I was over with my mate tonight, doin a bit more to my Monster and noticed a 916 'Senna' stripped bare in the corner of the garage. I asked Davy about it - and couldnt believe what I heard....

The bike is 13 years old. It has ZERO miles on the clock! The owner doesn't ride bikes - but he just loves nice ones! He also has an MV Augusta of some sort in the same condition ie. unused.

I dont get that Obviously more money than sense. How on this earth could you fall for such bikes and not feel compelled to al least get your test and get a ride on them?

The funny thing is (well, funny to me anyway) this 916 is in bits. The guy was having it moved and it fell off the trailer in his driveway Broke the clocks, damaged the forks, broken plastics etc. How friggin ironic is that! See... NOT riding bikes is dangerous

Same thing is appearing all around me this past week or 2.... that RC45 with 1 mile on it. A Honda 250 race bike - NEVER USED with the original parts kit mounted on a plaque. WTF?!! I really don't get it.

John.

Can't understand having bikes and not riding them.......i had customer going back a bit who used to take great pleasure in showing me photos of his garage FULL of bikes (about 20 of them) When I asked him how he managed to ride them all he said he didn't ride more than a couple of them - the others were just because he liked the look of them (or they were limited editions etc).....How mad is that??? Definitely more money than sense......

Still, sounds like it might be to your advantage Johnny if there's loads of these rich non bike riding bikers in Norn Iron - should make for a wealth of bikes out there being sold off eventually with no miles on Bring it on

Some people like having a beautiful painting on the wall or a statue in their hallway, other people prefer a beautifully made machine eg a bike.

Personally I'd rather ride them but I dont have an issue with someone who purely appreciates bikes for their aesthetics.

Yeah - totally agree there. I'm a bit like that over Aston Martins (as is my other half!). We could literally draw up a chair and just sit there for hours if allowed! I had the pleasure of a drive in a DB7 a few years back. All my friends asked "Wow - how did that drive - was it fast?". My answer to this day is "Frig the speed - it was the sun visors that got me! Made from buckskin!" For me - sitting in that car was enough to admire it.

I was more astonished at how someone could fork out that kinda money for 'art'. Guess that tells more about me (and my relative lack of income) than them

People will pay millions for a friggin picture to hang on the wall! Compared to that it isnt that much (Dont know how much a 916 senna is but i'm assuming we are talking at most tens of thousands at most rather than hundreds of thousands).

At least the bike CAN be ridden if ya get bored!

I think we should cut the bike in half and then pickle it - should be worth a fortune then

Now that would be sacrilege!

No - art

Bikes to Ride - Check
Bikes as a form of art - Check (i suppose I can see where they're coming from)
Bikes to sit gathering dust in a garage - Don't get it...

I sold my previous bike to a girl from work. She was going to be putting in for her test within a couple of months of getting the bike. That was February, it was p1ssing it down when I delivered it to her, and as yet she still hasn't cleaned the bike. I took it for an MOT in March for her, and the front wheel and center stand had all but seized. I had to drag the bike out of the garage by the grab rail, and eventually got the front wheel moving again. It went straight through the MOT (was about a 19 mile ride to the test center so had freed up by then), the only comment the guy made was "Bloody good nick for its age, but bloody filthy!". I agreed. It was raining on the ride back to her place, and I told her she really needed to make sure it was cleaned properly the next day at the latest. It still hasn't moved

Her boyfriend did his DAS last year, went out and bought a couple of sets of leathers / textiles, 3 crash helmets, loads of other stuff and two weeks after passing his test a brand new black R6. He has yet to do 500 miles and have the first service. He had 450 miles on it last time I saw it in April. Hasn't been ridden since, and now he's on about selling it. He wants the same price he paid for it, because he put crash mushrooms, a tail tidy, a tank protector, and smaller indicators on it. I've tried telling him he won't get 7k for it in a million years, but he won't have it. I know what's going to happen... He's going to have a 2007 R6 in 2010 which STILL only has 450 miles on it, but the tyres/battery will be shot, fuel will have gone off, and wouldn't be surprised if the engine was totally seized.

So, they've not got them for aesthetics, just to look at, as I don't think they even go in the garage. That I don't get...!

Jon.

There's a story in this month's classic bike about a perfect 1939 series A Vincent Rapide that was sold at auction for a touch over £200,000 that is expected to not get ridden :-(

i can't understand it either. But my mate recently bought a 2003 (or was it 05?) Triumph Daytona 955 with about 3000 miles on it!

the previous owner had bought it. ridden it for one summer, put it away in the garage as soon as the sun stopped, took it out the next summer, realised bikes weren't for him and just left it there!

he obviously finally decided to sell it. My mate paid £3k for it, and it's immaculate! Not a scratch, dent, anything!

There's a vintage scramble on near me this week. Even though I can appreciate how great it would be to restore a classic bike and then ride it, it did surprise me that people would lovingly restore a 50s/60s bike, then take it out to a scramble to get it all messed up!!!

Don't knock it - I bought a sportster a couple of months ago that had only been doing a couple of hundred miles a year - Bargain price & immaculate nick
I've got it up to service time already though better start saving.
I know what you mean though, I've seen Triumphs the same age as mine in classic bike - 3 figure mileages. I needed a 500 mile service the same week I bought mine.

