The price is right - or is it?
By John Dickinson on 1st Jun 07
So, how much were bikes 30-years ago - and how much today!
LIKE many of you, no doubt, I always have a scan through the ads in T+MX each week, forever searching for that elusive ‘once-in-a-lifetime' bargain. And even on the new machine front, over the years there have surely been many hundreds of cracking deals on new bikes whether initiated by the manufacturers (usually after a rush of blood led to drastic over-ordering) or by individual dealers (ditto).
This year alone has seen a steady stream of discount models, right across the off-road range - and they aren't just restricted to the ‘dogs' that no-one wanted anyway. The adverts are proof that there are some mega deals going on top quality bikes - and they are there for us to take advantage of!
Readers (buyers) naturally always tell us that bikes are too expensive while the trade - not surprisingly - proposes exactly the opposite view! But with T+MX just having passed the 30-year marker, it got me thinking. How much did bikes actually cost 30 years ago - and how much would these models cost at today's prices?
So, Trials and Motocross News, Issue 1, 1977...
Hmmmm, here we are, Kawasaki KX125 - £650, Kawasaki KX250 - £949. A little further into the year and I turned-up, in the James Sandiford Motorcycles advert, Bultaco Pursang Mk10, 370cc, £1003.
The 64,000 dollar question is, how much is that in today's money?
Well, while this sounds a simple enough proposition (and it must be because I did it!) the waters do get quite murky and it is easy to walk straight into the political landscape of Lies, damned Lies and Statistics. My personal advice to anyone, on having something 'proved' to them by the production of statistics is to ignore it completely and go with your intuition. Because as governments and institutions everywhere know, statistics can be made to 'prove'” whatever you like.
The problem with the conversion from the price a la 1977 to 2007 is, in what context? Depending whether or not you use average earnings or the Retail Price Index, (or any one of half-a-dozen different options) the difference can be as much as 100 per cent either way!
Taking as an example the Bultaco at £1003, (and I always wanted to take a 370 Bultaco) if you use the RPI you get the 2007 figure of £4200, which sounds about right to me. But if you go off average earnings (and retailers will love this figure) then it works out at a mighty £7,000. The KX125 comes out at £2,704 or £4,540 depending on which set of figures you want to use in order to ‘prove' your point. Buyers go for the former - sellers the latter!
On a personal level, I was one of the first people in Britain to shell out £1000 for a trials bike when I picked-up my Suzuki RL325 back in 1978. These days it would set me back £3,495 (RPI) which sounds OK, or a tad over £6000 working on earnings.
Moving it forward a notch, one of the most significant pieces of model pricing in trials was when the Yamaha TY250S mono was launched in 1984. With conventional twin-shockers hovering around £1,250 at the time the Yam jumped in at an eye-watering £1,850 - and it sold by the truck-load. Today that works out at a very reasonable £3,983 - just about right for a current 2007 retail price - or a hefty £5,772 if we are talking average earnings.
So there you have it, I leave it to you to decide which of the equivalent figures you would like to believe. I would say though that it does prove one important point, to me at any rate, - that the heavily discounted prices for certain makes and models to be found within these pages does represent quite remarkable value.
I personally reckon that, on balance, current prices bear out pretty well in like-for- like terms. One thing to take into consideration is the vastly increased spec that we enjoy these days. Fabulous disc-brakes, beautiful aluminium chassis, unbelieveable suspension, awesome electronics, incredible power-outputs. 2007-spec bikes get the nod from me any day of the week - regardless of the retail price! Nostalgia is nice but new is better!
Oh, and in case any of you are misguided enough to think that I am some kind of financial genius to have worked all this lot out (I wish) sadly, this is not the case. I have great difficulty counting beyond 20 (run out of fingers and toes) but to compensate I am not bad at using good old Google, so if any of you out there would like to benefit from my research and play the ‘equivalent values' game let me recommend you log-on to www.measuringworth.com It really is quite good fun...