Buying Motorcycles from Police Auctions

In today’s episode;

Motorcycle shopping at police auctions, German biking, an old Honda that’s made in the US and a 200hp monster for £3k!

Bikes discussed this week:

Suzuki GSF 650 (Suzuki Bandit), Vespa 300 GTS, Kawasaki Z900RS, Triumph Bonneville, Honda Gold Wing, Kawasaki ZZR1400
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Please do leave a comment and share your thoughts. If you’ve got a story, insight or pictures to share, you can also email hi@tuesdayatdobbs.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/@tuesday_at_dobbs

My other YouTube channel: @FreddieDobbs

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Time Stamps:

0:00: Intro
0:48: Police Auctions
7:47: Used Motorcycle Prices
10:35: Scottish Garage Goals (Kawasaki Z900RS)
11:22: An Insight into German Biking
17:19: When Did the Proper Bonnevilles End
21:06: Old But Gold (the Honda Gold Wing)
27:18: Triumph Off Road Riding Experience
29:27: Bike of the Week: Kawasaki ZZR1400

Hello and welcome back to Tuesday at dubs’s thank you as always everyone for getting in touch again please continue to do so best place comments section below and if you got a longer Story please do send an email over to hi tubs.com and you can also check out the Instagram page

Tuesdays big apologies that I don’t get to reply to all of the stories but I promise that I do personally read through every single comment and every single story so they’re all hugely appreciated please do continue to get in touch I begin this week with what I hope

To be some insightful tips from Russell X police bikes and seized bike auctions have a listen to this Freddy Here’s a thought what about doing a session on ex police motorcycles police motorcycles and cars are absolutely standard and no spec because coppers are clumsy sods Russell’s words not mine but the ex

Police motorcycles can be a bargain if you keep your head screwed on buy direct from the auction here are the tips buy direct from the auction auction but either way you will have to either trailer it away or book anot immediately police and emergency vehicles like the

Royal Male Fleet I didn’t know this they are mot exempt so they don’t require the annual check as they have a rolling maintenance schedule however the service history will be provided with the machine and only OE parts will have been used and the machines would have been

Warmed up and ridden hard so smooth and reliable the downsides are there will be holes in the fairings extra cables hanging loose and missing screws from decommissioning regards Russell Russell I spent probably about 45 minutes looking through this and if anyone has any insight here I would love

To hear it I don’t know if I have to specifically register for a website in order to see the ex police motorcycles going in for auction because I couldn’t specifically find a website where I can see X police vehicles going up for sale so if anyone’s got any insight let me

Know but here’s what I did find and this is I think equally fascinating I put a few searches into Google X police motorcycle auctions or just police motorcycle auctions now there are a number of different websites that you can go on to it’s not just one centralized website but I’ve I’ve got

Two examples here and I’ll put some screenshots up as I go here’s what I found the first one police police- auction auction.org do.uk here I’ve got a list of around about 10 motorcycles maybe 20 motorcycles and scooters and this is a genuine auction so this is where you get

The Real Deals there are two bikes in this auction both of them end within one day and 23 hours so it’s coming up to the end two that caught my eye 2017 piagio Vesper GTS 300 super now this is a very sort after one this is the one to

Buy with the 300cc engine and these go for proper money yet with one day and now just 21 hours left so significantly under two days this is still only at 1,000 30 now what you get with this is a decently comprehensive list on what comes with this vehicle so I can see

It’s a 300cc I can see that it does have keys the engine starts that’s a no so you’re going to have to deal with that V5 document no so it doesn’t have the log book service history no Vin plate yes okay so you’re going to be buying a bike here with this

Bper that doesn’t start but it does have keys but it may only not start because it needs a new battery because it’s been sat for so long it also doesn’t have a log book but I know from buying my fat 500 with no log book actually it is not

That difficult at all to get a log book I applied for a log book with one simple form from my fat 500 who I bought off a private individual and within two to four weeks I had the log book so don’t be scared off by that this is a genuine

Police auction nothing dodgy is going to happen at all so that’s that at £1,000 and I’ll show you one more here you can see you’ve got Yamaha Yamaha n Maxes you can see the bikes that get stolen in essence that’s what’s interesting especially in London these are Yamaha n Max’s Yamaha n

Max Honda NSS Honda pagio they are all scooters until I come to there’s a yam there’s a Suzuki here GSXR th000 that’s a serious bike and that is £740 with 1 day 21 hours left and finally finally Suzuki Bandit GSF 2006 model 650 CC’s 1 day 21 hours left and it is currently

