The fun is figuring out the puzzle!
Randy, you're exactly right. Many vintage mini buyers are looking for a project with value, something that has a lot of good parts and potential, but isn't already done. There's probably very few buyers with $500 to $1000 in their pocket that want to go out and buy a mini already restored, especially if it doesn't have the correct model vintage engine with it. Where's the fun in that? But there's plenty of us that will pay out $500 or more over time trying to find the right parts to put something back the way it was. Same as the fun in a Jigsaw puzzle, it's not the picture in the end. :detective:And I think somehow we find comfort in eradicating the ravages of time, to make that old flathead thump at idle the way we remember as a kid, just beckoning us to go for another ride.
So, if this bike was now to be sold as a roller, waiting to be reunited with a Tecumseh H35 or HS 40, or whatever it originally came with, It might get $300 or more cause it does look good and is complete sans motor. And what would that newer motor bring on its own. There's plenty of speed freaks that like to put the flatheads on the shelf to preserve and run a newer motor for riding pleasure and convenience.
Maybe the value in these vintage minis has recently dropped because now there is a source for the hard to get parts. The Bonanza drum brake and sprocket alone helped hold $75 in a roller. And now the astro wheel can be fitted with a sprocket and brake as a drive wheel, whoo hoo!
And maybe some of us remember seeing that bike for sale earlier with the Tecumseh motor for around $250 or $300 unrestored and can't bear to shell out the extra money to someone else who had all the fun building up the bike....No offense, just sayin...
ut:
