MG Cycle order history. Don't add it up

[Perazzimx14]

While ordering a few parts for the SP I made the mistake an added up all my previous orders form MG Cycles. To date I have ordered $4,493.98 in parts from them



 

[Toecutter]

Best not to add the cash total of any hobby, really. 

Bikes, knives, tools, books... translates to so many career hours when you really dig into it.

Best to see it all in terms of joy.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

That's about a six month total for me... 

[Perazzimx14]

That's about a six month total for me... 

But my ROI usually ends up in the negative

[kidsmoke]

But my ROI usually ends up in the negative

That's how you know it's a 'hobby'!

[canuck750]

When someone asks me how can I justify spending a lot of money on an old motorcycle I just ask them how much they got paid to golf last year.

[rschrum]

I buy needy other brands, fix them up and sell them to support my Guzzi habit, obsession, sickness.

[radguzzi]

Interesting…  I have never added up the MGCycle slips, prolly don't want to, we have been doing biz since 1999 or 2000 so I'm sure it is up there, I met Gordon at the 2000 Virginia Rally and we had been a customer for some time by then.

I happen to be doing a mechanical refresh on a friend's '73 Norton 850 Mk I, after an initial review and estimate of needs his first parts slip totaled $2939.18 so far, there will be some other incidentals as we progress I'm sure.  Anyway, that is on (1) vintage motorcycle.

And just as an FYI.. this is the "Before"

Best,
Rob











 

[Cam3512]

When someone asks me how can I justify spending a lot of money on an old motorcycle I just ask them how much they got paid to golf last year.

Or what did you lay down at the bar or strip club (hear they're good up there)?

[TimmyTheHog]

I have not ordered as much as you did...but I am too scared to actually add them up LOL...

[jas67]

And just as an FYI.. this is the "Before"

Wow nice!    Running?

As for the original subject, I've not added up my MGCycle total, but, I do keep a running total of money spent on putting old bikes back on the road.

My $3,500 Eldorado cost another more than $8,000 before it was done.

The 1974 Honda CB350 Four that I paid $600 for six years ago, and  I'm currently working recommissioning has already cost over $1,000 in parts.

[Perazzimx14]

Or what did you lay down at the bar or strip club (hear they're good up there)?

Went to a strip club in WV for lunch one day and there was lots of stuff I'd have loved to lay down. Cover was $2 lunch was cheap and the girls were extremely hot and totally nude. There were at least 6 girls and 4 patrons. It was a good day!

[Testarossa]

Cover was $2 lunch was cheap and the girls were extremely hot and totally nude.

[twowings]

You'll be riding that SP a LOT longer than you've ridden any girl....

[radguzzi]

Wow nice!    Running?

Oh yeah.  Runs great in fact, electronic ignition and some other upgraded items, just suffers from small leaks and weeps here and there.  The owner wanted an Interstate tank for more capacity, new complete exhaust, all seals and gaskets that are compromised, new updated Mk III Iso Mounts, a good going through.

Cheers,
rad___

 

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Oh yeah.  Runs great in fact, electronic ignition and some other upgraded items, just suffers from small leaks and weeps here and there.  The owner wanted an Interstate tank for more capacity, new complete exhaust, all seals and gaskets that are compromised, new updated Mk III Iso Mounts, a good going through.

Cheers,
rad___

Better you than me... 

[nbags]

5k on guzzi parts probably save me 100k in a shrink couch

[blackcat]

Oh yeah.  Runs great in fact, electronic ignition and some other upgraded items, just suffers from small leaks and weeps here and there.  The owner wanted an Interstate tank for more capacity, new complete exhaust, all seals and gaskets that are compromised, new updated Mk III Iso Mounts, a good going through.

Cheers,
rad___

Rob, I don’t know where you order Norton parts from,but I almost exclusively order them from Andover Norton. In almost any case they are cheaper than any supplier in the states and they usually ship right away.

[Perazzimx14]

I see you're not familiar with gentlemen's club etiquette.

[Texas Turnip]

How much money would I have if I hadn't started riding motorcycles in 1959? How much money would I have if I hadn't been married 7 times?
Man oh man, the memories, while I know some that are loaded with money and are sucking air thru a tube sitting in a wheelchair.

Tex

[JohninVT]

A pack of cigarettes in New England is $7-8.  That's $240 a month and $2,880 a year to wheeze climbing stairs and get lung cancer.  I would guess that having a meth habit would be a lot more expensive(plus your teeth all fall out).  A six pack of decent beer is over $10 and I know a lot of people who drink too much. 

There are a lot of habits that are far worse for your health and your wallet than motorcycles.   

[jas67]

How much money would I have if I hadn't been married 7 times?

SEVEN TIMES?    Really?

I think after two or three, I'd figure out that marriage isn't for me.   

[Lannis]

Been 3 years since I told my Honda 305 story, so maybe it'll go round again ....

One of the neatest bikes I've ever seen was a 305 Superhawk.   I was staying at a B&B at MidOhio VMDs a few years ago, and a guy rode in from Baltimore MD riding one of these.   He was a professional photographer, and was wearing really nice custom touring leathers, top-line boots, gloves, etc.

The Honda was beautiful.   All black and chrome.  Everything on it was perfect.   It had little subtle upgrades that didn't take anything away from its Honda-ness or its vintage-ness.  Lots of the functional-but-cheap-looking stamped-steel Honda bits had been replaced with CNC-machined parts.

The guy said that it was his only bike, and would be the only bike he'd own.   I happened to ask (in my nosy way) what he had in it.  He estimated that he'd spent $30,000 (all paid to others - he wasn't a mechanic) fixing it up like he wanted, trying things and changing them, and getting it exactly the way he needed, including slight mods to the bars, footpegs, lighting, and seat to fit his medium-sized self exactly.  Some of the stamped Honda parts had been replaced with identical-looking forged and machined parts.  A Honda racing mechanic had built and rebuilt the motor several times to get the torque curve and high-speed running just right, the electrics were all new, etc.    He said it would hold 70 MPH all day long on the interstate if he needed to (which he had just done from Baltimore), although he generally took the old roads for fun.

I must have expressed an unspoken degree of amazement at the amount he had in it ... but he set me straight, because he opined that he knew a LOT of people (and so do we) that wouldn't hesitate to throw $30,000 on some cookie-cutter Kalifornia Kustom (he said that with the "k"s in it) or on a new Dodge, but he had spent it on a bike that was precisely what he wanted, worked perfectly, and made him very happy.

On Sunday he took off for home in a driving rainstorm .... Anyway, that was my CB-77 memory.   I've not forgotten the guy's philosophy when I start moaning to myself about how much I'm spending on a bike ...

Lannis

[Thirtyaughtsix]

Initial cost to get my bike aside, the cost to restore mine by and large was $4616. I'll note however some big consumables aren't a part of that, such as paint/primer or any blast media, the guy I knew hooked me up with all of that. Really not that bad though when you go down the list and vast majority of the stuff was priced at a double digit figure, only a handful got up in the hundreds, notably the Gilardonis

[JukeboxGothic]

Still cheap fun. I do wish I kept some of the things I sold to buy parts though. A really nice Omega Flightmaster for one. The price of them now is just stupid.

[Bulldog9]

I engage in the terrible habit of keeping a spreadsheet on all of my vehicles and operating costs. Of course the spreadsheet for my motorcycles and project car is password protected :-)

I think AF1 is in the lead, with MG cycle a close second, though I have bought a few things from RevZilla.