When are you stuck with your Monster?

[factorPlayer]

Maybe you should retitle this thread "When can you no longer sell your Monster for almost as big a wad of cash as you paid for it" since that is pretty much what you are asking.

I have no problem being stuck with mine.

[Speedbag]

Vehicles are notoriously bad investments.  We ride them for the thrill they give us, the fun of modding them out and making them our own, and cry at what we have to sell them for in order to get them out of our garage. 

Don't put money into a bike for a return on investment.  Do it because you love it and want it (no matter what the price!!) 

+11tb

I think I've probably only made money on one old car that I've had over the years, and that's because I sold it as a rolling chassis and parted the drivetrain.

Bikes....well, lost my ass on every one. Probably because I keep them too long after they're completed instead of selling when I should.

Oh well, makes for a nifty photo album. 

[vampireduc]

i see that you are in Hawaii.  Have you advertised around the military bases?  (I am a military guy, this isn't trying to stick it to them), but they are on a constant cycle of being in and out and bring home a little more money than usual.  I know pesonally about 10 guys that the week we got off the plane, they drove up on new (to them) motorcycles.

[MadDuck]

Maybe you should retitle this thread "When can you no longer sell your Monster for almost as big a wad of cash as you paid for it" since that is pretty much what you are asking.

I have no problem being stuck with mine.

Nope. No need to change the title. That's not what I'm asking. The gist of the question, despite the different twists that are being put on this thread (which I have no problem with), is to have a discussion about when it seems that you can no longer sell the bike, mods or not. Cowboy may have hit that answer with the bit about the 10,000 mile benchmark.

I didn't buy it as an investment nor did I add the mods to increase it's value. I did both of those for the fun it has brought me and continues to bring to me. I've known from day one that if (when) it came time to sell that I'd possibly get more money by selling the mods separately. There would be a bit of labor involved as both side cases would have to come off to reinstall the original heavy flywheel and non-vented right side case.  I don't think I'd get enough for those separately to make it worthwhile so it may not be an issue.

I don't particularly have a problem being stuck with it either.  I can keep trying Craigslist over here and will do so from time to time. I have a small project on the Gixxer that might get finished this week and then the Monster will get fresh cam belts and a valve adjustment. I'll stick it up on Craigslist again after that just to see what happens. It's all good whichever way it turns out.  [moto]

[jerryz]

Bikes that I love i tend to keep for 10 years or even longer , so I will probably never sell the M750 and reckon the S4 is unsellable in Thailand  anyway so they will be keepers.

jerry

[sbrguy]

you can always sell a running bike to someone.

provided the bike is in good workign condition and such, and running you can proabaly almost always get 800-1000 dollars for a bike because some beginner out there wants a bike to ride to learn on and then resell for the same amount.

now if you "think" your bike is worth thousands more then you will be sorely dissapointed when someone offers only 900 for it bc it has 35k miles on it and is 10-15 years old, etc... that is the nature of it.

but like someone else said the magic number may be 10000 miles, but then again if someone has a very well maintained bike that has 15k miles on it or so, and all the work was done perfectly with some good upgrades then someone may be willing to pay top dollar for it bc the mods may be worth it, ie, mbp collets, replaced valve guides, replaced rocker arms, etc... if all the work was done recently then its almost like you are getting a new engine in some ways, so physical age is no longer a real factor in some ways.

[DoubleEagle]

I have 2- S4Rss. One has 4300 miles , the other one has ( 7 ) miles on it .

Both bikes were bought within a month of each other.

The one w, 7 miles is stock except the black canister has been taken off.

I originally bought the #2 S4Rs as a replacement for when #1 S4Rs was no longer a capable performer and if Ducati no longer made a bike that I liked as much as the S4Rs.

Who knows what the S4rs w, 7 miles on it is worth ?   Dolph

[Greg]

Who knows what the S4rs w, 7 miles on it is worth ?   Dolph

I'll give you 10K for it 

[ghostface]

I say keep it. Folks don't appreciate modifications to motorcycles as much as the owner/author/designer does. Most buyers look at the total cost price. You've designed the bike. Cash will come later.

[red baron]

I accept attractive women. 

Not anymore you don't.

[DoubleEagle]

I'll give you 10K for it 

That's been tried before with no success.    Dolph     

[bigiain]

I have 30k+.

Mines currently showing almost 40k, they're only kilometers though, not miles. On the other hand, it is the third time it's shown 40k...

If I ever sell this thing, I'll have to get someone else to do it for me, there's no way I could keep a straight face saying to a prospective buyer "Yeah, I've had it ten years, but I only put maybe 4000km a year on it..." 

big

[Norm]

I'm starting to get jealous - you live in Hawaii, you have a steady job with full benifits, AND your "stuck" with a beautiful custom Ducati.

[MadDuck]

I'm starting to get jealous - you live in Hawaii, you have a steady job with full benifits, AND your "stuck" with a beautiful custom Ducati.

Guilty as charged, to a degree. The ironic part is there is practically nowhere to really ride it unless we load up on the Superferry and go to Maui. No ferry service to the Big Island as of yet. No matter how we try to mix it up there are always, and I repeat, always the same roads. It's only a question of how heavy the traffic is, not whether or not there is traffic. Same story every year. You guys only get envious during the winter. 

[il d00d]

Nope. No need to change the title. That's not what I'm asking. The gist of the question, despite the different twists that are being put on this thread (which I have no problem with), is to have a discussion about when it seems that you can no longer sell the bike, mods or not. Cowboy may have hit that answer with the bit about the 10,000 mile benchmark.

I'm confused as to why you would not be able to sell it, unless it is because you can't get some fraction of your investment back?  As srbguy said, someone, somewhere will want to buy the bike for some amount. 
But to put a different spin on it, once you start modding, you are narrowing the pool of prospective buyers down to people who would do the same thing to the if bike they bought it unmodified.  Someone might buy the bike despite and not because of the mods.  Personally, I would rather buy something unmodified, since I can't easily figure out the quality of the work put in to modding a bike, and on the general suspicion that someone rode the t1ts off the thing.
Since you live on a tiny island with admittedly few riding options I would say that factors in pretty heavily.  Mileage is also a factor, but that still just affects price, not the possibility that someone would buy it for any amount.