I really do not get your point here, The vast majority of these bikes have obviously been bought as a money investment's and what trickles on to the open market to give us bargain buy's are just to make room for a star buy.
I would certainly prefer to go see a bike collection that is still in its Factory/Showroom condition of classic though over priced bikes other than wander round looking at some old tatty bit of Bike that has been from earth to the moon and back.
After reading some of your threads about your buy's, which i find strange because you dont seem to keep a bike long enough to master it before moving on to something else, I would have thought you at least would have understood ones desires to have a bike collection.
Biker's are in general eccentric to the bone and long may we continue to be so.

I'm wondering if this is a bloke that I've met before. I think he's called Goz.
This chap bought an R1 and left it in my mates garage while he worked abroad for a few years. He 'forgot' about the R1 and bought a Senna 916,which he left with his brother while he worked abroad again. While he was away he bought an MV Agusta and I think there was some reason or other why he didn't ride it but I can't remember why.
I met the bloke at a friends BBQ and tried buying the R1 but at the time he didn't want to sell. I heard a few weeks later that he sold it it for £2000. It hadn't been used for 5 years and was practically as new with only 2000 miles on it. The new owner charged the battery and put fresh fuel in it and away he went. Bugger!

I really dont think thats not the case here. This 916 owner just liked the look of it and wanted it. He doesnt ride bikes - he's just loaded and wanted it. Well - thats what I was told anyway.... the more I think of it, the more I doubt that claim.



So how long do you think it should take to 'master' one particular bike? I'm loving chopping and changing - and find each bike has its strengths and weaknesses. I'm just having one big test ride But yes, as you rightly say, I understand totally the desires for a collection. If I could keep all that I've owned I would. I just cant understand someone buying a bike designed for fun, and not having fun on it. But then, the guy in question who prompted me to start the thread, can't ride. We're back to art again arent we?

@Wilf: This guys from N.I. - so I doubt its the same person.

John

I can understand....

Like was said before, it's a form of art.

One of the "to do" things on my list is buying a Ducati and put her in the living room.
I love the looks of Ducatis, just can't stand the bag of bolts noise they make when idle..
So.. one day! one day! I'll buy one and just keep her at home..

I joke with my missus about this one... saying that I'll rip the fireplace out, but leave the marble hearth. A sort of plinth on which to put something proper to look at

I like their looks, but I love the bag of bolts noise they make.

If wuz rich like defiler I'd have a Ducati immediately.

I'd like an 851

God they sounded good

Should hear the Ducati Desmosedici!! Now that sounds awesome. I know cos a friend of ours has bought one. One of only 4 in Benelux!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoHajCCvlp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iKZc34rDhU...feature=related <-- on the streets of Glasgow - watch out for the mad bus drivers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiIwoCSAAhw

Oooooooooh.

The flip side of all this people buying bikes and not riding them is that it means for those of us who do actually ride their bikes the value depreciates like you wouldnt believe. So many low mileage pristine examples about means depending on the model it could be peanuts by the time its done 30k.

Don't I fecking know it too.

My GSX-R has a full history, has never been dropped and is exactly the same as it came out of the showroom; albeit with some stone chips round the radiator intake & evidence of a fair few sets of tyres being taken off/ put on.

And it's worth as much as some people pay for poxy mountain bikes now!

I can understand people buying a lovely bike just to look at.

And I can understand that a lot of people buy a bike and then find that biking's not really for them, but just never get around to selling the bike.

What I can't understand is people like a bloke at work, he likes riding and some years ago he bought a Triumph - can't remember which but it doesn't matter - and started riding it to work. Then I didn't see it for some time so I asked him if he still had it and his reply was "yes but I don't want to put too many miles on it". He's more concerned with maintaining the resale value than with enjoying it!



At the other extreme - my daughter's boss bought a Desmodici, he's enjoying riding it so much that he intends to do some track days on it - just what it's ideal for, yet some folks ask why he would risk taking it on the track and damaging it!

Why would he ride it around a city for the whole video?

That video is just about showing off his expensive toy and not really about the bike.

I think that old lady at the end wasn't looking at the riders arris rather than the bike.

Now I'm no expert... but that wasn't a laydee!.... was it? I thought it was one of the other MCN guys in drag!

Hahahaha - that's a great way to stop being rich in a hurry, and don't I know it... Go on - get one and we can be in the poor-house together!

Some bikes do just make you stop and go "Wow!" when you look at them but they are not necessarily the ones you want to ride! At my time of life I would need the services of a chiropractor if I rode a Ducatti any distance.
On the other hand I do not see the point of not riding a bike if you own it. It is designed to be ridden not hung on the wall for gdsake.
The true beauty of a bike is the feeling you get when you take a perfect line on a series of bends or blast off past a queue of sunday drivers in their cages.

There's a really big bloke down my road who rides a Ducati. I've no idea what model it is but every time we hear it coming we all run to the window just to listen to it as it sails past. It's a tonic to the senses!
I'd buy one, if I could afford it, just to hear that sound.
I don't see a problem with buying something just because you like the look of it.