Topic: Spotted in my local Honda dealership

[dmizer]

I live in Japan, and my local Honda dealership has this beautiful all original K0 750 sandcast ducktail for sale.



They're worth quite a bit here, if they're in original condition. Even if they're a bit weathered, they still fetch a premium price. But this one is selling for 3,300,000 yen.



That's about €25700 Euro, or $33800 US. Way out of my price range.

Just thought I'd share.

[db22]

There are some rich collectors in Japan -- a friend of mine sold his 1970s Triumph Tiger to someone there for a small fortune, plus the freight.  The K0 will sell quickly, my guess.

[dmizer]

Really though, if you have the goods there's a rich collector somewhere that'll buy it.

I do occasionally see these things running around here, especially at some of the more popular biker spots like Aso mountain here in Kyushu as well as up north in Hokaido. There are also lots of listings for them in the biker magazines and such, but I don't recall ever seeing one for sale in a dealership. Either way though, they're always fetching premium prices.

[Stev-o]

And it's chained off so you won't sit on it!

[Bootlegger56]

With a 34K asking price....I would be afraid to sit on it!!!!  LOL

[SohRon]

From what I've seen half of the price is probably due to the original 4X4 exhaust! 

[754]

Well it doesnot have unnumbered pipes.. Is it a high number sandcast? If I haveto guess at the frame number, i will pick #572..(i know it not a highnumber) just my guess..

[BobbyR]

It is funny the "Bike of the Century" was not sold in it's own Country. 

[Bootlegger56]

And what was the original MSRP??

[BobbyR]

At that time Japanese products in Japan were about 30% higher than in the US. They claimed it was their difficulty of internal distribution. Everyone knows they were cutting external prices to build market share. 

[Rookster]

Yeah, its blasphemous to point this out but in England where the CB750 was priced correctly it was outsold during the 1970s by the Triumph T140.  ClassicBike did a story on this years back but the 750 version of the Triumph Bonneville outsold all versions of the SOHC CB750 during the decade in England.  Kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if the CB750 cost $2000 in 1969 in the US. 

Scott

[Jim Harris]

Yes, we sold one of our bikes, a 72 CB750 to a collector in Japan. He paid full US price and told us afterward that he can sell it for three times that much once he ships it to Japan. Apparently, they want their stuff back and it's a status symbol to ride a vintage Honda over there.

[mono]

... it's a status symbol to ride a vintage Honda over there.

Well, at least I'm big in Japan.

[Eydugstr]

That's a beauty! TY for sharing.

[dmizer]

It is funny the "Bike of the Century" was not sold in it's own Country. 

This bike is marked as a Japanese domestic model, and I've met several riders who cut their teeth on this bike. It was only distributed in the major urban centers like Tokyo and Osaka though because Honda dealerships in other areas didn't have the technical ability to maintain the bikes. I met one guy who had to sell his bike because he was transferred and none of the shops in the city he transferred to would touch the bike.

According to my dealership, they started selling the K0 internationally around April of 1969 and domestically around August of 1969.

Original MSRP for this bike was 385000 yen. Now the problem here is that the Yen has been ridiculously inflated between then and now so it's difficult to make a price comparison. It's safe to say though that it certainly hasn't lost any value.