We all know the struggles of the economy in recent years, with ever rising costs and intrest rates, which makes things even worse for any product with previous and current struggling sales...like motorcycles in general.
To me, it doesn't really matter if I can afford a $20k or $30k bike...or even one at $110k, as other than some low volume production hype, you'll never convince me any of them are worth it.
I could pay around $21k-$22k otd on a new Gen3...or buy one with a few mods, a thousand miles or so...and pay $14k for it.
$8k will cover wheels, brakes, suspension, exhaust and dyno tune...and give you the bike that the factory couldn"t.
Is that tempting?
Yes...but with a Goldwing and two Gsxr1k's to maintain and ride, another inline 4 cylinder isn't that appealing, I need an old TL1kR V-Twin, something different.
And, there is also a big group of potential riders that have been priced out of new bikes, especially with insurance costs.
Used bike prices have been going back down for a while now too, and there are deals to be had...which sadly seems to just be from lack of demand or intrest.
With speed wars over and big bike sales slowing for newer smaller bikes, it really looks like we were even more fortunate than we realized, riding for the last few decades.
Who knows what the future will bring.
And once again another big thanks to
@captain for keeping us all here...I think he'll ride the sinking ship down with the rest of us, lol