Topic: Nice bike....but ..................$26,000?

[Swoop]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CB750-CB-750-Carpe-Cafe-Racer_W0QQitemZ190370837759QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_motorcycles?hash=item2c52fc74ff

[Terry in Australia]

One of Carpy's early bikes, and about $25,500 more than it's worth.................. 

[bwaller]

One of Carpy's early bikes, and about $25,500 more than it's worth.................. 

 

[JS550]

Didnt he, Carpy,  say some where that you can get a Carpy bike for around $10 grand? OBB owns that bike also, so Im sure it would take a while for shipping!

[wannabridin]

haha, a carpy bike for 26K??  man i guess that guy is hoping for some dumbass who knows nothing about bikes!!  dont get me wrong, it's a cool bike, no it's def. no $26K bike!  maybe 6-7, TOPS!!!

[MRieck]

One of Carpy's early bikes, and about $25,500 more than it's worth.................. 

Terry....the description said "Carpe's". Get it right will ya.

[MattFreeman]

Why's everyone so down on Carpy?

[andy750]

Why's everyone so down on Carpy?

Did I miss something? Who is down on Carpy?

[cafenut]

that bike is the bike that got me interested in building a cafe in the first place and i was hell bent to make one close to just like it. since then my bike has taken drastic turns away from that design and has become my own which will in every was be as nice as that bike. well i think it will be alot sweeter even but what do you expect its my build! lol. nice bike though but thats alota chedder for a 6-7 thou bike. i've got about 4 into my bike right now and prob around another grand to go before its completed. id like to know how much obb paid for it.

[Simpson]

Nah, just down on over paying 25,500 for a bike.
Nice but customs just don't demand that kind of market value.

[MattFreeman]

Why's everyone so down on Carpy?

Did I miss something? Who is down on Carpy?

I must have misunderstood Terrys post.

[lordmoonpie]

Ah! Thanks Mike - Carpe - as in Latin "Seize".

$26,000 for a bike and it's siezed!!!     

[andy750]

In answer to my own question...

"   People looking at this auction who know this bike may be aware that it is owned by OldBikeBarn, so why is it being sold by Rice Paddy ?  Simple, they don't do Ebay and we do"

[hoodellyhoo]

I like the part about buying a boatload of street cred. Cause everyone knows that's the way to get street cred

[Swoop]

OBB probably isn't selling it cause their rep is somewhat tarnished and they thought they could get more bucks if their name wasn't associated with it.
Steve

[sangyo soichiro]

Why's everyone so down on Carpy?

I've kind of noticed two camps of "Carpy fans" here in the forum.  From the one camp, you'll see subtle comments that suggest that the person making the comment is less than impressed with Carpy's work.  Sometimes, the "subtle comments" are not so subtle.  Then there's the camp where, when someone comes to the forum and makes a thread about Carpy in the Bad Sellers section, these folks come to the defense of Carpy with guns-a-blazin'.

My personal experience with Carpy-bikes was that, after I first bought my CB 750, I did a google search and found Carpy's website right off the bat.  In fact, it was his links section that led me to this forum.  If one looks at my bike, they can probably instantly see a lot of it was Carpy-inspired.  However, after seeing the amazing bikes in this forum, I would have done some things differently.  I guess you could say that I, too, have become a little less "amazed" with Carpy's bikes.  Don't get me wrong, his bikes are definitely cool, but after seeing what the guys here in this forum can do with theirs, it kind of puts everything in perspective.  That's just my take on it.

[ev0lve]

It comes with the girl right? Maybe it's a mail order bride deal with a motorcycle thrown in?

[754]

It is on ebay, right?
 The market will speak its price at end of auction.

[Steve F]

haha, a carpy bike for 26K??  man i guess that guy is hoping for some dumbass who knows nothing about bikes!!  dont get me wrong, it's a cool bike, no it's def. no $26K bike!  maybe 6-7, TOPS!!!

Well maybe you didn't read that "It's been in MAGAZINES!"  "ALL of them!"  That's why it's "worth" so much, Donchaknow!   

