Joe Gresh raised an interesting topic with his recent blog on motorcycle quantity. You know, how many motorcycles are too many? That blog got a lot of hits and tons of comments on Facebook. It seems like he struck a nerve.
The most motorcycles I ever owned at one time was five, which pales in comparison to Gresh’s shop full of motos and maybe the collections of a few other people I know. When my collection hit that peak, I had a Triumph Daytona 1200, a Harley Heritage Softail, a Suzuki TL1000S, a Honda CBX, and a KLR 650. That was about 20 years ago. There was no rhyme or reason to my collection and no central theme guiding the contents of my fleet. I just bought what I liked. In those days I had more money than brains, but don’t interpret that to mean I was rich. I just never had a lot of brains. Most folks who know me recognize that pretty quickly.
I seemed to hover around that number (five, that is) for a while. Other bikes moved in to displace one or more of the above, most notably a Triumph Tiger and then a Triumph Speed Triple. Those were fun, but they’ve gone down the road, too.
Which one did I enjoy riding most? That’s easy. It was the KLR 650. The KLR 650 was the bike that led me on an arc toward smaller motorcycles, like the CSC RX3 and then a TT250. I was a bit player implementing Steve Seidner’s decision to bring those motorcycles to America. The 250s were a lot of fun. I sold off all the big bikes and only rode 250s for a few years, then I fell in love with the new Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor when it hit the market, and suddenly I was back up to three.
But three, for me, was too many. I haven’t been riding much in the last few years for a lot of reasons. The pandemic put a dent in any big travel plans (YMMV, and that’s okay), and constantly moving the battery tender around and cleaning the TT250’s jets was getting old. I couldn’t move anything in my garage because there was so much stuff crammed in there, and I had to park the TT250 under the rear porch awning. I don’t have a separate workshop area and I don’t pour concrete (I don’t have Mr. Gresh’s talents, but even if I did, it looks like too much work to me), so hanging on to a big motorcycle fleet was not in the cards.
Badmouthing Facebook has become trendy, but I’ll tell you that Facebook Marketplace came to the rescue. I already had a ton of photos of my motorcycles and whipping up ads for the TT250 and the RX3 literally took only seconds. I checked Kelly Blue Book values, picked prices only marginally below what a dealer would charge, and both bikes sold quickly. The TT250 sold the day after I listed it; the RX3 took one additional day.
All the China haterbator keyboard commandos said Chinese bikes had no resale value. Like everything else they posted, they were wrong. The haters said Chinese bikes were unreliable (they were wrong), the haters said you couldn’t get parts for them (they were wrong), the haters said they were built with slave labor (I’ve been in the factories, and they were wrong), and they said they had no resale value (and they were wrong about that, too). My 6-year-old RX3 with 20,000 miles on the clock went for 69% of its original MSRP, and my 5-year-old TT250 with 3,000 miles went for 74% of its original MSRP. That’s pretty good, I think. And both sold right away. Not that I was in a hurry to sell. I probably could have held out for more.
So I’m down to one motorcycle, and that’s the Enfield. For me, at this point in my life, one motorcycle is the right number (your mileage may vary). I’m on to other “how many” questions now, like how many guns are too many, and how many bicycles are too many. The answer to both of those questions is something south of my current number, but those are topics for future blogs.
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Yeah. I have a garage full and have finally gotten tired of trying to maintain a “collection”. About a year ago I was absolutely astonished when I was talking to somebody about it and the words “I have too many motorcycles” unconsciously slipped out of my mouth. I keep looking and thinking about selling a few but that just sets me on an endless internal debate about which to let go. I have, I think reached a point in life where having a lot of possessions seems to be weighing me down more than its bringing me happiness. Yeah. Which one? I mean, I only have 6 Yamaha XS650 twins and the value of those is going up everyday. One of the Harleys? Ummmm…….not a chance. And the beat goes on……..
I felt your pain. Facebook Marketplace was the solution.
Joe it’s call getting old jaja yep I’m the same I only put 4,ooo miles on my bagger in 2 yrs because of the RX3 22,000 miles jaja
I had about 20,000 miles on my RX3 when I sold it. I put all of the Colombia and China miles on other motorcycles owned by AKT and Zongshen. It was a hard decision to sell the TT250 and the RX3. Once I decided to do so, I was surprised at how quickly they sold. It took a couple of years to sell the KLR 650.
Since I do not have a car I like to keep at least an alternate on hand. You can keep the tire and maintenance in check so you don’t find yourself without transport or riding when it needs attention. For me that has worked out to the RE 650 (waiting parts), a Yam 400 maxi scooter & a 125 buddy for town….
The 125 scooter is just way to much fun…..
Having a car makes life a little easier. Hard to take a rifle to the range on a motorcycle.
My bikes are so crappy I need to get a grip that they are nearly worthless and I’m not selling them for the money but to get rid of unused stuff.
There’s some guidance on organizing your place that says if you haven’t used something for a year, throw it away. Not sure that holds true all the time, but for a lot of things it makes sense.
Hey, I am sitting at two bikes now… A used Sportster and my 826 , 1972 Honda and building Bonneville Sidecar. The sidecar is a work in progress… parts all over the place, but should be ready for 2021. Miss my 1200 Yellow Triumph Daytona, sniff…great bike for eating monster miles!
You need to hang on to that used Sportster. A lot of folks are recommending them.
If Harley started building new, used Sportsters they’d make a killing.
They could offer fringed patina with conchos and a free do rag. And fatsuits for less than full figured riders. You might be on to something…