320 all in black it has okay no keys No log book no service history but it does have a VIN plate so you’ll have to get a new ignition new ignition cut and a few other things but in essence £320 it has got to be worthwhile

I’ll do one more for you quickly raw 2k.to I have gone onto the website I’ve got a long list of different bikes available they are all on auction and they end again tomorrow 10:00 a.m. I’ll just do one here because again there’s a big list this is a Yamaha YFZ from

1997 if I click and open it perfectly smart looking bike it is not recorded as a write off it’s got 34,000 miles it’s PGE and sold at direction of the police registration plates on the vehicle mot history shows the mileage discrepancies you know these are decently substantial

It says here damage report for this bike steering lock on fairings all round near side mirror missing front mudu guard offside indicator missing near side indicator snapped General wear and tear and scratches these are good honest descriptions and you can pick up such a bargain this is

£50 I would love to hear some of your success or stories from these kinds of auctions because the clock’s ticking on this Yamaha 21 hours and 55 minutes left and it’s actually got a ticking timer going down this is so exciting okay I move on Russell thank you so much for

That used bike prices I said last week that the market is finally correcting itself after coid and we’re going to be seeing an end of ridiculous bike prices in the used Market I would say that about 30% of people agreed with me but 70% of people thought that look it’s

Just because it’s the end of season don’t get your hopes up too much because there’s always a correction when October comes here are a few of your thoughts on the current state of the used Market Steve us Steve good to hear from you again Freddy I think the reason that

Bike prices have tanked at least here in America is that due to ridiculous inflation people simply don’t have the extra money and Phil in the UK is the market correcting itself or is the economy so damaged that people just can’t afford to pay the prices so sellers are reducing them in an urgent

Need to keep their heads above water I think both could be true I’ve got for example a friend of mine good friend of mine he bought a house in a year or two ago and he’s just had an insurance renewal quote Oh sorry a mortgage renewal quote that is

800 a month more than he’s currently paying and he has to take that quote because it’s the best that he can get so every single month my friend is now going to have to pay from next month £800 a month extra for getting nothing extra at all just paying that in

Increased interest charges on his current property he’s not moving house or anything and if that’s indicative of the nation as a whole the world as a whole where people are having to pay these huge extra prices the first thing that always goes are the non-essentials and for a lot of people motorbikes are

Non essentials because they’re passion purchases they hobbies and that may well be why we’re starting to see these big decreases in prices these huge moves in prices some of them I’ve seen on Facebook Marketplace 2,000 reductions on some motorcycles because there will be people now with insurance uh with sorry with mortgages

Coming up to an end and new mortgage agreements coming into place they are going to be desperate to get rid of any excess finances that they have on a rolling monthly basis coupled with that we’re at the end of biking season for the core majority of bikers and there

Are going to be massive massive amount of potential to get some really good deals moving on garage goals from Scotland this is from Jim in Glasgow Freddy and I put the pictures up because I love this gym Freddy a few months ago while watching YouTube I came across a

Kawasaki Zed 900 RS review I hadn’t seen this bike before and thought it was stunning long story short I now have one which sits nicely in my man cave alongside my two classic triumphs a 1978 boneville and a 1998 legend that 1998 Legend is a very very good

Shout Jim Glasgow Jim is garage goals what a trio an insight into German biking there was a lot more insight into this than I thought a little more more input because I discussed last week is it true is it fair to say that German bikers hugely hugely favor spec

Sheets whereas in the UK we like the Heritage the history the soul and I am generalizing German bikers will go for spec sheets stats horsepower practical things that you can put onto a piece of paper as a sales pitch I’ll share and I got a lot of input here so thank you all

For that but I’ll I’ll share a few of my favorites hi Freddy a German biker here I can 100% confirm your thoughts about Germans and their mindsets with regards to buying bikes the spec sheet is the most important thing and almost everything is rated with regards to

Horsepower tank size and torque you see the new 2024 BMW GS 1300 has almost 150 horsepower this is soon to be in super sports range even though the bike is bought by older men in 99% of cases all they care about is the spec sheet none of these people using

150 or none of these people are using 150 horsepower and most Riders aren’t even off-roading them but BMW know exactly what they’re doing and they know the Germans will pay € 22,000 for a bike that they will never use to the full capacity I can relate also to this

