Definitely the way to go Although I'm in this position at the moment and my garage looks nothing like this :frown:
Not mine, and not sure how many kids the owner has but his income must rank as 'Adequate'. Some of the Ducati's in a private collection in Japan, not normally open to the proles. Seems to have most of the bases covered.... Singles Bevels Belts Racers You could argue that they shouldn't be caged up and should be ridden, but one hell of a garage to spend an afternoon in!
Thats more museum that garage, but yes would be nice to sit down with a coffee and just ogle the bikes
Its like an old scrooge constantly counting his money but spending none and living in misery. They are supposed to be ridden, there will be plenty of time in the future after petrol runs out to stick them in a museum, and anyway what looks better a well used and loved bike, or an unused new one.?
An unused new one. Especially bikes that haven't been made for decades. The mint bevels are just works of art - I'm glad they're not ridden. Yup, it's a museum rather than a garage, but hey. If you had 50 bikes, how many miles would you be able to fit in on each per year? Bollox all.
Well the funny thing is that really original and well used machines with "patina" fetch far more at auction whether its Brough Superiors, Vincents or ex Foggy WSB or similar racing machines. Why? Becauseuse equals history,stories and character. New is just pristine and has no other traits. I know which I'd prefer.:smile:
What a waste of some really nice bikes. Why so many F1's? It seems he has one of each model, no wonder I can't find one to buy, people with more money than sense are hiding them away! I'm all for museums, but not stuff that isn't really that special or rare in the grand scheme of things.
Guys who are fortunate enough to have piles of money should go out and buy loads of new bikes of highly desirable models, thus supporting the factories, and either ride them or keep them as exhibits as they please. Or they could have replicas of old bikes built. Factories and replica makers can always build more! What they should not do, in my view, is buy up all the desirable old bikes, so that the second-hand market prices are pushed up beyond the reach of ordinary enthusiasts, and then lock them away. That is just mean, selfish and unnecessary.
Same thing happens with whisky (which is just foolish). Collectors buy all the fab rare ones, and then don't drink them. What's the point of that? You can't take it with you. Life is made of experiences, not things. I don't really agree with collecting anything - it's just extraneous stuff. The less stuff you have, the less anally retentive you are about life and the freer you are. But if I had the cash, I might get something of a guitar collecting fetish.... to play them, of course! Even then, I can't see myself having 20 of the things.
Good point, Glidd, in fact just supporting your theory and sipping a nice Islay malt that was a limited batch. It is a pleasure to sip, as my 998 is a pleasure to commute on (although I would like to give a track day a go).
It’s a fair cop Gov…at the time these photos were taken it was a museum setting rather than a man cave (or man cavern as would be required here !). The bikes on display were the personal collection of the Japanese importer of a lot of foreign bikes, and included Parilla’s, Benelli’s, Guzzi’s, Laverda’s, MV’s and Bimota’s as well as Ducati’s and some I’d never heard of…. Normally the collection was kept private as the owner had nowhere to display them, presumably he didn’t want people tromping over his tatami mats, but during the recession a town north of Tokyo decided to promote itself as “Bike Town - Japan”, a sort of Daytona Beach of the orient if you will. As part of this the town made an unused old health spa, available free, or at low cost, to the importer who in return put his collection on display to the public to attract people to bike town – simples…. I stumbled across this on the interweb, and went for a look, and after a couple of hours taking in the sights, ended up talking to the owner through an interpreter. The owner seemed like a nice guy, worked incognito at the museum as a guide at weekends and just seemed happy that people were simply enjoying his collection rather than having his ego polished. Clearly a petrolhead, he started to put aside one of each new model he imported, with the majority of the bikes entering the collection as either new, low mileage demonstrators, or racers that the importers ran in domestic competition. I think he then got the collecting bug and started filling any gaps in his collection. They said all the bikes are all runners and are occasionally taken out, but clearly some more than others. Whatever people think of the colleting of old bikes, I thoroughly enjoyed my day trip to bike town and the fantastic collection of bikes. Looks like the town’s ‘loan’ of the building has ended, with the display closing and no longer available to the public – shame indeed, the mayor should be impeached….
There were lots of everything in the collection, but i just posted a photo of the F1's because I like F1's!....There were lots of more modern rubber belt engines in the collection as well but as Pantah engined bikes go I think the F1's take some beating. I, like you, would love to own one, and I'd also promise to use it when it was nice and dry! The collection had a 750F1, a Montjuic, a 350F3 and a 400F3. Also had some training engines as well
Pete, I don't know the owner of the collection, or his motives, but it looks like he did go out and buy loads of new highly desirable bikes, thus supporting the factory, kept some as new, rode some, raced some, and kept them all as exhibits in the end. Personally, I'd agree with your second point, but not sure this is the case here. Investments can go down as well as up and I remember the last time the price of classic cars crashed, who knows what the future holds. Just need to be in the right place at the right time with some cash (and in front of Nuttynick in the F1 queue it would seem.....):wink:
True, but as the importer he probably gave himself a good deal on the bike as well as 20% of an Arai!!!!
Anyone use these? Are they any good -?? hate the concrete floor in the cave especially in winter but don't fancy painting
