The end is near

[grendl]

The only thing I know of that makes money is money and I never had enough for that to work. Vehicles,no matter what you buy new depreciate as soon as you leave the lot.
With my bikes,I have been lucky enough to choose what I want compare my dollars to what it cost and buy it. I never worried about it With the F6B,I didnt have the 19900 asking price new and was thinking to violate my rule,as someone else mentioned to finance it.Then,in March 2013 - while looking for a piece for my Hurricane I see an F6B 2,000 miles on it for 14000. I had experienced a stroke of luck,but needed to replace my daughters transmission and maintain my household.I bid and couldnt believe in the last few minutes of the auction that I was actually going to get it.
Right now I dont care what I can sell it for,It's not for sale. I love this bike-if you gave me 100000.dollars for it,I would sell ,just to buy 5 more....or maybe seven of them since they depreciate so fast. hmmm...how many colors do they come in :-)

[shortleg0521]

I thought Murphy fought the French.....wtf?

No that would be the Germans my friend!

[Dave Ritsema]

The guy that followed my initial post commented about my lack of posts here.
What is above is a good example as to why.
The soon to be departed F6B will be the first of my 10 bikes that I have traded that had less than 50,000 miles on it.
Unfortunately I don't have a job that pays well enough that I can view $20,000 as a "disposable investment".
I never implied anything bad towards the bike that was not directed to "Mother Honda".|
The reason for me getting in this mess,other than the paint and the fact that Honda doesn't give a shit. Is a car fell off a co-workers lift and partially landed on my right leg,that had already had a previous surgery. That surgery,a car falling and the following onset of arthritis was not even on my radar when I bought the bike,(buy a bike for life).
Sooooooooooooo you can imagine my surprise when,because I do love to ride,tried to trade into a 16 Goldwing because of nothing other than ergonomics,and since I work at a car dealership and was expecting to loose 5 to 6K and it turns in to double that.

I had a 2013 F6B for about 18 months, and yes I did lose some money when I sold it. My previous bike, a 2000 Valkyrie Interstate that I owned for almost 12 years was up to that time, the finest motorcycle I owned in over 40 years of riding. When I decided it was time to buy a new bike I knew it was going to be a Honda with that beautiful flat six, the only question was which model. I tried the new Valkyrie first. I really wanted to love it, but frankly there was nothing about it that I liked. I then sat on a full Wing and immediately hated the cramped riding position. I then sat on the F6B and it felt the most like my Valkyrie. When my dealer offered me nearly what I had paid for my Valkyrie in 2001 on trade it was a no brainer.

I added an Ultimate seat and some risers and it just fit great, and frankly it did everything better than my old Valkyrie did, except for looks. Like has been said, the new water based paint is soft and my 15 year old bike had better looking paint than my year old F6B. I have since learned that there is a solution to that at your local Honda Dealer or online in the form of Glare products, so that issue is essentially a NON issue. What I couldn't fix however was my wifes comfort on the F6B. She just could never get comfortable after being tucked into the tour pack of the Valkyrie Interstate and as this is something we enjoy together I reluctantly decide to look at new Wings. I really did like the look of the 40th anniversary bikes and got a fair deal on a new 2015 still in the crate from my dealer. The seating position was a concern and I already knew I wouldn't be comfortable on the Wing but I went ahead with the sale anyway. With the addition of Kuryakyn drop down peg mounts, (helped a little) and an Ultimate King seat, (helped ALOT) I am now happy with what I am riding.

I have two points to make here for you. First of all, the F6B really is a great bike, and if I always rode solo I would ride it another 15 years. You just cant expect to buy a bike and to keep it for a year or two and not lose money. Unless you bought your bike in 2013 when they first came out it was obvious that this bike had slow sales and discounted prices and anyone saavy at all with vehicle prices could see that this bike was not going to keep its value well. I knew that when I bought AND sold mine, no reason to complain about it, just simple economics.

The second point is a cautionary tale for you, if you think the full Wing is going to be more comfortable than the F6B you may find as I already knew that this is not the case. The full Wing is considerably more cramped than the F6B and you will likely find that you have to spend $1500 or more on drop down boards, a different seat and risers to make it as comfortable as the F6B is right out of the box. I am simply offering you my experience and hoping that you might find at least part of it helpful. I wish you well with your next bike.