Myself my first bike is a 2008 Suzuki GSR 600 with 98 horsepower it was €4,000 however I’ve had a hard time right now to buy a Triumph Bonville for much more money than the Suzuki and the fact that it will be much less bike at least in German thinking unfortunately

Good B good Bonville start at six to 7,000 Euros in Germany it is hard for me to get my mindset right in order to buy one I slowly realize that there is much more to a bike than spec sheets and that I personally like to go slow and enjoy

The beautiful bikes with style and soul greetings from Germany torban on to the next this is a Brits insight into into it from Richard I’m guessing the classic scene har harks back to a byon era you see the Brits love Nostalgia however the majority of Germans are taught to be

Embarrassed about their Rich history and the classic BMWs may possibly hark back to those dark days it’s a nonsense of course but it is the way of the world or at least the so-called first world has gone Richard that’s a very interesting Insight I’d be really interested to hear from

Germans is there that issue when looking at any classic German vehicles or any retro German vehicles that hark back to that era is it an era that German riders or drivers of cars just don’t really want to tap into when they’re looking to buy a used vehicle

Very interesting point I move on to Martin regarding the Germans and classic vehicles they just don’t get classic vehicles on the on the whole so they’re not going to get modern Classics either I used to go to Germany buying classic vws in Germany they just don’t get the

Oldtimers as they call them and I could buy a classic air called VW for half the price that it is here in the UK and I wrap it up with Paul Freddy is British immigrant to Germany I can say that the Germans do seem to on the whole look at the spec

Sheet When selecting a bike to a greater extent than people in the UK but also the UK government’s attitude to speed with the proliferation of speed cameras generally continuous reductions in speed limits Etc tends to mean outright performance is just not that important in day-to-day riding in the UK over here

However in Germany we do of course have the autoband but also the general levels of enforcement are much less and the penalties for being slightly over the limit are just a few euros and not points so performance is a little more relevant in the in the UK in

Germany if you buy a new car or bike here one of the first questions people will ask is what power output it has even if it’s got a Euro box that shows a slightly different mindset you do see Classic Bikes here but just the ratio of sports bikes to Classic Bikes is

Probably reversed with the UK Paul I had quite a few people also saying that to compare the UK to Germany isn’t exactly Fair because in the UK for when it’s tiny here it’s tiny and we’ve got a huge population and the roads are generally tiny Germany’s very different

The roads are gigantic they’re extremely good quality roads and you can you can cover ground really quickly especially if you’ve got the likes of the autoband so it’s not exactly comparing like and like I do admit that but thank you all for that Insight this is

Something close to heart for me Freddy I have pictured a 2015 Triumph Bonville 865cc and it is one of the last air cooled and oil cooled models before they became liquid cooled same model as mine so very similar to yours but my question is is it a real

Bonville the reason I ask is a lot of people at my local motorcycle club claim it’s not a real one are they right if so when did a Bonville cease to be a real one which year did it all change okay John I will clear this up for you in

2001 Triumph Motorcycles made the decision to open up a factory in Thailand and start to move production at least a good chunk of production away from hinley Triumph in the UK over to Thailand so this began in 2001 and I believe from 2002 production really started ramping up in the Thailand

Factories of course they’ve opened more factories since then but the real cut off for the big chunk of triumphs being made outside of England came at the start roughly speaking of the boneville switching from carbureted to fuel injected and that’s just a very rough rule of thumb so you can look at bikes

From around about 2006 and onwards chances are those triumphs will be made in Thailand so if you had the predecessor the carbureted 790cc Triumph baval that stopped production in around about 2006 chances are that’s made in England got a fuel injected one like ours chances are it would have been made

In Thailand so the people in your biking Club will be referring to the fact that their bikes are English made and not timeade I get the point I do but and there’s always a but but my thinking is this every single generation will think that their bike or car is the real

Deal and everything after that is is just not quite genuine enough I’ll put this into context from Porsche the Porsche 996 pictured here was the first Porsche 911 to not have those beautifully classic circular front headlamps and everyone said this is not a real Porsche and residual values drops

You could buy one for 10K now that the Technology’s moved on so much further suddenly people see these old Porsches with the nonc circular headlamps through Rose tinted glasses and they’re suddenly becoming really desirable similarly with motorcycles you can see this with so many models people

Will now look at our bike our Triumph bonal 865cc air cooled no ABS No Rider modes they will look at these as the large of the real Triumph bonales now that they’re water calleded ABS Rider modes so people will always look at the the generation one or two removed to

