If you're the kind of person who likes to do things yourself, I'm going to say something you already know right now: Motorcycle parts are expensive.
Not all of them, of course. But the problems can get even deeper if the bike you're shopping for is an older model. Then the issue of parts availability (depending on the bike) can raise its ugly head. If it's a parts bin special and the individual components were used on a bazillion other bikes, then you're likely in better shape. But if not, your problems can grow exponentially.
And who knows, you could get lucky and find some new-old-stock (NOS) parts, only that can also be an issue if there's rubber involved and it's been aging. And don't get me started on sun-faded, UV-brittle plastic pieces. They'll break your heart every time.
That's why, as a moto person who didn't grow up going to auctions, I was particularly intrigued to see the Bearded Mechanic's latest couple of videos, taking us inside an auction he recently went to. In the first part (hit the link in the last sentence there), he took us inside the process of bidding on auction day, including the fact that a lot of parts for the bikes in the auction were kept separate from the chassis.
This video, though, is the actual haul he brought back to the shop in his trailer. Take a look and then let's talk about it.
For those unfamiliar with the "haul" genre of YouTube and social media videos, one of the crucial parts of such a video is seeing prices for what the person brought home. TBM obliges us here with the handwritten auction sales slips, which show things like US $5 seats and other parts, as well as some parts that were around $15 apiece. Most of the bikes were under $200, though a few were above.
The most expensive one was $775, but it's a little Suzuki mini-cross bike that also runs, right out of the trailer. As in, it actually came with old fuel inside the tank. With a few kicks, it's literally filling TBM's new shop with smoke.
Auction day was exciting; maybe even a little too exciting, as TBM shows us. Even though he showed us in the last video that there was a pile of wheels in the parts room, and explained that bikes at this event were mostly not being sold complete, he still apparently didn't notice that many bikes he bid on had no rear wheels on the chassis. Instead, they were probably in the big pile of wheels on the table in the other room.
One bike in his haul was even missing a front wheel instead of a rear wheel. Still, as Craig (TBM) went through each bike one by one and matched side covers, tanks, and additional plastics to the ones that he could, he also helpfully tallied each chassis up by its parts value. And in most or possibly all cases, the individual value of the parts on those bikes exceeded what he'd paid for them.
Obviously, this kind of thing isn't for everyone. You need a specific combination of time, skills, patience, and knowledge to want to pursue putting old bikes back together like this. Hunting down missing parts is absolutely a skill, and one that requires a lot of determination and dedication.
But the moto-math works something like this. Every time you can find a $5 seat in decent shape, or a $25 carburetor plenum (ask me how I know), it totally makes up for the more expensive, more difficult-to-find parts you're sure to encounter in your DIY career. You have to find the deals where you can; they're what keep your passion going, right? Right.
