

Getting sarcastic in your middle age aren't you LOL

The bracket creep in the tax system hasn't helped that either...

Exchange rates are a huge factor, and they are probably largly
responsible for the sucess of the Triumph range in Australia. If people
want a non jap bike (for whatever reason) but can't afford ducati or
harley then Triumph can sell them one at jap bike prices (or often cheaper).

That sounds about right. The naked Suzi 1100 was about 4k in 85, then
the dollar float hit and *wham* 50% increase in 2 years.

1992 a GSX750F was 9k, now they are 11k (now thats a minimal increase!).

I don't tend to look at top sports bikes as much, and I suspect that the
marketing effect of which one is the most popular at the time will
effect the pricing increase. GSXR1100's were being sold cheap for quite
a while there in the early to mid 90's but some of that was because a
new lighter type of sports bike (like CBR900) was becoming more popular.

I'm tempted to say... 'well it is an eyeabusa' *grin*, but in truth the
busa is not the top suzi sports bike, it's a sporty sports tourer... or
a muscle bike if you prefer.

The GSXR1000 is quite a few % more expensive than the early 90's Gixxer
1100's though.

That all sounds about right Paul, I wasn't looking at Katanas back then
I was looking at the Naked 1100 suzi or the ESD which were a grand or a
bit cheaper than the Kat's.

As for list price one can put too much into that... what matters is what
price the bikes sell for.

If you take blackbirds as an example vs the CB1100's and VF1000's then
the increase is less than it is for Katanas to Busa's.

You are correct about bikes having a price surge, and I wouldn't have
argued if you'd said they were more expensive in the early 90's, but as
you point out they havne't increased very quickly the past few years.

But... at the end of the day, after all those ups and downs... big bikes
are about 4 to 5 times as expensive as they were in the early to mid
80's and 'working' (unskilled) wages that are and were earnt by the
majority of 38 hour a week 'workers' are now also 4 to 5 times greater.

So I guess that means the early 80's and the early 00's are good times
to be buying bikes, and the early 90's weren't.

That sort of matches my 'gut feel' too...


G-S

 

I'm tempted to say something like

'Jo is telling stories, Nev is enjoying the memory and Clem is green
with envy..."

but that would be crass and uncouth, so I'll let someone else do it ;-)


G-S

 

G-S wrote:

I disagree with that statement!

 

Yeah... but you're just disagreeable


G-S

 

I don't think we have anyone else here who is crass and uncouth.

Moike

 

You're probably right... none of 'em are that cultured

G-S

 

You can get a feeling for how 'affordable' bikes are for motorcyclists
in Australia to purchase at particular times though.

Which is probably more what Paulh and I were getting our way around.

G-S

 

Never happen

They haven't quite got the sports bike thing right, thier sports tourers
are good and thier cruisers are getting better.

Not bad bikes those! And yeah... much nicer than the lard series gixxer
11's.

Flagship bike yes, sportsbike yes... but I still reckon the gixxer 1000
is the top sportsbike. But you probably have different criteria for
deciding that YMMV and all that.

I can walk in today and buy a gixxer 1000 for $15500, a busa is about
18000

I'm a tight bastard when it comes to bikes, I like to minimize
depreciation. I don't mind spending $, but I hate losing the value quick.

You may pay retail for bikes, but how many 'average joes' do.

I've bought a few bikes in the last 10 years *thinks* Guzzi V11 (nope,
2nd hand), ZRX1200R (nope, new but last years model), Triumph Sprint ST
(yes full retail), Bandit 1200 ABS (nope, new but last years model),
GTR1000 (nope 2nd hand). GTR1000 (nope 2nd hand), V-Max (nope 2nd hand),
GXF750F (yes full retail).

So that's what 2 out of 8 bikes I paid retail for... that stat seems to
match most of the people I ride with.

That marketing factors have an effect too. The current blackbird (no
matter how competent) is overshadowed by newer models (in peoples
perceptions if nowhere else) and is consistently discounted in order to
sell it in reasonable numbers.

Bummer, but that doesn't mean the comparisons are on average invalid...
it just means you are probably part of that shrinking 'middle class' you
mentioned.

If it helps I can write a reference along the lines of "I certainly
think paulh is totally unskilled!" ;-)

Yah, I bought one new bike in the early 90's (a GSX750F) and the rest
were 2nd hand. The moto GP's bike parks were full of tidy early to mid
80's models and new bikes were a minority.

G-S