Compare their bikes to and this will keep going and keep going when we’ve got electric motorbikes people will be looking at the current crop of bonil and saying that’s the last of the real bonnaville so John I I wouldn’t worry about it too much they’re all proper Bonville it’s just things evolve whether

It’s markets technology etc etc things just evolve moving on old but Gold Freddy I’m an exper living in North Carolina USA I own pictures up here now I love these bikes oh I love these bikes this is one of my top picks for Classic Bikes don’t think a Gold

Wing sorry I’m butting in here cuz I’m over excited don’t think the old classic gold wings are these huge things with with bad quality plastic because they’re from the 80s now the original gold wings were stripped back you could get them with fairings and piers on the back but

They could be easily taken off at the core of the bike was as gooder looking stripped back beautiful bike all metal that you could ever imagine I continue Freddy expat living in North Carolina I own an 83 gold ring gl100 standard with which I paid $2,000 for that’s a

Really okay remember this price which I paid $2,000 for let’s say that’s about £15,000 Sterling with 37,000 M on a clock four years ago it did need some minor maintenance work for example break work but my question is this obviously the Goldwing was built from 1980 to 2010 in

Ohio to take on or to take on the American Market they’re plentiful here but older good ones are getting fewer as most that have been stored need carburetor work for $4 to $500 around about the standard price to get that carb work sorted so if you want

A true classic is it not better to Source the original than the modern retro mic Mike I really like this this discussion my argument for me is that the technology to live with for me not not mechanically inclined on a daily basis would be too difficult because mechanics

Now who can work on carbed bikes they are in the UK they are diminishing there’ll be plenty of mechanics you go to who won’t work on carbed bikes because they just don’t have the experience as the newer generation come through become a is a lot of the time

They’re just not taught on car bikes I know the place I take my bike to a nip switch Kingdom motorcycles he has a lot of bikes sent to him because the original garage that was working on the bike just don’t work on carbed bikes but I will admit Mike there’s

Something very special about older motorcycles so me with my romantic mind on yes I want an old classic bike I really do it’s just me with a level head I need fuel injection anything else I can do without but I need fuel injection but I had a look at this because it is

One of my favorites this Goldwing mic interestingly the first generation Goldwing was made in Japan from 1974 to 1979 however the Gen 2os were made in Japan from 1979 to 1980 but after that to get into the US market now this is interesting Honda built the gold wings

In oh Ohio USA for the Gen 2 from 1980 to 1983 so if you’re looking for let’s say for example a Gen 2 like Mike’s that was a USB built bike you’re I’m going to tell you now you’re going to be having a bit of difficulty looking first of all almost

Certainly you’ll be buying a US Spike that’s been imported from the US and that’s absolutely fine because you may well be buying one from California or Florida so chances of rust fairly minimal but the problems are there just are not many left I think I found about six six available across Facebook

Marketplace and eBay but of those six only two that I could find are actually in running order and I found one available and it’s I was about to show it to you all but it was £25,000 and I was about to say this is a brilliant deal but the

Problem is it’s just got too much rust it’s not in running order so it’s not a realistic bike to show as a good proposition and that left me with just one bike available so bear in mind that Mike picked his up in the US $2,000 38,000 M on the

Clock it’s nothing in the UK the cheapest I could find that’s in running order in good condition £6,000 I think we’re looking at what is going to be a very desirable Classic Bike here I’ll read it out and put pictures up this is the only one I could

Find in good condition and running order the only one 6 grand Honda GL 1100 1980 model so the start of the US built bikes 4,000 M on the clock absolute stunner so this one’s perfect no te needed cuz it’s over 40 years old it has the handbook

Spare keys recent big service so this one is good to go they’ve said here you’ll be hard pressed to find another Goldwing 1100 like this it’s spent most of its life in the warm Florida Sunshine so it’s got on all of the touring kit but you know you can take off if you

Need to the back box and the paniers and you are left with a glorious looking bike big substant Cal pulled back handlebars just a lovely lovely looking bike and with that seat with that paner setup I I think this is a very very special bike I really like these a lot

And something cool about it being made in the US as well I move on Freddy I’m a British Army veteran with PTSD that is posttraumatic stress disorder and I’m fortunate enough to be going on an adventure at the end of October with the motorcycle relief project that is Moto relief.org if you

Want to check the website we will be doing a mixture of on-road and off-roading in Arizona now I’ve not ridden a bike in four years and never off-roaded my last bike was a ducatti 848 Street Fighter which I owned for eight years with no issues pictures up here as I discuss the

