Used bike market

Gimlet

Gimlet

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Had my 1190 serviced and MOT'd yesterday with a view to selling. Eye-watering price (don't ask, but I'm not happy).

Anyway, the dealer (small family firm, good reputation) said that the used market is through the floor at the moment. Manufacturers pushing too many new bikes through dealers - which he said is largely what brought KTM so close to ruin - which combined with the growing percentage of PCP new sales has flooded the used market to such an extent that he said there are currently more used bikes for sale in the UK than there are people with bike licenses.

He doubted I'd manage to sell the 1190 - ten year old bike 55K miles unless I give it away. If he's right that's the end of my dream of new teeth, unless I sell the Diavel. I'd rather just lose my teeth.

What's the view on here about the used market right now? Is he right or just catastrophising?
 
Triple D - I tested an SDR there before getting the Triple.

Nice enough, but they're not interested at all in used bikes - I was floating ideas about where to keep my Supersport at the time, and he said I'd only offer a trade rate because we woud trade it out. That was prob 20 months ago.

I would buy a bike from them without any worries, but maybe they're not the best to take 'selling-used-bike-info' from.
 
Gimlet said:
Had my 1190 serviced and MOT'd yesterday with a view to selling. Eye-watering price (don't ask, but I'm not happy).

Anyway, the dealer (small family firm, good reputation) said that the used market is through the floor at the moment. Manufacturers pushing too many new bikes through dealers - which he said is largely what brought KTM so close to ruin - which combined with the growing percentage of PCP new sales has flooded the used market to such an extent that he said there are currently more used bikes for sale in the UK than there are people with bike licenses.

He doubted I'd manage to sell the 1190 - ten year old bike 55K miles unless I give it away. If he's right that's the end of my dream of new teeth, unless I sell the Diavel. I'd rather just lose my teeth.

What's the view on here about the used market right now? Is he right or just catastrophising?
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Jim, it depends how they interpret giving it away, of course it has value, whether or not it can cover the cost of your gnashers, remains a mystery 🤔 :D
 
I’d be inclined to agree unfortunately. The used bike market is really in the doldrums right now. I’ve made the point before, the yoof just aren’t interested when they can jump into a reliable new (or new ish) car at £x a month on a pcp helped along by the bank of Mum and Dad if need be. When I was 17 I wanted a motorbike more than I wanted a car even though I could get both. When my two daughters have brought boyfriends to the house not a one would know a Ducati from a Dyson. I can well believe there’s more bikes than punters. If you watch the latest Mathewsons auction post sale video the presenters mention how dead the bike market is in general and worse if you have an old Brit bike.
I’ve been trying to sell one of my bikes for a few weeks now which ordinarily would have gone within a day or two but so far only had one sniff. In a nutshell I think it’s a mixture of the current demographic (too old and given up riding or too young and not interested) and the current economy.
 
Dox said:
Triple D - I tested an SDR there before getting the Triple.

Nice enough, but they're not interested at all in used bikes - I was floating ideas about where to keep my Supersport at the time, and he said I'd only offer a trade rate because we woud trade it out. That was prob 20 months ago.

I would buy a bike from them without any worries, but maybe they're not the best to take 'selling-used-bike-info' from.
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I wasn't going to name the dealer as they seemed very decent and I didn't want to suggest on social media that they were over-charging. Their labour rates at £78/hr are very reasonable for a main dealer and they booked 5.5 hours for my bike which is again reasonable as it was a valve check service and they found a few unscheduled bits and pieces that needed doing.

The bill for parts was almost double what I was expecting. Either the dealer was heavily front-loading (and they didn't strike me as being the sort of people who would do that) or I'm wondering whether KTM has ballooned the price of original parts and service consumables to try and claw back some desparately needed revenue. Afterall, they've got you by the balls. If you want to maintain an authorised dealer service history, which almost everyone will, especially those with warranties to protect, everything comes through KTM so they're got a captive market.

Down south there were a couple of extremely good KTM-experienced independents which I'd always used in the past but I don't know of any up here, so I went for a reputable, down to earth main dealer that wasn't a big glitzy multi-franchise, as they always charge through the nose with triple figure hourly rates.
 
