Anyone else here in the market for a motorcycle? How has the market been like for the model you are looking for?
Let’s discuss!
Walmart has great deals and you can occasionally find one or two on clearance. Keep an eye out for a yellow tag!!
Back to the thread: Have not shopped for a bike but interested in seeing how that market is faring.
@mllcb42 aren’t you a motorcycle enthusiast? I remember you posting some italian bikes for sale when you moved.
- well in terms of that kind of bike, I just purchased an SE Racing OM-Duro XL last week. Didn’t have much time to shake it down and adjust it before Critical Mass at the end of the month. Luckily she held up well. MSRP was $1299, and was able to find a shop in Hialeah selling it for $1249. No one ever discounts these things 
Now I’m on the hunt for the motorcycle 
Market is fucked
I sold a 2007 gsxr 600 for 6k with 3k miles in 2015
Seems they 5k+ Still that’s insane
Keep in mind I paid 3700 for it with 300 miles in 2011
I Did buy a 82 Suzuki 650 a week ago that I will attempt to cafe racer it out for $200 
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So, F’d for those purchasing second hand?
Would you guys say that it’s like the current auto market? Buy new, and have resale value fall slowly (depending on model, and location, of course)?
I wouldn’t buy new probably ADM + set up fee
I’d buy used if you can’t wait to see where this goes
Who knows how much longer
Motorcycles are toys…. If things get worse those toys gotta go
Ya, although with a small child now, my motorcycle days are behind me. I havent really paid any attention to the market lately.
I want another cafe project bad but my wife wont allow me. A friend of mine just bought a Victory, I will find out if he got a good deal or not
Are we talking pedals or engines? lol. Seems like both.
Just like cars, inventory on motorbikes has been tight. I bought 2 Chinese bikes close to 2 years ago. Took a lot of searching and some waiting. Got a 110 cc semi-manual Tao for my kid. It has held up better than expected. I’ve had to replace some bolts and fix some rattles here and there, but otherwise doing quite well. It was like $650 new. I wanted to join him, so I got myself a new Lifan X-pect for $2100. Pretty cool for the money. But, in all this time, I’ve only put a few miles on it. Never registered for street use. What I really wanted was an Enfield Classic, mostly for the looks, but just couldn’t justify it. Plus, it was suggested to me it would be a very poor choice for offroad use.
It was meant to be for motorcycles, but just like the TRX and 392 spin offs, we can do a spinoff for pedal bikes if enough people are interested in that market, I guess. I fixed the title to reflect motorcycles.
I am a motorcycle guy and I have to tell that indeed motorcycle market has followed auto. Prices are almost the price of msrp on used bikes and dealers don’t discount new bikes anymore because who knows when they will be getting a new one. In some cases msrp went up significantly like Kymco AK550 which I’m in the market for.
I emailed a local Suzuki dealer, and I asked them a question that maybe you can answer as well:
“Are the bikes you have in stock online order-sold, or are they available? If they are sold, can I order a bike?”
Is it preferable to order a bike (like in the auto market)?
Motorcycle dealers are much worse in email communications then auto and most of the stuff they have listed online is actually not in stock or available. Best bet to call them on the phone.
It depends on the manufacturer and the bike that you want. If you have unusual taste and would like that funky bike that’s been sitting on the dealership floor for 6 months then you may have a great deal on your hands!
Ryan (aka Fortnine) just put out an outstanding short and entertaining video about the interdependent relationship of manufacturers and dealerships. I imagine many of the points he makes are transferrable to the auto market as well. Definitely work a 9.5 minute watch!
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I really need to enjoy mine more. Shes always parked. I hope this thread grows!
@TheSmoke09 Good call on it
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I’m also a moto lover and am currently shopping for a new bike so have some insight. Right now. I have three bikes -
The classic: a 1973 Norton Commando 850,
My Colorado “off the grid wilderness” escape bike: a 2012 BMW G650GS Sertão,
And the reliable modern classic for road trips and high speeds: 2017 Triumph Thruxton 1200 R.
Photos of all these bikes are below. Like kids, I love them each equally but in different ways. 
I even had a sidecar on there at one point, but once my girls outgrew the fun I passed it along to someone else to bring joy into the world. During the pandemic I drove around with my dog in the sidecar and it felt good to just give people something silly to smile about for a minute.
So, on to the question. Is the moto market like the auto market? I’d say “a little bit, but for different reasons.”
