The Bike you Passed on and Regret

[someguy]

Something a little different. Along the "wish I still had" theme. Bikes that you wish you had pulled the trigger on. Bikes that your were GOING to buy and didn't and now regret.

#1: Around 1999 (my memory isn't so clear) I went to the annual "International" bike show to see all the new models. Moto Guzzi had on display a track only MGS01. It was the only one I have ever seen. The sales lady said you had to "prove yourself as a racer" or whatever to buy the bike. I told her the story about how I acquired my LeMansIII and why I sold it. My wife was present and confirmed the story. She called the national sales rep and got approval for me to buy one. I even set up financing. At the last minute I pulled out and opted for a street legal bike. Still kicking myself for that bone headed move.

For me these all fit in the bucket: Had money in hand, walked away.
Suzuki RG500r Gamma
BSA Gold Star
TZ750
Indian Four

[cliffrod]

In 1992, after buying some clip-ons for my 1974 Ducati 450 Mark 3 from a local racer here in Spartanburg and asking if he knew of any other Ducati stuff for sale, he offered me his 750GT roundcase street bike for $500. 

The caveat was that it “isn’t correct.  It’s completely kitted out as a 750S with all the original parts I removed from my 750S back when I built it into my race bike, the one I wrecked in Charlotte.  It’s all there but is all apart right now.” 

I was a culinary apprentice making around $6/hr at the time and my sideline/trading bike budget was depleted at the time after recently buying my mint unrestored 1965 Ducati Sebring 350 for $700.  My new wife wasn’t too interested in me getting another project either.   so I wasn’t able to get it.  Didn’t even go look at it.  In my mind, “all apart” meant split cases, shims & gears dirty in a box, etc. like other all apart bikes I was used to finding.

I did tell a friend about it.   He bought it, then called me to tell me that “all apart” simply meant complete engine was out of frame, bodywork was off and wheels were off.  he had it together & running in around 3 hours, then sold it at Daytona in 93….


There was one other bike..  Shortly before that wife left me, I did buy a very original 1968 Norton P11A in summer 93.  Soon after she left, it was sold in late 1993 basically so I could better afford keep my V7 Sport and Ducati singles.  A friend bought it and it went away, supposedly sold to someone we didn’t know who didn’t live around here.

Fast forward to 2006.  I was selling everything except my V7 Sport and FLH to help fund my studio.  This same friend called and said he still had my P11A. He had hidden it in his basement since he got it from me, saying he knew that “if y’all knew I still had it, one of us would have somehow screwed him out of it before now.”  Probably true- three of us really liked that bike.   He was old and needed to sell it. Think he wanted $2500 for it, very fair price but again I was in no position to buy it at the time. 

One of us three, a good friend who is a hardcore Norton/Matchless hybrid P11/G15 expert, did buy it.  He eventually sold & $$$ restored it for his boss- amazing bike.  He picked it up and had it here at my place when the man buying my Parilla 250 Wildcat and spares for a GS clone project was here.  Fun to see it untouched & exactly like it was when I sold it 10+ yrs later.  Would have liked to have it but more for nostalgia than anything else.

[redrider90]

Fran Contaldi was having a sale on bikes in Lillington NC just after buying the Guzzi brand. He needed cash.
See this for the story https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1991/4/1/the-great-guzzi-buy-out-of-1991
I had pulled the heads on my 72 Ducati 750 and took them for Eric Phillippe to put valves, guides and seats. Meantime I am wandering around the place and I was looking a new Mille and a Lemans V. I took both for a ride in the coming weeks and Guzzi bug bit me. I was coming off a divorce and was sliding by with a good job but not many beans. I told Fran go easy on me..... I want a cash only bike. Both were priced within $200 of each other at $5000-$5200K. I took both for a ride and picked the Mille. The Lemans had the big valve engine and I thought maybe that's too much bike for me. I'm only 6'5" and I am worried about too much for me to handle!  Anyhow I bought the Mille and have loved it ever since. But I always lusted after LM V. The only other one I would had taken had it fit my long @ss body would have been the classic green 1000s which the ergos killed me. I sold my Ducati for $750 to find the cash. Selling the Ducati is a story for the one that I should have kept. Eh...   BTW I learned years later that Fran got sued by a bunch of Guzzi dealers for selling bikes cheap through Midway Cycles and had to quit giving good deals when he was cash short.

[PeteS]

Honda RC30. The Honda Dealer about a mile from me had one for about 6 years before he finally sold it. I had too many projects going on at the time.






Pete

[Oca Grassa]

I can’t say there are any I left on the table that I truly regret not buying. I say that because the ones I did end up with were better examples for less money than those I passed on.

Ones I didn’t have the money for at the time, of circumstances were such that I didn’t have the time available to sort out the details of buying.

That last one kinda still tugs at my heart a little.

I was based at RAF Upper Heyford in the early to mid 1990s. In summer 1994, the 916 was released early for the 1995 model year. The local Ducati dealership was just off the Banbury to Oxford road not real far from the turn to Upper Heyford.

I was riding by on my way back from Oxford when I saw what looked like the entire show room out in the gravel parking lot. When I rolled in to see what was going on, there were something like a dozen or more 888s in a line. Outside.

I didn’t know what was going on, but I saw one of the sales blokes I’d spoken to on previous visits. I shut the ZX-7 off and he starts talking before I’ve even gotten my helmet off. I hear something like “firesale” and “all gotta go” before I finally have my helmet off and ear plugs out.

Once I did, I asked “what’s going on?” “Why are all the bikes in the parking lot?” He says to me, “The 916 mate”. “The 916 is here so we’re fire saling all the old inventory.” “You wanna take a test ride?”

