[BclimB]

Hey there!

I was given the recommendation to post something over here in hope someone might be able to help. My father in law, who passed away 12 years ago, was a motorcycle enthusiast, belonged to the Hamsters, and as a hobby built custom bikes. We have inherited several of his bikes that have been sitting in the garage since his passing and are now looking to figure out what to do with them. The problem is we don't know anything about motorcycles, have basically no information on the bikes other than the titles, and have no idea what they might be worth these days after sitting for so long.

Any information anyone could provide would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Here is links to pictures of the bikes:

Blue Bike:

http://imgur.com/a/6VichYh

Black Bike:

http://imgur.com/a/c8NVvrF

Orange Bike:

http://imgur.com/a/ipnJGnq

 

[Tulipultti]

Hello and welcome!

The blue one looks like some stretched old Road Glide. Never seen frame like that, and I'm so far away that I can't say anything for the price.

The black and orange bikes are built around Buell XB engines, 9 or 12. At here they have always been quite cheap compared to similar chops with Sportster engine (and those ain't pricey either). Again, not much to do with US prices.

 

[Sluggo503]

I have some bad news for you. I volunteer with a museum and we often get similar situations and sometimes a family is sitting on gold*, but often you have to break the news Dad's treasure isn't as valuable as he thought or the family.

I'm mostly a vintage BritBike guy, but have dealt with a range of bikes, I can tell you those are very dated customs that haven't aged well. If you had a pristine Knuckle, Pan or even a well done Shovel you would have some thing, stock, restoration or period customs but your bikes are likely from the late 90s or the Harley custom boom of early 2000s. That market and style crashed hard along with the economy in 2008-> and up.

People were paying crazy $$$ for Indian Billy Bourget West coast choppers & OCC customs and many people copying them. Wasn't unusual to spend $30k to $100,000 on some custom. They don't age well and in fact, except a few diehards in Florida they don't sell either except parted out. It's hard to accept but plenty of examples on the web.

Especially fat tire customs!!!

The Buell turned into a chopper isn't aging well either and eventually stock-ish Buells are approaching collectibles but not quite there yet. I cry when I see them. Out of all of them, the side car retro has the most appeal, but those mag wheels are dated and not popular now.

The Blue bike was hot stuff in 2004, but do a image search on Instagram, or many forums and it's not what people like now. Born Free just wrapped up, take a look at the winners, or entrys for what's popular. Props to #ActuallyitsAxel for her win with the Panhead chop.

My dad was a attorney and I used to do evaluations and market analysis for estates and collectors, and occasionally still do for friends but it's time consuming, but I can explain how you can do this yourself if you like.