back in the day,

[kevgs]

way back in 1981 i got my gs1000g  the shaft drive the dealer had them on offer as the new and last version was due out , it was only around fifteen hundred pound, happy days if only we could go back in time,

[imago]

According to the BOE inflation claculator that'd be the equivalent of £5,394:80 today.

The brand new Kat in 1981 is the equivalent of £10,250:11 now. It's equivalent today I guess is the Hayabusa which is £18,000.

 

[Dezza]

Coburn and Hughes, Motorcycle Shitty, Carnells, Queens Park Motors and the like were knocking out brand new unfaired 'EFE's in 1988 for £2,600 because no-one wanted them. But we also lived in a hole in the road and had to eat gravel etc., etc.

[kevgs]

but dont you think it was better back then , most places had a nice little motor bike accessory shop that sold most of the stuff you needed , do you see any about now that are any good,

[TonyGee]

58 minutes ago, kevgs said:

but dont you think it was better back then , most places had a nice little motor bike accessory shop that sold most of the stuff you needed , do you see any about now that are any good,

and wearing a long brown coat and flat cap 

[DAZ]

1 hour ago, Dezza said:

Coburn and Hughes, Motorcycle Shitty, Carnells, Queens Park Motors and the like were knocking out brand new unfaired 'EFE's in 1988 for £2,600 because no-one wanted them. But we also lived in a hole in the road and had to eat gravel etc., etc.

Gravel,gravel we couldn't afford gravel,we were lucky to have mud...

Cue python-esque Yorkshire men bickering... 

[DAZ]

7 hours ago, imago said:

According to the BOE inflation claculator that'd be the equivalent of £5,394:80 today.

The brand new Kat in 1981 is the equivalent of £10,250:11 now. It's equivalent today I guess is the Hayabusa which is £18,000.

 

Well the gsx-s thingy in a kannatuna cross dessing outfit was about 10k i think but I may be wrong....

[imago]

2 minutes ago, DAZ said:

Well the gsx-s thingy in a kannatuna cross dessing outfit was about 10k i think but I may be wrong....

I was just going on the 'flagship' top of the line most expensive Suzuki back then vs the same now. Either then or now it's crap load of cash for a bike. 

[DAZ]

Too true 

[Duckndive]

4 hours ago, Dezza said:

Coburn and Hughes, Motorcycle Shitty, Carnells, Queens Park Motors and the like were knocking out brand new unfaired 'EFE's in 1988 for £2,600 because no-one wanted them. But we also lived in a hole in the road and had to eat gravel etc., etc.

Mainly because Suzuki Launched the Slabbie leaving Dealers stuck with them ...

[Dezza]

24 minutes ago, Duckndive said:

Mainly because Suzuki Launched the Slabbie leaving Dealers stuck with them ...

Yep, same thing happened when the LC was launched in 1980. A year later you could buy a brand new RD400 for £699.

Edited June 20, 2023 by Dezza

[Dezza]

4 hours ago, kevgs said:

but dont you think it was better back then , most places had a nice little motor bike accessory shop that sold most of the stuff you needed , do you see any about now that are any good,

Some things were better; some were worse. Regarding motorbikes, you could ride everywhere at 120 mph and not end up in jail, and the roads weren't full of lorries and potholes. Tyres are a lot better now though and it's a lot easier to source secondhand bits

[imago]

10 hours ago, Dezza said:

and it's a lot easier to source secondhand bits

Ah the pre-internet days of bus, lift, walk, push bike dug out of the shed to do a circuit of the breakers because the old knacker you were riding/driving had gone tits up again. You were double fucked if it happened near Christmas as everything including petrol stations shut on Christmas Eve and and very little opened before the 2nd January.

The past really only looks good when looking back at it, and that's mostly because we were young then.

[DAZ]

1 hour ago, imago said:

Ah the pre-internet days of bus, lift, walk, push bike dug out of the shed to do a circuit of the breakers because the old knacker you were riding/driving had gone tits up again. You were double fucked if it happened near Christmas as everything including petrol stations shut on Christmas Eve and and very little opened before the 2nd January.

The past really only looks good when looking back at it, and that's mostly because we were young then.

But at least back then not everyone knew/thought that the old bike at the back of the shed was a classic restoration project an worth 80% of a good tidy runner and you could score a decent bike from the cards in the post office or paper shop window and there were enough engineering firms still about that you could get a mate to do you a *guvvy job* on his dinner break, but generally speaking the past is best viewed with rose tinted glasses 

*Some places call them foreigners*

[Fazz711]

I miss the small local breakers.

Used to have Jax spares you would go in and they would say hi captain.

When you had been going in a while you got promoted all the way up to general.

[kevgs]

bring back the bike spares shops we used to have , if you lucky there was a lovely babe behind the counter in a tight white snake / motor head t shirt , better than all this getting it on line,

Edited June 23, 2023 by kevgs
word adjust