Wait….what do you mean by firesale? What are we talking? He says “take your pick mate” “888 SP1 for £5K, SP2 for £6K”…etc. The dollar to GBP rate was $1.56 ish at the time. I was struggling with the mental math and my excitement of the prospect of shipping home a Ducati.

Decided fairly quickly that I had to calm myself and think rationally. Could I even afford to finance the bike, even with at least that much in the bank? I was headed back to the US in a scant few weeks, I’d have to arrange shipping the bike home along with my Ninja. That would require spending further time with our customs peeps and transportation movement office.

I had less than 3 weeks. My belongings were scheduled to be packed, and the Ninja crated in 4 days. It was Memorial Day weekend so essentially the movers would be there Tuesday. No one was at work until then either. So….I had to pass on buying….an 888SP1 for $7500 new, off the show room floor.

The circumstances being what they were, it’s difficult for me to have a great deal of regret. Do I wish I had an 888 version that wasn’t available here in the US? Yeah, I do….but at the same time, my 996 sorta makes any regrets over a basically impossible situation fade a poorly set up drum brake on a twisty road. IOW, no….there aren’t any bikes I passed on that I really and truly regret not buying.

[michaell32]

Buell XB12.  They were cheap but I was more focused on going fast instead of enjoying the ride so I got a GSXR.  Years later I rarely see one pop up and when they do it's usually in the 4k area.  If Buell was still in business I would probably still go for it.

[azccj]

For me it was a 1998-99 Ducati 900SS Final Edition. Something about that bike, all in silver, that just did it for me. A local dealer had a new one which sat in their showroom for about 2 years before it finally sold. If memory serves me right, it was about $10,000 at the time. Wish now I had bought it, but back then I thought touring bikes were the bikes to own, and back then I could only afford to own 1 bike.

[rocker59]

1998 Ducati Supersport 900FE.

 

[Joliet Jim]

A new 1977 Triumph Bonneville Silver Jubilee and a used 850 Norton that was priced like a steal.

[Scott Carpenter]

Easy answer - should have bought a new CBR600F for my first big bike in 1996 instead of my maltreated and never quite right second hand SRX600. The Hondas have a great reputation for reliability, and it would have been OK to tour on based on how I travelled then. I looked at the loan, and the amount I had saved, and what I wanted from a bike back then, and backed out. Bought the SRX a few weeks later. I reckon if a new MZ Skorpion Tour or a SV650 had been around then I would have been swayed. But they were a few years down the line.

[daytonars97]

  Sigh... A  green 1993 1000S leftover in 1996 for $6K out the door.  Thought I had too many bikes at the time. 

[someguy]

  Sigh... A  green 1993 1000S leftover in 1996 for $6K out the door.  Thought I had too many bikes at the time. 

This one is pretty close to that. I considered it before my recent purchase.
https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/mcy/d/signal-hill-1994-california-1100-cafe/7840936675.html
I do like the green better!

[brider]

  Sigh... A  green 1993 1000S leftover in 1996 for $6K out the door.  Thought I had too many bikes at the time. 

Hey, was that bike @ Donaldson's in St. Louis? As I was scrolling down reading all the regrets, I was prepping in my mind to relay my OWN regret...wait for it...a left over green 1000s, about that same time period as yours. Probably just a coincidence. But why were those poor 1000s' left on the showroom floor THEN, and are so collectable NOW?

Oh, another one just this year was a used TM Racing 250 a guy couldn't give away on ADVrider. I texted him a few times about it, didn't know much about the TMs, wanted to use it to replace my snarlin' GasGas EC 300 'cause I'm too old for that beast, and I snoozed and lost. Immediately re-assessing the bike I failed to grab, I (think) I would have LOVED it.

[daytonars97]

Hey, was that bike @ Donaldson's in St. Louis? As I was scrolling down reading all the regrets, I was prepping in my mind to relay my OWN regret...wait for it...a left over green 1000s, about that same time period as yours. Probably just a coincidence. But why were those poor 1000s' left on the showroom floor THEN, and are so collectable NOW?

  Coincidence. The one I missed was at Cycle Werks of Barrington, IL., so it looks like it was very unloved at the time.  Always regretted not buying that one even before they went up in value.  Thought it was a work of art (that is the reason I bought a Daytona Rs years later-was not going to miss that one also), but I was a bmw guy at the time, and as I mentioned "had too many bikes."  As to the sky high prices- who knows?  Supply and demand?  People waking up to the classicism of the machine?  Any other ideas?. 

  I find interesting that the Daytonas being equally rare or even rarer are almost half the value of the 1000S it being a vastly superior machine, IMHO.  Anyone knows how many 1000s were imported to the US?

[blackcat]

"But why were those poor 1000s' left on the showroom floor THEN, and are so collectable NOW?"

They cost too much@$10,500 so they sat on the floor.

 
  "I find interesting that the Daytonas being equally rare or even rarer are almost half the value of the 1000S it being a vastly superior machine, IMHO.  Anyone knows how many 1000s were imported to the US?"

A 93 Daytona sold on BAT for $13,500 not too long ago, IMO the RS is worth more. According to the late great Franz at Spare Parts in Philly, he sold more 1000S bikes than any dealer in the USA.  Riding the RS and the 1000S back to back, the RS is the better performing bike and aesthetically they stand alone in their own category. If I had to keep one it would be the 1000S. 

"According to the book by Ian Faloon, the following numbers are produced per year: 1989(155x), 1990(524x), 1991(401x), 1992(196x), 1993(84x). However, Faloon also writes that fewer than 200 items were sold in the USA. If you then count for example 180 pieces, then the total becomes 1250 + 180 = 1430. It will probably always remain a mystery..."

https://www.1000s.nl/english/the_1000s.html

[mechanicsavant]

I believe it was around 1978 or so . A CBX 6cyl. Honda . Even then , I thought “You’ll shoot your eye out kid” !