My new to me bike....beautiful 1973 Yamaha AT125....have questions about it

[VenomRS4]

I just picked up a Yamaha AT125 off a friend that was going to sell it to a dealership for $200...and I was not about to let that happen.. This thing is beautiful. All of the chrome is awesome, no pitting what so ever. The paint is nearly perfect...it has a few small dings but it is 34 years old so thats to be expected. It runs perfect. There are no noises and the electric start works excellent. The bottom end cases have a few dings but are overall good and they are still polished up nice and shinny. All of the electrical works flawlessly....all lights, blinkers, neutral/oil lamp, etc work perfect. Speedo, tach, and odometer work great. Tires are great, brakes are great, clutch is good. Seat is great and it has an origional accessory rear seat for a passenger. I have a vintage clymer manual for it with an origional owners manual and parts manual. And to top it all off, I have the title for it which is clean. The bike itself has about 5k miles. This bike was WELL taken care of. I have never seen another one in this shape before.


My questions are this:

How much is it worth? I dont need this bike. I dont really have the space for it either. I just bought it because I simply couldnt pass up this deal. So I may sell it.

How reliable are these bikes? Althought I dont need it, it is a sweet bike. The cool factor of it is off the charts. And it seems like it would be a lot of fun for around town riding or bringing it on vacations or to the track as a pit bike or something. So I may keep it to ride.


I will post pics of it as soon as I get them.

 

[pryor]

I don't know what one is worth there seems to be a lot of them in my area, but they are real reliable and would be great around town. I had the MX version of that bike it sold for $400 about a month ago, but it wasn't as clean as yours sounds.

 

[VenomRS4]

theres a crappy picture...will get more asap.

Its has to be worth more than that. My insurance agency values it at $1500, nada says $1100, and other ones I have seen are ranging from $1000-$2500. And some people say no more than $300 since its 34 years old.... There are so many different numbers I dont know what to think.

 

[2strokerfun]

Nice looking bike. Hard to tell from that particular photo, but it looks really, really nice. It is really hard to give a value to these older bikes. There were a gajillion of them, but most are long gone. And there are serious collectors who typically pay and get way more than most of us for pristine examples. All I can really say is that, TO ME, it would take about $1,500 for me to part with it--and I might not even sell it for that. If you keep it in this shape, the value is only going to go up over time. On the other hand, I also wouldn't pay more than $600 for it because if I pay more than that for it, it isn't such a great deal to me.
So, the value is whatever someone is willing to pay for it. I'd make room for it and keep it for about 10 years and THEN ask this question. You might be surprised what it will be worth.

 

[dirt bike dave]

It does look like its in great shape and certainly worth more than the $200 you paid. I'd expect a rough example to go for that much, and then it would cost another $1,000+ to make it as nice as yours!

I think your ideal potential buyer is someone who had one just like it as a first bike, and they want to have another one so they can relive the memories and and ride it around the block a couple of times a year. That guy would probably keep it forever and might pay $1,000+ for it.

Other guys who just like clean old bikes might give $600 - $800. It's not a competivie vintage race bike, so that makes it a smaller market. But it would make a cool vintage pit bike or bike for a vintage racer's wife. Next time there is a vintage race in your area, bring it over with for sale sign and see what happens.

It only takes one good buyer. Good luck finding him!