First, at the beginning of the pandemic most of us braced for a major national economic downturn that never happened. Sure, there were terrible stories of people being financially ruined by COVID, but we didn’t experience the national recession that economists and business leaders predicted. And of course, motorcycles in the US are not a necessity. They are a luxury good, and as they teach in Business 101, sales of luxury goods plummet in a recession. The motorcycle manufacturers knew this theory and just like the car-makers they slowed down production so they wouldn’t be sitting on a massive stockpile of unsold inventory during a recession.
But motorbike sales didn’t plummet, they went up. This is where it gets interesting. Many people had more time on their hands and motorcycling was a great activity because of the inherent social distancing (see the awesome public health graphic immediately below 
). Riding isà also a great antidote for the loss of freedom some of us felt when asked to stay home.
So stick with me here, because the next big driver of motorcycle sales is absolutely fascinating and is best explained through the work of Stanford professor Laura Carstensen who researched the emotional signature of people during different life stages. She found that early in life people are less happy and their behavior is focused on acquiring, creating, and collecting - friends, money, family, possessions, etc. Then later in life people are generally happier despite their declining health. Their behavior is marked by a reduction of less important relationships and possessions while devoting increased focus to the things that make them happy. This creates greater fulfillment and could be considered wisdom.
The interesting finding is that the natural progression of this emotional signature can be accelerated when someone is exposed to excessive loss, trauma, or death in their life. It shifts their perspective towards gratitude and appreciation for life earlier than would have happened over the course of a typical life.
In the past two years we all experienced varying levels of trauma. Dual pandemics of COVID deaths and opioid overdoses have rocked our nation along with political divisiveness, protests, and sometimes a sense of helplessness with tragedy around us.
This phenomenon is explained beautifully in just 5 minutes by Dr Atul Gawande in this clip, from 5:38 to 10:10: https://youtu.be/b3qbX6LS3Ro?t=5m38s
In my community we had a mass shooting at our grocery store, King Soopers, followed by the most destructive fire in Colorado history which burned 1,100 homes to ashes in 6 hours. Many of our neighbors lost their homes, including my family.
This collective loss and big trauma or little traumas caused people to rethink their priorities. The biggest example of this was the great resignation where we are seeing people quitting their jobs en masse to search for something more meaningful.
So what the hell does this have to do with motorcycle sales? Adventure motorcycling was already on the rise. While motorcycle sales appeared flat in recent history, that doesn’t really tell the story. Harley Davidson sales have dropped precipitously and the only reason that motorcycle sales as a whole appear flat is because of the boom in sales of adventure bikes to surgeons and modern cafe racers to hipsters. (Data: U.S. motorcycle sales 2021 | Statista)
So you could probably still snag a Harley pretty easily. They’re great bikes so don’t take offense, but the reality is that you can see Harley’s customer base declining by reading the obituaries in the paper and their customer base was already further along in their journey towards doing what they enjoy.
If you’re in the market, like I am to upgrade my off road bike, it’s a tighter market. You can get discounts on Harleys and other big cruiser bikes, but expect to pay MSRP for that new BMW GS or KTM. Also, I just inquired about a custom order for a BMW F 850 GS and they are willing to do it, but quoted me 6 months since they are still trying to rebound from the production they slowed down in 2020, and of course the damn CHIP SHORTAGE is now hitting motorcycles.
I hope this long post was worth it for you all. I think that there is indeed a challenging motorcycle market and while it shares a few similarities with the auto market, it’s really being driven by other factors. The pre-pandemic explosion of adventure motorcycling has grown even faster as people seek freedom, mental health, and a desire to fulfill that dream of getting the bike you always wanted, or finally becoming the badass biker you dreamed of as a kid.
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Very good video, extremely entertaining as well.
So, if I get this right: the deals on bikes are mostly null if they are sought after units. At that point it’s MSRP (or more,) and the only deals to be had are on future services and/or gear/equipment.
Unless it’s a model that no one wants, then dealer loses their ass selling it at a discount, which I’m sure they don’t just give to you.
Does that seem correct?
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I don’t put on the mileage I used to, but being on a bike is something that cannot be replaced.
Trip from last year…
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I have 2017 Yamaha SCR 950 that has spent most of last 2 year in my garage. Has seen little action apart from occasional starts. Only companion is the battery tender.
I love it!!! But I might just have to toughen up and sell it. 