[Audiochris90]

The guy that followed my initial post commented about my lack of posts here.
What is above is a good example as to why.
The soon to be departed F6B will be the first of my 10 bikes that I have traded that had less than 50,000 miles on it.
Unfortunately I don't have a job that pays well enough that I can view $20,000 as a "disposable investment".
I never implied anything bad towards the bike that was not directed to "Mother Honda".|
The reason for me getting in this mess,other than the paint and the fact that Honda doesn't give a shit. Is a car fell off a co-workers lift and partially landed on my right leg,that had already had a previous surgery. That surgery,a car falling and the following onset of arthritis was not even on my radar when I bought the bike,(buy a bike for life).
Sooooooooooooo you can imagine my surprise when,because I do love to ride,tried to trade into a 16 Goldwing because of nothing other than ergonomics,and since I work at a car dealership and was expecting to loose 5 to 6K and it turns in to double that.

Well the way you framed your original post seemed like a stab at my fav bike. I took offense to that. They think Harley guys are defensive, i almost went jihadi on a stupid guy with a shopping cart he put next to my B. After a short read, the depreciation is your beef? And your selling for paint issues? And your loosing thousands on the trade. I'm just a simple guy but i would suggest PAINT IT DUDE. You'll probably be the envy of us all with a cool paint job.

[motozeke]

This may seem sacreligious to some here, but all I ever do to my black 2013 is spray & wipe with Plexus. Still get compliments everywhere I go.

And I'd only care about resale value if I had to sell it, and if I had to sell it I'd have much bigger problems in my life than whether Honda got too much out of me on the front end.

My 2011 Ducati Multistrada was a disappointment. This bike, definitely not. I figure I'll ride it until it dies.

[broncsrule21]

I'm new here but I am enjoying this bike completely. It worked for me money wise since I paid 12,500 for a left over '13. I figure most of the depreciation is gone. But, I plan on this bike lasting me a long, long, time. Maybe a custom paint job will be in the works at some point. Has any body went and had a clear coat added to their stock paint?

[powercruzer13]

I had my HD friends explain to me that I was totally stupid in many ways for not buying a Harley when I re-entered the biking world about 10-12 years ago. They explained to me that you could buy a new HD, ride it for a couple years then sell it for a small profit. LOL! So I did my own research.
Buy the Harley, $23-24K equipped like I wanted. Buy a "Jap Junk" {Valkyrie} equivalent for $13-14K.
The HD loses 15% or so in two years. That's about $3600.
The "Jap Junk" loses 30% of it's value in two years. That's about $4500.
Figure in the much higher payment you were making on the HD for the first two years of the finance note & the small difference disappears.
Bottom line a financial wash. But... you get to ride a far superior motorcycle for that time, at least in the case of a flat six Honda.
But who in the heck thinks like that about a motorcycle purchase? I sure don't!
BTW, try that depreciation math on a Harley nowadays! The market is flooded with nice late model HDs! LOL.

[BIGLRY]

“If you are trying to sell or buy a used motorcycle, you might be interested in the depreciation value of your scoot or one you are looking at. The depreciation value is the value of a motorcycle after a set number of years, and can be determined by a simple formula used by a variety of motorcycle dealers and associations across the nation and how I approach it.


1. Begin by determining the salvage value of the motorcycle. You can determined this by taking 15 percent of the Kelley Blue Book value of the motorcycle as most insurance companies do. Also determine the value of the motorcycle when purchased.


2. Calculate the estimated useful life of the motorcycle by subtracting the number of years since its production from eight (8), the typical lifespan of a motorcycle. I know some of you will balk at this as there are a lot older scooters out there that are great machines and comand a higher value. For our purposes we are using a national average of eight yrs


3. Plug the values into the following formula: (Cost of motorcycle -- Salvage Value) / Estimated Useful Life = Annual depreciation value. Example: ($12,500 - $1,875) / 8 = $1,328 per year.


4. Multiply the value you calculated in Step 2 by the number of years since you purchased the motorcycle. Then subtract that value from the purchase value of the motorcycle to get the depreciated value. Example: $12,500 - (5 years x $1,328) = $5,860.

Now you have a starting point when buying or selling, of course condition, milage, demand all play a part and as we all know aftermarket parts are usually never considered by dealers when trading in.

[willtill]

2. Calculate the estimated useful life of the motorcycle by subtracting the number of years since its production from eight (8), the typical lifespan of a motorcycle. I know some of you will balk at this as there are a lot older scooters out there that are great machines and comand a higher value. For our purposes we are using a national average of eight yrs

Balk!

Only eight years...? What is this... a "throw away" motorcycle society these days? Maybe with appliances... but not with motorcycles.

[F6B1911]

Yea this is my second hosing from Honda.

If you want a good hosing, buy a Motorhome.
If you want a real good hosing, buy a timeshare.
Me, I love my F6B, went into it with a history of many bike purchases.
There's no such thing as a purchase with disposable income that will increase in value.