How much has your airhead project cost you?

I realize this question can be considered vague for any reason to make comparisons, but I'm extremely curious to learn what range of money is spent on airhead projects.

Knowing there's a million variables to be considered (owners mechanical skill level, bike model/condition, type of upgrades/modifications, etc, etc.) I'd still love to hear what your stories are...

What did you start off with? How much of the project did you work on yourself vs. a service shop, how much have you spent in parts, service, customizations, labor, etc.? Feel free to include pictures of your bike!

I'm about to buy my first airhead and just interested to hear different stories. Thanks to anyone who shares!

more than I had planned and less then having someone else do it.

1. The most expensive bike I ever owned was a free one.
2. My project's initial cost was $400. Check out my signature for the linky. I've put $2000+ into it making it mine.

Costed at Au$24,000, but I'm sure some things weren't accounted for.

You don't want to know.

Ok.. I have probably about $17,000 tied up in vintage BMW motorcycles. But that's 6 motorcycles ranging from 1957 to 1974, one with a factory sidecar, a 10gallon Hoske tank, a handful of spare parts, a couple dual-disc front ends, a couple complete charging systems, and a couple shelves full of misc spare parts.

Heck, one of those motorcycles is a complete, stock, good running bike with title, and I only have $274 in it.

I started with $2000.00 buy in and have a budget of $2-3k more.



Want to make something like this.

Sean Smith, that looks like a good buy for $2k! R90/6? I'm looking at a 78' R100/7 with $5k-$6k total to put into it.

I find it's best for the heart not to keep track of such things as costs.

Just picked the bike up for $200. Will try to keep the total investment to $1700

Need a front end
transmission
Gages.

Anyone has spares ..let me know.

So far into it about $1,000 (plus the purchase price of $4K) - just purchased from my cousin, been in storage in his garage for 25+ yrs., and has 11K on the clock. (New tires, petcocks, fuel lines, battery, plugs, fluids & filters, rear main seal, oil pump O ring, clutch spline lube, carbs rebuilt, probably forgetting something - did the work myself with help - thanks again TINK.

I disgust myself with how much I've put into my r90 alone.
I think I bought it originally for 2k then proceeded to put something like 8k into it in restoration costs.
I learned my lesson BIG TIME from that one. My r75 was only 1k and I've put $500 into it at most, and it should be running at the the end of that.
I realize the r75 is a rare case though...

Good luck, sir :)

You may find that after you buy one, Airheads have been known, by many a wife, to breed in the garage. Started out with 1 and now there are... a few more (need to be discreet in case the wife reads this!). The problem is that once you start looking for parts, you may find another bike for not much more... that you plan to scavenge parts off of. However, once you get it home... you look it over and think... well... it doesn't need much doing to it so you start buying a few parts... then you find you have almost enough parts to build another bike... so you look for another frame and engine... and the cycle repeats itself!

From the off...and to save money, you need to tell and convince yourself that you will...

1, never sell your spare parts, but you may trade or give some away to get someone elses bike running.
2, lie to yourself by rationalizing it to be cheaper to buy/fix/mod than it actually will. We all know the truth.
3, need three bikes because it just looks better than one or two... and we already know that you will buy a parts bike that will not end up being a parts bike.
4, not start looking at pictures of airheads... you will then start buying parts to build what you have seen
5, enjoy it more than any other motorcycle as long as you don't need working brakes and have thick soled boots to help you stop!

That's a good idea of what you'll have in it.. Here's the thing- you can buy a good, running bike for less than your budget. Plan on a few hundred for things like tires, tubes and a FULL service to get you aquainted with the bike. The rest spent on the bike is in yearly maintenance, preventative maintenance, upgrades, wish lists etc.. On my '77 R100RS, the buy-in was $3K. I put $500.00 in battery, oil, tires etc and rode it for almost a year (as my primary bike).. before I needed to do another $500.00 to it. Then came the added parts, the Billet triple clamp, etc.
Basically, what I'm rambling about is to buy a decent runner and build it up slowly.

Where in Cincy are you?

Thats about the most concise truth that I have ever read on this forum

In my five airheads I have about $15,000. I have another $4000 in spare engines, tires, a transmission, parts, and special tools.

Just under $20K. My GSA was more than that new.

To get all my airheads in running order I will probably spend another $5K.

If I were to sell everything I would probably get about $16K. That's a net loss of $8K. I can live with that.

( All in $Aus )

My LT ... bought for $5k ... then proceed upgrading electricals , lights , shockies and of course adding a 20 speaker sound system to it . Whilst I have put a few grand into that project ... it was far cheaper than developing a Drug and Alcohol dependency being a 24/7 sole parent in a small country town for nearly two years.

RS was a bargain at $3500 ... and a set of tyres , self service and a top box added ... has seen me well over the past 20 000 km's ( actually I save nearly $3000 riding it to the airport instead of driving the car for work )

R90S ... Well it has always been my dream bike ... paid a tad more than I wanted ... but less than market value ... New 3/4 added which cost more than my lounge room furniture .. but hey ... my kids are jumping all over my bike ( yet ). Its not a concourse bike ... and thats the way it will remain ... because other wise I will fall into that trap of being afraid to ride.

New projects arriving today ... I will have to work out what I am going to do with them.

But regardless of cost .. my bikes are far cheaper than me going into therapy

Every airhead I have ever purchased needed about $2K worth of stuff. Over 7 different ones that seems to be about my normal.

Marc

It could be her in disguise..........show yourself !!!

:)

You got that right.