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I'd say a decent slice of bikes are no longer coming here also... to give you an insight how many bikes here used to be brit imports ... I have 7 bikes
Rs 250... bought in Wales
Ducati 999s bought in ducati Aylesbury
1299s bought in Ducati Glasgow
Kawasaki zx7r bought in the England
4 of my seven bikes are British and this was very common all my mates would look in the UK for better bikes with service history than look at the shit on sale here .. we are the opposite at the minute here with junk now fetching stupid money 👌... not sure if it makes a big difference but it wouldn't help 👀
 
Dox said:
Triple D - I tested an SDR there before getting the Triple.

Nice enough, but they're not interested at all in used bikes - I was floating ideas about where to keep my Supersport at the time, and he said I'd only offer a trade rate because we woud trade it out. That was prob 20 months ago.

I would buy a bike from them without any worries, but maybe they're not the best to take 'selling-used-bike-info' from.
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He did say that at one point KTM were pushing 85 new bikes on him a year, which the business has to buy up-front.

That's an idiotic number of new bike sales for such a smaller dealer. It's a million quid's worth of stock you've got to shift just to get your money back. Not surprising they don't want used ones in the showroom. It's no wonder so many main dealers are going bust and KTM have almost bankrupted themselves with massive over-supply.

I was extremely sad to hear while I was up there that Gear4 down in Peterborough have gone. They were the best KTM dealer in the country IMO.
 
An older bike like yours is probably sellable privately, dealers won't want it, as they say, they will trade it and let someone else make a profi so just hassle to them.

For instance, my car was valued by the insurers at around £5,700 which I was surprised at, I talked them up to £6,000 without too much bother - I would have been lucky to get £4,000 as a trade in I thought. I bought another car but the dealer (Motorpoint) wouldn't even entertain discount without a trade in so they are effectively saying your trade in is not our concern either way.

Like @WAYNE has said, most older geezers are looking for hassle (electronic jiggery pokery) light bikes - which yours will be - or brand new. Even Honda can't seem to give away a cbr 650 for a free 6 month trial 🤔 more KTM and ccm troubles to come I think
 
Barry Hell said:
An older bike like yours is probably sellable privately, dealers won't want it, as they say, they will trade it and let someone else make a profi so just hassle to them.

For instance, my car was valued by the insurers at around £5,700 which I was surprised at, I talked them up to £6,000 without too much bother - I would have been lucky to get £4,000 as a trade in I thought. I bought another car but the dealer (Motorpoint) wouldn't even entertain discount without a trade in so they are effectively saying your trade in is not our concern either way.

Like @WAYNE has said, most older geezers are looking for hassle (electronic jiggery pokery) light bikes - which yours will be - or brand new. Even Honda can't seem to give away a cbr 650 for a free 6 month trial 🤔 more KTM and ccm troubles to come I think
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I've noticed over the last couple of weeks seeing old school bikes mainly GSXs and Bandits!! GSX750s i've seen on Ebay for between 3-4K with low mileage and remember they are proper superbikes with the advantage of doing work on it yourself. :) Also the added advantage of tinkering with the carbs and air filter set ups and of course exhausts. Give me old school any day of the week, my Indian was flyby wire throttle and on two occasions i had to take it to Pool for the shop to sort out, it kept going into get you home mode. The throttle was out of sink with the injectors, pain in the arse!!:oops:
 
Gimlet said:
Physical space, yes.
I'm going to give it a good valeting and stick it up for sale and see what happens. If there's no interest or offers above my minimum price it won't be worth selling.
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I have dollar auctioned two of my adventure bikes just to get them sold. It has the advantage of, a, immediately getting bids which attracts watchers and b, getting rid of the bike.
In spite of the anxiety of potentially not getting your money, the chances of it selling below an average price are slim. And if you want it gone, you dont want it sitting in your garage, potentially costing you more money. I sold my VStrom at 85,000km and got $5600 for a potential $6500 bike and last year sold my Multi 1100 for about a thousand less than it was potentially worth. Someone got a great deal on both bikes.
The disadvantage is that a lot of people think there must be something wrong with it so the questions feature can get overloaded with the usual questions! I guarantee people a test ride with money back option but most people choose shipping…
 
Barry Hell said:
An older bike like yours is probably sellable privately, dealers won't want it, as they say, they will trade it and let someone else make a profi so just hassle to them.

