GT250 Frame swap value

Hurco550

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It was a few years back when the vintage motorcycle bug bit me in the form of a 1976 Suzuki GT250. The bike was out for sale a few miles from my house and man was she sexy. Very nice shape for its age, running (though it needs crank seals) and begging to be mine. Talked to the guy and swapped him $75 buck for my soon to be freedom machine. Before I bought it in my then blissful ignorance he told me that "it doesn't have a title, but you can just go get one." HA to this day I wish it were that easy.

I ended up buying a rough but titled gt250 a few years back to do a frame swap on feebay, but after buying (for far to much money) I got it home and realized that the frame was rusted far beyond repair. Many of the mounting nuts on the frame were rusted to the point of not having threads left. After that point I lost interest in the bike and it has been sitting in dads shop/barn since.

Today I was thinking about parting the ol girl out and decided to check out craigslist to see if anything comparable was selling as a baseline. During my search I found a Nice, complete titled frame about 2 1/2 hours north of me for $180. The frame for that bike is a 1975 where my nice bike I have is a 1976.

I am going up saturday to pick up the frame and title, but here in lies the question.

How much would the value decrease for a complete bike with the frame being of a different year than the rest of the bike. Now i know the bike without a title is of little value besides parting it out, which i desperately don't want to do. (the bike deserves to be on the road) The difference between the 75 and 76 is that in 76 they did away with the ram air heads and a few little thing. Should i swap it to the other frame or should try to sell it as a non titled bike with a titled frame to keep it "original" for whoever buys it.

Im sure some of ya'll have delt with this situation so please help a brother out =)
 
Clearly you do not intend to do an actual restoration since you are even considering using anything but the original frame. That being the case, the value of the bike is utterly irrelevant. From a resale value, your untouched but running bike will sell for the greatest return on your investment it will ever see at least for the immediate future. Possibly that works out to the least amount of "negative" profit even now. Even if you leave out the crazy hours you will put in, the usual truth is that any level of improvement will net a lower percentage of money spent as a return. Nobody restores old bikes intending to make a profit. The rare high reputation customizers and restorers can get commissioned to do a bike and make a profit, but nobody pays that kind of money after the fact. Selling a bike just to break even on the parts cost is damn hard. The newer the bike, the less of a bath you may take, and fixing "new" bike can definitely turn a profit. Certain really old bikes can be a specialty and not be an economic loss, but that's not your Suze. So take your titled frame and get a tag, round up all your best parts, and put them together. It may seem like a money pit at first, but it will be the best money you ever spent once you are riding it around.
 
jpmobius said:
Clearly you do not intend to do an actual restoration since you are even considering using anything but the original frame. That being the case, the value of the bike is utterly irrelevant. From a resale value, your untouched but running bike will sell for the greatest return on your investment it will ever see at least for the immediate future. Possibly that works out to the least amount of "negative" profit even now. Even if you leave out the crazy hours you will put in, the usual truth is that any level of improvement will net a lower percentage of money spent as a return. Nobody restores old bikes intending to make a profit. The rare high reputation customizers and restorers can get commissioned to do a bike and make a profit, but nobody pays that kind of money after the fact. Selling a bike just to break even on the parts cost is damn hard. The newer the bike, the less of a bath you may take, and fixing "new" bike can definitely turn a profit. Certain really old bikes can be a specialty and not be an economic loss, but that's not your Suze. So take your titled frame and get a tag, round up all your best parts, and put them together. It may seem like a money pit at first, but it will be the best money you ever spent once you are riding it around.

Thank you for the input. My goal isn't a restoration, but to have a solid vintage rider. I guess my plan would be to have it put together, street legal, ride it for a season maybe and put it up to regain some cash for other projects. (its hard to let them go though) Now I am not ignorant to the fact that it will not be a $180 project, as it will need tires, chain, brake pads ect, but since i would be starting with a complete bike and a bare frame, it shouldnt be an exorbitantly high cost project. As the insane amounts of time goes, I am comfortable with not getting "paid" for that time. People aren't exactly lining up to pay me for my free time in the evenings anyways, and I enjoy wrenching on these old bikes as we all do... or should anyways.

I guess the question you answered is that that an old bike running or not has little value without being street legal, and as the original has no title it wont ever be street legal as it sits. I know a GT250 has value as a vintage ride, but it is far from a high end collectors piece (contrary to what some ask for theirs on feebay and craigslist haha). I think I will do just that, put it together and make it run again.

Another thing that is in the back of my mind is that the best return on investment would probably be to part it out, but I just cant bring myself to doing that. They arent making anymore of these bikes as we all know, and I hate that a piece of paper keeps them from being enjoyed on the road. Thanks again for the input. I think I just needed some time to run this all through my head too =)
 
I agree w/ your choice to make it a 'Runner' 8) You may as well get some enjoyable miles on'er in the upcoming season.I'm sure some folks you meet will make offers on the bike.
 
AND I live about 40 min from Mid-Ohio race track... Always a few ppl there with cash who have vintage bike fever =)
 
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