The Sale of the Century
The Sale of the Century
CAMRON E. BUSSARD
ROUNDUP
IF YOU HAVE A HANKERING FOR A brand-new motorcycle but just can't quite scrape together the funds for one, don't throw in the towel quite yet. Because the chances are that your local dealers have some of the most fabulous buys in years sitting in their showrooms these days, brand-new bikes that are selling for such absurdly low prices that they might enable your new-bike dreams to become reality.
The motorcycles in question are the "non-currents," as the industry likes to call them, the one-, two-, even three-year-old models that have remained unsold after the conclusion of their particular model years. Their presence is not news, of course, for they have been kicking around warehouses and showrooms in great numbers ever since the recession of a couple years ago. But they're growing smaller in number as their manufacturers continually lower their prices in an effort to dispose of them. And that's the point: The prices on many of these remaining new/old bikes have dipped so low that they've become outstanding bargains-even for some people who might not even want a new motorcycle.
What's more, don't think that these new/old bikes have remained in the pipeline because they're defective or inferior in some way. The vast majority are mighty good motorcycles that haven't sold for reasons that generally have little to do with their competence on the road or the trail; some were stocked in too large a quantity for the market at the time, some were victims of the yearly newer/bigger/faster contest that the industry has gotten itself locked into, others were the right bike at the wrong economic time.
To get some idea ofjust how many of these non-currents are available, and how much they are selling for, we contacted a number of dealers in different areas across the country and questioned them about their inventory. We found that there was a wide variety in the kinds and quantities of bikes avail able: and we concluded that if haying the newest, fastest, biggest or baddest bike on the block isn't all that important to you, you might do well to check out the supply of non current machines in your area. Be cause in many places, the customer apparently can just about name his own price for one of these bikes.
Obviously, no two dealers have the same inventory or offer the same price for any given bike, which pro vides a great diversity of bikes and bargains. Some dealers in Minne apolis, for example, had no noncurrents, while others in the same area had more than they could han dle. One dealer there seemed to specialize in new/old bikes. He had sold 49 1983 Honda FT500 Ascots at the unbelievably low price of $995. and had just placed an order with Honda for more. He also had 1983 Yamaha 400 Secas on sale for $1100, and 1982 750 Viragos for $1799. The manager of this shop said that his whole stock is moving well, and that the low prices at tracted customers who care more about the bargains than about the> model-year of the bikes.
Becajse dealers' prices are not dictated by the manufacturers, some regions had lower overall prices. The Great Lakes region in particular had prices that were several hundred dol lars less than for the same bikes in Portland, Oregon or Kansas City, Kansas. Suzuki 650 Tempters that sell for $2095 in Arkansas go for $ 1 589 in Minnesota (in some cases there was even an additional $200 rebate). But we found more new/old dual-purpose bikes in places like Kansas City than in the Lakes Re gion or the deep South. Honda XLs and XRs, 1984 models in particular, as well as Kawasaki KLR600s are easily available at hundreds of dol
lars below their original list prices.
If you're lookingL/for a par'ticu tar model and year, there is a strong possibility you can find it with just a few phone calls. Take the 1983 Su zuki XN85, for example, a bike that Cycle World claimed in a 1 983 road test was perhaps the best of the 650 turbos. The XN85s were expensive, however, $4700 to be exact, but you can now find them for as low as $3300 in just about any part of the country. They're usually covered with dust and stuck in the corner of the showroom; but they were and are good motorcycles, bikes that for most riders will provide as much pleasure and performance as many brand-new bikes. And you can bet
that your neighbor doesn't have one.
There are several other factors to consider, however, when consid ering the purchase of one of these bikes. Most still come with the full factory warranty, and insurance rates for these older bikes should be considerably lower than they are for newer bikes. But the resale value of a non-current is going to be next to nothing. And therein lies a Catch 22: All of these non-current bikes in the dealer pipeline will have to be sold before resale values will rise.
The bottom-line for now is that you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a lot of bike. All it takes is a bit of cash-and a willing ness to go back a few years in time.
Honda for 1986: Works-class street-racers, more-custom customs, and simpler XRs,
