Would you keep or sell your vintage bikes?

When I read your title I thought WHAT!!!! Keep them!!!!!
Then I read your post and I see your point.
Maybe keep 1 or 2, your favourite's? Tough call I guess.
80s and 90s bikes are currently very fashionable but I don't think it detracts from the value of older bikes, my Dads mid 60s Cheney BSA is worth more than my mid 90s KX500 for example, both are in similar, very good still being used condition and a true vintage bike from say the 1920s in similar shape would possibly be worth even more????
What bikes do you have?

Save at least one for your kid, he'll come around later on.

I keep trying to sell stuff and just end up finding more to buy. OBD...old bike disease. While I do not pay rent to store mine, I have spent a small fortune building a big garage and shop that is now so full I can't hardly do anything in them. Even bought a 40 foot shipping container to try to get my stuff organized. My goal is to sort out what I want to keep, want to build and all the parts to go with them. I'll pick out some spares and everything else will eventually need to go.

I have a constant battle within myself as to what the hell I"m doing with all my vintage bikes....I can"t seem to stop buying them...I just enjoy tinkering with them, being out in my shop looking at all of them, makes me feel like a kid again...there are so many things in life that can pull you down and make you lose that "kid" feeling....if Having your old bikes makes you happy, like it does me, run with it.....always joke with my wife..." Have fun getting rid of my bikes when I drop dead" .... If you do decide to sell some bikes, give us Vital guys first crack!

If you are asking then sell them. Youve lost the passion for vintage mx. You can justify it by saying yoyre old,or your boy has other interest or whatever. If the heart isnt into it sell them and find something else that lights you up. It cost too much takes too much time and too little reward if you arent loving your bikes. Thats my opinion from what i read in your post. I know a old guy in his mid 50s and thinks about his vmx bikes as much as he did when he was 14. That guy needs to keep his kx125

i have the whole 87 yz line all sweethearts, my buddies say when i die, they are loading them up going to a sand pit and letting pit whampers kill them
really though ive always said i will sell them to retire
but keep a couple
keep what ?
the 96 mcgrath?
77 elsi?
the yzs?
wr
08 crf450?
the lusk 250?
cb125?
cannondale?

christ im not done collecting never mind selling
who the hell started this bs thread anyway

Well, like most things, there are probably as many opinions as there are people on this one. My family keeps asking if I have sold some bikes. I have pared the herd from any motorcycle that was for sale and I had some green in my pocket to purchase to bikes that were current when I was dominating (rear of the 125 Jr. class) in the mid-late 70's. I have removed most of the early 80's bike up to the newer stuff. Sans a few special thumpers, I picked up a few street bikes I can ride more often. Like what I got and always looking for good examples.

But I have now reached the point where most of the remainder of examples hurts to separate. I casually say "they are all for sale" until they specify one. Then I stall, over price or ignore them. The deal has to be good and not just something to flip.

Like Newman, I have a barn that houses the herd. Most don't eat, they don't demand any financial investment or tell me what to do. I can enjoy just sitting out there and pretty soon, I get lost and wonder how Bultaco did this or CZ did that. Would a Maico motor fit in Can Am frame. Stupidity knows no limits around me.

Besides, there is a crew of folks who come by to tell me what I should have done, need to do or how poorly I did. Where would these people go? Home to their wives? I do tell some of the wives they owe me for baby sitting when I see them.

So tell me what you got, maybe I need them! Otherwise, I vote keep'em!!!

Honestly, I've thought about this a lot with respect to bikes/bits and old photos.

None of my family is into it or know any values, and I always fear I'm going to die and Newmann will get some killer deals while they're cleaning out junk.

Seriously, though, I like my stuff to find good homes when I decide I can't keep it.

I agree that interest will wane----so ride the piss out of 'em!! The next gen won't care and wouldn't know what to do with them. My step-dad had a barn full of model A's he restored----even an A300 woody wagon. He had the original Ford blueprints for the A300 and sold copies (like our mx buddy in Chi) to off-set the cost. I have no interest and all of it was sold. The blueprints alone brought six-figures, but the guy who bought 'em was pushing 80.

I used the analytical approach to decide what to do with my 80 plus 60's 70's MX Bike collection. Note this was 2012 and the Vintage Market was pretty much trash.

Made up a spread sheet in full detail.... bike and parts, wish value, quick sale value, reality value, future potential value, storage costs.... etc...a row for each Item.

Next I analyzed what I could do with the money after selling and what not selling had on my personal cash flow.

Boom they were on the auction block and gone in three months...... end results - debt free

Well I hope for all you that decide to sell would give us first crack at what you have!!

Luckily both my sons love motorcycles and my oldest is going to be a collector. He went crying to his mom when I tried to sell his first bike, "it was my first motorcycle"...

I'm hoping to pass on a nice collection to them but in the meantime if you do decide to sell I can be there in 3 hours and I'm at NCMP quite a bit so let me know :-D

Kind of in the same boat. I've got 12 vintage bikes (racers & a few garage queens that I've restored) 1 modern bike and a little Baja minibike for the kids in the neighborhood. My problem is everytime I finish riding one of these old bikes I am compelled to wash and service it immediately. And if there is one thing wrong or if I find a leak it has to be fixed ASAP. I'm 51, married, no kids, getting ready to start a PhD...Busy life. Love riding and working on them. But I'm a little OCD about servicing them and its starting to get where I don't want to ride them because of the hassle of servicing them. In a few weeks I'm going to thin the herd. Like alot of you mentioned I'm happy just having a couple a beers and looking at them...Love my collection but I know I have to whittle it down to something a little bit more manageable.

I don't pay that much attention to the daily prices of vintage bikes but from watching other things the demand starts to take off somewhere around 25 years old(40 year olds suddenly having extra play money and realizing they're not kids anymore), level off around 35, and start the slide around 40. Of course the most prized will keep their value but the frenzy is in the 25 to 35 years.

I am in the same. Boat im 46 and winding down my hobby have 2 vintage bikes 2 new mx bikes and a dual sport. Keeping only 1 vintage. And 2 mx bikes. I dont have time to ride the old bikes. I mostly do mx on my new ride. Also space is a problem. I would keep the most valuable one and sell the rest. Or maybe keep just 2 bikes. Because the young guys coming up arent interested in old bikes. I believe they will evenually go down in value. Yes they will go up to a point but will reverse. Its the 40 and 50 year old guys who had these bikes as kids that are interested in buying them and set the values. When they are gone thats it.