Next bit to get some experience before I go now bear in mind that this gentleman Nick hasn’t ridden in four years and his last bike was a ducatti street fighter and then straight into a huge biking project so to get some experience before I go I went to the Triumph Experience

Day in Wales fortunately I live just three miles from the center I spoke to the guys there and explained my situation they suggested the Scrambler Experience day due to my commitments but they suggested I use a tiger 900 I had the best day and learned so much the instructors were awesome Roots

Were amazing and we all had so much fun I thoroughly recommend it so much so I’m going to book the level one course in 2024 I mean you have to go through some decently deep water here looks like the Waters not a million miles off the top

Of the wheels there I’ve heard a lot of good things about these Triumph experience days and Wales is certainly in the UK probably the best place to do it so that comes from Nick thank you Nick but also a lot of other people highly highly rated these kinds of

Off-roading days it does look brilliant and seal the bikes parked up especially the scramblers as well Nick it looks brilliant bike of the week Freddy you forgot last week the Kawasaki zzr400 here is a picture of mine Steve okay Steve it’s a good point this came out slightly after the time I was

Mentioning last time when I was looking at the Blackbird and the original High booer because after those bikes came out the original hypers sports bikes hypers Sports touring bikes out came Kawasaki with the zzr400 now this is a bike that was out from 20 or from 2006 to

2020 I almost couldn’t believe these figures when I was looking at it it’s got a claimed horsepower between 193 and 2 200 Hare weight of 239 kg and if you wanted to buy this bike here’s the interesting thing 2020 the last of the ZZR 1400s you would have to spend

14,000 on one brand new but if you would have bought one in 2019 the price was £5,400 so Kawasaki for the last year of production reduced the price by around £15,000 but let’s say for sake of argument the price was 14k claimed mil per gallon 38 which is a little worse

Than the Bonville but not completely ludicrous Bike Magazine gave it eight out of 10 and stated the legendary ZZR name is well deserved so a glowing review there from Bike Magazine but if you had to pay 14 Grand for one of these just three years ago how much could you buy one for

Now let’s see especially if we stretch back to possibly one of the old ones 2006 2007 model what can you get and for what money Facebook Marketplace for me the first place to have a look at and I will start with 2007 model here one of the first

£3,000 I mean they have bottomed out no question here they will never go cheaper than this I’m certain 2007 Kawasaki zzr400 no offers block capitals it’s already been reduced by 500 so have a listen to this zzr1400 now the first bit will scare you no ABS my guess is

Within surely within two years of the zzr1400 coming out they put ABS on because can you imagine a bike with with and I’m assuming here the first model came out with around 190 horsepower can you imagine that level of Hors paare with no ABS usually I like a bike strip back I

Don’t have a specific desire for Road Rider modes traction control things like that but if I were to be looking at 190 horsepower bike I really really want abs so you will have to enjoy an element of danger if you want one of the first bikes like this one but here’s what you

Get if you’re willing to have a a fairly scary proposition of a bike you get 9 months mot great condition with the usual age related marks pictures up recent head and front wheel bearings Power Commander five tires brakes chain sprockets all good 45 mes per gallon

Average up to 50 on longer runs and that means it’s almost exactly the same is the Bonville so perfectly reasonable MPG it’s got 60 mil bar Rises it has optimate charging port comes with a grab rail two keys plus the red key a crap ofic cans carbon wrapped

And I’ve got a little update here ride out revealed very slight warp on the right disc clean the bobbins but still poses £50 for New Pair shoulder injury forces sales scammers will be ignored that standard Facebook stuff this is still still 16 years on an incredibly

Imposing bike it’s got such a long wheel base I remember when these first came out not far off when I first got into biking and I thought I remember when I first saw it that is an unbelievably scary looking bike it looks like a spaceship and still today I mean it’s

Covered in plastic everywhere but it’s a very smart looking thing three grand for that much power that much performance and if you buy a slightly later model let’s say 2010 onwards with just an extra element of the safety features so the likes of abs and they come in from about

£4,000 plus Facebook Marketplace that really is a a spaceship level of motorcycle for really very very small amounts of money shows how interesting the market is with the classic gold wi at about £6,000 and then you can get a spaceship for £4,000 and I wrap it up there thank you

So much everyone for listening to this week’s episode have a brilliant week I’ll speak to you all in the next one