So here's my 83 Rz 250. Bought it almost 10 years ago and my old man hotted it up. He's always been an Rz fan, having started with his own rz250 then moving up to an rz500, which he now has multiple of, in multiple levels of completeness.
He did all the work on it:
Stripped it back to the frame and had it powder coated
Flash digital dash
Twin Brembo front discs
R6 rear shock
Rebuilt the engine - can't say exactly what's been done but can find out
Etc
Now I've given up riding and it's time to clear the garage, the dirt bike is going too! I want to know what I should be asking for it? And what my best option is for selling it.. eBay? Bike sales? Gumtree?
Provided everything works on the dash Quick sale, $1800. If you wait for the right buyer - as it sits with all parts in pics & no rust in tank 2-2.3k with a safety certificate, funnily enough, not much more with rego - Paint the tank & plastics and your closer to 3-3.5k
The best option is to sell it here, less nutters and losers than gumtree ebay etc LOL
might be worth more with a tidyup as GMU says, but it needs crank seals before anyone runs it, and that is serious work for most people. With that done and on the road (rego) it would sell faster, but people do love the chance to stamp their mark. Had it been a 350 it would be worth quite a bit more of course, but it looks a fun bike, Id wager you could sell it here if priced keenly and itd be gone fast.
The other thing is that with the mods it will appeal to a limited buyers and although you can pretty much get all the bits to return to stock (which then broadens your base for selling) you'll need to take that into account in your price expectations. Also you may want to emphasise the extent the loom has been modified for the new instrument panel. I think current prices for a decent original and complete RZ are in the mid $3's to low $4's so you may want to work back from there. Plastics and tank condition are important, eg the front cowl is worth about $250 on it's own in good nick.
FYI The front cowl is aftermarket and looks to be broken(?), so sadly not worth 250 I'll wager.
I agree that most people want OEM style bikes now unless theyre after a modded bike and then they seem to want big engines and lots of custom work. I think this would sell better as an OEM look/feel but its hard to find OEM 83/4 clocks now, maybe thats why it has the Kosos on it?
Those "kidney" clocks were only produced for two model years, if there were any good ones left (that don't have a bike still attached) I'd have found some by now! Can occasionally get NOS covers, but sellers usually ask a lot of money. Ironic really, as they were never the prettiest clocks.
Ex UK, now in Adelaide. LC250/350. DT175. Shed full of sh1t in the vague form of dismantled rusty RD’s and RZ’s.
Jons comment about the difference between a 250 and a 350 is really pertinent.
I think the RZ prices generally haven't settled yet. LC's have shifted right up and there's a lot of VERY high prices being pushed on bikes that seem to then hang around a long time. Speaking as someone who still sees himself as a bit of an outsider (Pom) the attitude in advertising a bike in Australia seems to be less about a sort of general cultural consensus on value, but a tendency to grab the coat-tails of a fad or fashion and throw a massive price out in the hope of getting a big return. Advertised price is no indicator of actual value. Last year or two has seen a lot of shed clearances, and random prices. LC's for ten grand, RZ's for five, six, seven? I'll wager they're not getting very near those prices.
I think the comments above are much more realistic.
Jon's point of "original sells" is a valid one, as a modded bike without a high level of finish to most general buyers looks a bit like an old bike with crash repairs, and a highly finished one with lots of mods is very a niche machine - it needs to be lucky and find the right buyer.
Ex UK, now in Adelaide. LC250/350. DT175. Shed full of sh1t in the vague form of dismantled rusty RD’s and RZ’s.
Custom bike do tend to be a harder sell than OEM, not least as anyone who wants a custom bike has usually worked out what they want, and like houses with extensions, it works well for their needs but probably not for anyone else. I had this discussion with LB recently at my house. He loves my 421 LC, but admitted that if he owned it he would change a few things. In my mind thats perfect, it means he knows a bit about what he wants from a special, and 'his bike' was not just a copy of someone elses. He's thought about it, probably lay awake at night and later dreamed of what he would do and IMHO thats very cool and as it should be. For those that dont know, he has a blank canvas LC and will build it soon, will be interesting to see what he does. Anyway, I digress...
While the brakes are probably an ok mod, (apart from the crank seals) its the lack of the correct clocks wont help the sale of this one as most people would be looking for a standard bike to restore, most people dont have much spare time left in their weeks in the modern world, so modding is often beyond their bandwidth, too much research and working out how to make things fit... and long gone are the days of these as cheap commuters, so most buying tend to know what theyre looking at and have an idea in mind for what they will do; restore/ride/mod. And thats assuming they are even looking at one, most know that its simpler to buy a modern bike and push a button and start riding, its really only those who really want a 2T that will buy one. I remember when I found my F1 it was $400, looked awful and I drove 1.5hrs (each way) to get it. About 10kms from the sellers house I started to see signs saying '1985 RZ250R For Sale $400' and a tel no on signposts, same guy. Told me he had been advertising it for almost a year. I was pretty much the only buyer on ebay that week i guess, but it was 2009. No one sane was interested in a niche, broken and ugly bike. I should have seen sense then and ran away... LOL!
I think youre right D that many of the recent sales have been guys whove dragged some old bike out from under the house as theyve seen the prices some ask and assume they will get the same for theirs. Buyers can get into these bikes not realising just how much effort is needed to get them back on the road, the crank seals are a good example of that, $20 parts but hours to fit and of course you sill need gaskets, sealant, oil, water etc and youre bound to find some other parts that need doing as you go along etc.
Will the RZs command 10k+? IMHO yep they will, even the 250s at some point. But they will be nice restored or original bikes that are OEM and ready to ride.
Not that its part of the sale question here, but as for your thoughts on advertising D, its always been beyond me as well. 'Suit new bike buyer' is often the biggest lie ever told. Ive seen ripped seats, star ship milage with smoky and knackered engines and rotten tyres, but apparently those are all things you get on a new one... sigh.
Anyway, Hopefully the OP will put it up for sale here and someone will want it and do it up, would be nice to see another one on the roads being enjoyed. You can Historic Rego these now and most parts are available to build them nice, so long as the tank is good you can get most anything, tho not all locally.
