South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

What's your impression of the market at the moment...

My assumption is that bikes are cheaper in autumn/winter and prices go up in spring/summer.
I looked during December and 2 things struck me,

1) Not that many used bikes available, and they were mostly from dealers (to be expected during winter)
2) Prices were high (maybe due to dealer sales but even the private ones seemed high)

Is this your perception of the used bike market at the moment?

jan feb the private ones appear - when the xmas bills come in.


no cheap deals to be had anymore, ebay has killed it

but are bike prices on the rise?

I've read conflicting views on this.

600 Sportbikes are 10 a penny due to their popularity years ago - cheap deals to be had.
600 Sportbikes will become sort after as most manufactures are stopping production, so could be worth buying now. That is unless the new R6 is a success.

1000's are holding value well as they are gaining in popularity.
New bike sales are down as less "millennials" are entering the hobby, short term this would mean a surplus of new & used bikes (good for buyers). Long term a shortage of new bikes so older bikes hold their value, that is unless the pace of older riders giving up is higher than the rate of used bikes being crashed/scrapped.

Cheap bike season has moved to autumn. Dealers clear out of the end of year stock before the new models arrive. Private sellers want to move their bikes before winter comes and to avoid the so called cheap bike season of winter (which, as you've noticed, no longer exists) Plus racers tend to buy in winter so they've got time to work on the bike and prep for the new season, so sportsbikes shift around this time of year.

I don't think ebay has killed it. If any thing people are moving off ebay. There are more bikes for sale on Autotrader now than you'll find on ebay.

Used sports bike prices went up for the last few year i think its cause less are being bought new and prices of new ones have gone up quite a bit. I do a bit of buying and selling when i can. But from October/November to now the market seems VERY slow. Parts are selling but bikes not so much.

I've been looking for deals on Tourers since October and there's been nothing really attractive. BMW and Yamaha seem to have PCP deals that have huge interest rates.

For what I'm looking at seems to be the same amount on Autotrader and Ebay.

KTM recently did the 1290 GT for £11,000 Which is about £4k off the usual price.

Never pay list price for a new KTM. You can guarantee they'll be discounted sooner or later though even by their standards they've excelled themselves with the GT. I think they shot themselves in the foot a bit. They bring out the GT to great acclaim and makes stacks of them the following year then they update the Superduke, diverting potential buyers away from the GT. Then they bring out the 1290 Adventure S at the same time and leave their customers spoiled for choice. Consequently they haven't sold enough 2017 GT's to clear the decks for 2018's output and on top of that they let slip to the press that they're doing a major update of the GT during 2018 for release in 2019, so the only option is to bang the back-log out at giveaway prices and they'll stay cheap until all the 2017 batch have gone. They do this all the time but its only cash buyers who benefit. The golden rule with the beloved Austrians is: Don't do PCP, find some cash and if you don't like the price, wait a bit. Bless em.

Well I am currently trying to sell a 600 cc sports Bike and because there are so many only the cheapest of the cheap are selling to sell the Bike looks like I am going to have to give it away.

PB does a rear page bit called "Cheap Thrills" in each addition, and April 2017 they suggested the 2003/4 ZX-6R.

They stated that today's riders are just too big and creaky to ride them any distance.
Plus the whole 'needing to rev them to make any real power' isn't good for road use. It's why nakeds and litre bikes are now more popular.

I agree with that to some extent. In my youth I loved the high reving bikes, I had a ZX4 import which rev'd to the moon... but more recently I found my '99 Hornet 600 to be too rev hungry, hence why I sold it went for a 1000 V-twin as it's replacement. I'm happy now, for now...

My neighbour has just sold his '99 GSXR-600 and I won't say how much for... it wasn't as new or clean as yours but still... it wasn't a lot of money, not as much as I got for my Hornet either... go figure...

menzies3032 wrote:Well I am currently trying to sell a 600 cc sports Bike and because there are so many only the cheapest of the cheap are selling to sell the Bike looks like I am going to have to give it away.

If you are giving it away ill have it.

menzies3032 wrote:Well I am currently trying to sell a 600 cc sports Bike and because there are so many only the cheapest of the cheap are selling to sell the Bike looks like I am going to have to give it away.

Track it!