Bike trade meltdown

Three Cross...

 

I don't do financial savvy to the extent of some, I take a more personal
view [1], but even I know that buying a bike over 25 years is a bad bad
plan.


[1] Mortgage with the Nationwide, bank with the Co-op that kind of
thing - rightly or wrongly.

 

Heh, I gather your paths have crossed

 

I did that without any advice from anyone; not sure if that's better or
worse.

 

Bear was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Husky doesn't change their models that often, although they chuck in
the odd special model like the Nox (drooool) or the Centennial. I
think it's probably because (a) they're niche market products and (b)
they do need looking after by sympathetic owners and if they aren't
they tend to go bang in the way only Italian machinery goes bang.

You have to keep in mind though that a lot of the models they sell are
either competition machines or competition-based machinery, so they're
in a high state of tune and need to be pampered.

Well, MV owned Husqvarna...

It does, doesn't it. Well, it's that Tamburini bloke again, not bad
for someone who started out manufacturing aircondition systems (he's
the "ta" in Bimota)...

I think they're not too bad, although one must say that all machinery
from Italy stops holding their value if rumours are thrown about the
spares supply.

The main trouble is that they *only* hold their value if they're
properly looked after, and that costs a lot more than doing the same
to a Japanese bike.

BTW, good to see you back.

 

Preston Kemp was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Hmm, but the 'merger' with Piaggio was appearantly on the cards as
late as August:

http://www.noctowl.it/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=34

I'm pretty sure that there was still some discussion about this on the
German Husky board a couple of days ago, but what do I know...

 

Preston Kemp was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Doing it because you decided to do it is one thing, actually
recommending such a thing is a completely different barrel of stinking
fish.

 

I'm not sure when that interview happened, but it wasn't this year.
Piaggio are well out of the picture & have been for a while.

 

Agree totally. Making my own dumb decisions is fine - being told to by
others is definitely not cricket.

 

Bear was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

That goes without saying...

Well, I was more thinking about service items that need changing more
often than the official servicing interval (Ducati cambelts, for
example), plus the cost of spares is often considerably higher than
the cost of spares for a Japanese bike. If you can get them...

That said, cost of servicing can usually be kept down to a very
reasonable level if you're going to a specialist instead of the main
dealer.

I think they also did it to trade off the classic MV 750 name...

Certainly better in the impracticality stakes...

Most of them, surprisingly.

The Morini isn't as the key had been stolen in a burglary earlier this
year and I'm still waiting for a replacement. All of the others are,
more or less - the CB450 wants a new throttle cable but is running,
legal and MOT'd, and the MZ and me are currently having an argument
about the right technique to start it...

 

A major service for a 996, 998 etc can easily get into four figures.

Major service for Prillies: similar. ISTR it's something like eight
hours for an RSV.

OK, that's assuming you might need a chain & sprox set, maybe some brake
pads, etc, but even without them you are still looking at 600-700 sovs.

 

Bear was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Well, I don't think Japanese spares are cheap, certainly not. And keep
in mind that I get most of them from David Silver Spares 'cos I'd have
a heart attack paying main dealer prices.

That said, the basic service items I just ordered for the Husky were
surprisingly cheap and turned up the next day.

If it were a plain key, I'd have had one ages ago. Trouble is, it's
something that looks remotely like a 3.5mm headphone plug with a
couple of bits welded to it. Which reminds me, I need to send a few
Euros to a bloke in Italy who supposedly has one waiting for me.

Now that you mention it, I'm feeling a bit under the weather - my
special powers seem to be waning.

<hangs head in shame>

I can't. I've serviced it, I've ridden it, I've had other people work
on it, I've chucked it down the road.

It still looks OK, it still works. I appear to be defeated.

 

He's using the old "It never goes wrong" ploy. I'd move to a safe distance
IIWY.

 

The Falco never got *anywhere* near that - OK, a "major" service
involved 1.5 days of labour, because it required removal of the
swingarm... which also required removal of the exhaust system.

Oh, hang on - you're talking about southern labour rates, aren't you?

 

Well, there you go then.

Heh. Dealer rates are about ukp40/hour now, I think. A day and a half of
labour would rack up a helluva bill.

 

Bear was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Heh. Well, I *have* been trying for nearly a year now...

 

platypus was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Coupled with the "I'm a professional, I know what I'm doing" part of
the ploy, obviously.