Over the years I have almost always had more than one motorcycle at a time, but never really had a collection. Collecting stuff has a lot in common with activities like recreational drug use or gambling, it can be fun, but watch you don't get hooked. In my case the wake up call arrives when I can't get into the garage anymore, and then it's 'everything must go!' until the garage is empty. After which, like coat hangers in a closet, a bike creeps into a corner, and another and another. The collecting bug does not discriminate, people collect all kinds of shit, from buttons to military tanks. I never saw my random moto acquisition binges as an investment, I was mostly sucked into buying old bangers through the motorcycle price-age curve, a tool used by economists to study the demand for rusty old crap. As you can see in the graph below, the actual selling price of a motorcycle descends very swiftly the moment it leaves the showroom, mostly because the dealer
Wow, a long time since I posted here, my 9 followers must be getting anxious. So, since I last posted about trying cruiser-dom, I really like the Guzzi, and have added nearly 20,000 km to its odometer. The only thing I don't like about it is the buffeting. Buffeting for those who haven't experienced it, is a type of vibrating wind blast common to large handlebar mounted windshields on motorcycles. It occurs at speeds above 100 km ie highway speeds. At first you don't really notice it, but after a few hours it wears you down. I tried a larger windshield, no joy. I tried cutting some openings into the windshield to reduce the low pressure behind the windshield, a little better, but not much. Changed helmets, which did not work until I changed to a very light weight three quarter jet style, which worked best of all the things I tried. So that's why cruiser guys prefer beanie style helmets, who knew? Not really an ideal solution though, I like the protection of a
Collecting stuff is a disease for which there is no cure. Motorcycles are a favorite collectible, they don't take a lot of room compared to say, military tanks or airplanes , but they do need more space than stamps or buttons . Whatever, if you have a garage, you have room for a few bikes. If you are going to be serious about collecting, you need a theme. You can't just randomly collect stuff you come across, you need to apply discipline lest you be confused for a hoarder. I have pretty much always had a bike collection. I used to collect British bikes when they were practically giving them away in the late 1970's. For quite a while I concentrated on 1985 Yamahas, great bikes that had bottomed out resale-wise when I got them. My first bike I think I paid 50 bucks for. It had been stripped of most of its parts, but it still ran, but not for long. See the theme here - they were all cheap cheap cheap. That first bike was an early 60's 125 cc CZ made i
Are those shot gun shells??
ReplyDeleteJust about every kind of shell
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