[fastbroshi]

  I think people just tend to hate on it or his bikes because of his bravado in his sales techniques and how extroverted they are.  If you build a cafe racer, it's not really necessary to put the word Cafe on it.  And the checkerboards, a little goes a long way.

[MCRider]

haha, a carpy bike for 26K??  man i guess that guy is hoping for some dumbass who knows nothing about bikes!!  dont get me wrong, it's a cool bike, no it's def. no $26K bike!  maybe 6-7, TOPS!!!

Well maybe you didn't read that "It's been in MAGAZINES!"  "ALL of them!"  That's why it's "worth" so much, Donchaknow!  

I think OBB was sort of a distributor for Carpy's parts. Maybe they had a falling out. It's OBB thats asking $26,000 not Carpy.

Maybe they set the buy it now just in case they could. If they let it go at auction for less we'll know they just wanted out.

As to Carpy, I was impressed also at first, though I never could get past the 16in wheels. Not a performance item in my book. I have bot some perpheral parts from him.

But the bravado wore thin on me, just not my style. But I certainly wish him well, as any enthusiasm that can be generated is good for the sport, and i don't think he's ever cheated or misled someone on purpose. If it was up to me, I'd bore the tears out of my customers and never sell a part.

[nippon]

IHMO,
a bike in this price section should not have painted bolts and silver sprayed rubbers.

[Bluegreen]

 I'm not blaming Carpy on this one, looks like it is OBB property.
It was this that caught my eye.

"This bike is the essence of rockabilly rocker culture"

LMFAO Reallly, a $26,000 bike that someone else built is the "essence of rockabilly rocker culture".

Really?

Not a Norton or a Triton? A BSA?

No, a $26,000 honda, built in the USA, what, 10 years (just a guess) ago?

Again, not hating on Carpy, he is probably getting a lot of people into sohc's. So good for him.

But really?

Also not hating on the US or saying if it isn't british it isn't cafe. But the "essence" ?

[nokrome]

    i agree with a lot of people in this thread, after i bought my first 750 about three years ago i stumbled upon carpys site and was in awe....at first. after i became more familiar with these bikes and started looking a little deeper into his builds and checking out a lot of other builds my initial enthusiasm for his bikes started to wear off, i really started to consider a lot of his stuff to be "cheesy" (do you really need to plaster the word "cafe" all over your tank, side covers, tail section and speedo/tach faces so everybody will know what kind of bike you are riding?) its getting to the point that every time i hear somebody refer to a bike as a cafe i cringe a little. i dont want "cafes" (i just cringed a little ) to go the same way as the latest chopper craze (anybody notice how many of those high dollar Mcchoppers are for sale on craigslist lately?) i think its because a lot of people that bought those things are kind of embarrassed to ride them anymore

    on the other hand you have got to give the guy props for being able to do what he loves and make a living at it and i have to admit that i am using a few of his parts on my current build but it defiantly wont say "cafe" on it

    back to the original topic, 26 grand for that bike? those people are out of their eff'n minds!!!  

[Terry in Australia]

That's it mate, and to answer a question about my previous post, Carpy's early bikes were bikes that he'd bought dirt cheap, added some 70's era chopper parts (16" hog rear wheels, dragpipes etc) clubman bars and a nice (if you're into "in your face") paintjob, and he'd flog 'em on EBay for 3 or 4 thousand bucks.

If you had the skills, you could do the same back then, there were plenty of CB750's laying around peoples yards, and a mate of mine in SweetHome, Oregon bought a heap of them (including at least one  sandcast) for between "take it away for free" and maybe 200 bucks for a really good one, and he'd part them out and sell the parts on EBay.

Carpy is starting to sell some good stuff now like his "Carpymura" pipes etc, and I imagine that as long as the "Cafe" (yawn...) craze in America continues, his products will get better and better, but that particular bike is nothing special, apart from the fact that it is one of the earliest examples of America's belated love affair with a style of bike created by poor young Brits trying to "personalise" their bikes with racer inspired touches, 40 or 50 years ago. Cheers, Terry.