Why is it so hard to buy an investment grade Honda CBX1000? Finding an investment grade Honda CBX1000 for sale has never been easy and it now seems harder than ever, but why? Firstly, prices have gone up vastly since 2010, when there were some good ones to be had for as little as £5,000! How times have changed. So what is going on? Honda CBX1000s have always been difficult to find, if you’re after an investment grade example and many do not even have the original motor. On early examples, trying to see the engine number is quite a feat, which most owners won’t allow. Also examples with good original exhaust systems and shock absorbers are extremely rare. Many have very good replica exhausts and many with the original exhaust system looking shiny and lovely are a grenade without a pin. The original silencers would rot from the inside out.
Another problem with the big Honda six is that parts are very expensive, and there are six, or twenty four lots of very costly pieces that adds up to enormous bills on parts alone. Very few people now know how to set these machines up and so when you find someone who can do the work, they will explain that the labour bill will be enormous along with the parts bill. Not because they charge more per hour than anyone else, but it takes a long time to work on these motorcycles, they are not a single cylinder 500cc motor.
Many of them, in their forty year life, have not been serviced properly, or regularly, and that will cause enormous problems. I will write about this in more detail in the future. If the bike is set up correctly, the oil changed every 1,000 miles and the filter every two thousand, then they can be high mileage motors. But most have been neglected at some point of their life. Conrods are very weak and if the bike has had a tyre shredder for an owner, then chances are at least a crank rebuild is on the cards. If the valve clearances have not been attended to correctly, then they tend to snap.
So why on earth would anyone want one of these motorcycles? Because the right example is a joy to own and ride, is comfortable, great for long journeys and will leave a massive grin on your face every time you have the pleasure of hitting the start button. Not only that, they are a fantastic investment. Prices for investment grade examples are now just about past the £20,000 mark and rising fast. Yes, you can buy eBay specials and good luck with them as there are good reasons for them being on eBay (see above). I was laughed at in early 2014 when I said they would hit £20,000 before the end of the decade
Why is it so hard to find an investment grade Honda CBX1000?
To answer the question; for all of the above reasons, it’s the fortieth anniversary of the motorcycle this year and because values are rising rapidly of this iconic, classic motorcycle. The owners of the right machines, which are scarce to start with, know what they have. They are in strong hands, prices are rising and more and more classic motorcycle investors are chasing less and less available machines.
If you want to find an investment grade Honda CBX1000 that won’t let you down, has all the due diligence completed, has been fully mechanically investigated and comes with a cast iron guarantee, then you need The Motorcycle Broker. Even if the machine is already well set up, it will have had three solid weeks of mechanical investigation and setting up undertaken to prove that the motorcycle is fit for purpose along with a due diligence report. It will also need a fair bit of paintwork to be attended to under the body work. It is this type of machine that will bring you many miles of happy motorcycling and a very healthy tax-free profit when you sell. But if you expect to find one quickly, you’ll be disappointed and the good ones are very scarce. It was a lot easier to find them back in the early 2000s and up until 2015, but since then the really beautifully preserved ones have been snapped up by sharp investors who will not sell. The right machine is worth waiting for and will not come below market value because there is a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure that The Motorcycle Broker’s customer receive the correct machine.
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