For instance, my car was valued by the insurers at around £5,700 which I was surprised at, I talked them up to £6,000 without too much bother - I would have been lucky to get £4,000 as a trade in I thought. I bought another car but the dealer (Motorpoint) wouldn't even entertain discount without a trade in so they are effectively saying your trade in is not our concern either way.

Like @WAYNE has said, most older geezers are looking for hassle (electronic jiggery pokery) light bikes - which yours will be - or brand new. Even Honda can't seem to give away a cbr 650 for a free 6 month trial 🤔 more KTM and ccm troubles to come I think
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I used to shoot with the guy that owned motorpoint.
He sold out for 200 million I was recently told.
He’s a great businessman but shit with women evidently and had to pay his ex wife 60 million as a part settlement that is ongoing. 😬
 
For the record, I was never looking at shifting the bike through Triple D. I know they'd never buy it off me outright and I'd only have got petrol money on a trade-in, which is just the commercial reality from their point of view and only to be expected. I was just picking their brains on the state of the market for a bike like that.

I don't think I'd auction it. I'd go for a face-to-face sale so I can fill the buyer in fully on it's history so they know exactly what they're getting and we're both happy. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Mechanically it's still a peach, but you don't get north of 50K miles without a degree of patina and minor war wounds. And of course, I've tweaked and personalised it to my needs and tastes - though I have every original nut and bolt included in the sale, all wrapped up and boxed. It's this kind of stuff that needs talking through so the buyers knows what I've done and why and what he's getting.

I have a mate who might have bought it. He's just bought a beautiful 2005 1200 Bandit. But the 1190 would have been too tall for him. He did express an interest but he's only about 5'9"/10" and knew he'd struggle so didn't want to sell him something he'd regret.
 
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NoGutsNoGlory said:
I used to shoot with the guy that owned motorpoint.
He sold out for 200 million I was recently told.
He’s a great businessman but shit with women evidently and had to pay his ex wife 60 million as a part settlement that is ongoing. 😬
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She lives in a huge house in the middle of nowhere not far from my village I’ll take a picture next time I walk the dog down there.
 
With our current shit-storm of a government, I suspect folks are battening down the hatches and hoping that the son of a tool and his band of dead batteries don't fuck things up beyond redemption - a big ask.

I bought a couple of bird tables yesterday for £20 each from a guy in Oldham (retired) who makes them as a hobby (he's a widower and lives alone). He told me that he can hardly sell any these days compared to two years ago, and the thing is, they are hand-made top quality items which garden centres would want £80-100 for.
 
@Gimlet there are 3 high mileage 1190s of a similar currently on Autotrader for between £4-5k, seems quite expensive to me .
 
Dukesox said:
@Gimlet there are 3 high mileage 1190s of a similar currently on Autotrader for between £4-5k, seems quite expensive to me .
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That seems to be what they go for. I'd probably put mine on at 4900 and take 4500.
They are quite popular bikes. They're semi-analogue with very little in the way of troublesome electronics to go wrong and as the bottom end is the same unit as the 1290 Super duke they relatively understressed at 148 bhp. Those who know their KTMs know they're one of the best bikes KTM ever made. People want them. I'd have another without hesitation.
Bearing in mind I paid 9K for it nine years ago as a minter with 2400 miles on the clock and I've put 53 k on it since, I've only lost around £500 a year in that time. Not bad.
If the next owner put another 50 k on it in a similar time (which it's perfectly capable of doing - they've been known to go past 100k) they'd lose even less as it'll never be worth nothing.
For a reliable, fast and fine handling bike that's a lot of performance and usage for not a lot of money.

They're very home maintenence friendly as well. If I hadn't been selling it and didn't need the book stamp on this last big service to get best price I'd have done the valve check service myself. They're quite easy to work on.
 
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