WORKSHOP
Tales from the workshop
Rick ponders the changing dynamic of classic bike values and viability – and where it’s all leading to
IS IT TRUE that the rising value of Japanese classics, contrasted against falling prices for British bikes, proves that a later generation is bursting the Brit-bike bubble? I’m not sure it’s that simple. The year for the highest ever UK bike sales was 1959, so it’s no surprise that 20 years later, having raised families and got some spare time and money, those young riders rekindled their interest in ’50s/’60s bikes creating a classic boom that has kept this magazine going ever since.
This ‘class of 59’ had no interest in grandpa bikes. They wanted Bonnies, Connies and Goldies – and as the 1920s generation gradually thinned out, just like today, people predicted the end for vintage bikes.
For a time, prices fell, but – just like collectable vinyl when CDs came out – after a temporary confidence crisis, they rose anew, stronger than before. The price drop promoted fresh interest – and people who take up restoration to build the bike of their dreams rarely stop there. For many people, satisfying their own nostalgia proved just the start of a journey to a much wider interest.
New generations joined in, bringing later classics. One notable difference was a greater reliance on new old stock parts; with British bikes, repair, repainting and replating was more common than replacing. NOS parts, engine bits especially, were still important – but with bikes made in Britain, it wasn’t too hard to get reproduction parts made, sometimes using the same tooling and firms that supplied the manufacturers. Of course, there are specialists making some great repro parts for Japanese class
