TOPIC:

Came across this link for a guy (Rick Brett) who was the go to UK guru for Kwak triples, before moving to the US and taking his precious museum with him. Well looks like Rick is selling all his bikes. Worth checking out the link just to see what he's selling e.g. New Old Stock zero mile H1's and H2's - some fantastic bikes (and serious cash needed), just wish I had the wallet.

rbtriples.com/

Cheers Tim

There's a story here.
Rick Brett found a market for triples over in the UK and anything triple was going for crazy money. So Rick started buying up all of the triples he could get his hands on in North America and containerized them and sent them to the UK. It dried up the very limited few spares we could get our hands on here in North America and at the same time drove the prices up of what was left for us to find. Most of the triple owners I knew were really pissed about what Rick Brett had done. At one point he was shipping 2-3 containers a month. Can't blame a guy for capitalizing on an opportunity but at what cost? At one point he would buy a bike for $400 here and ship sell it in the UK for $4000-$5000.


I was a member of Kawasakitriplescanada when this was going on. The chatter on the Proboard would raise the hair on the back of your neck.

I have read very similar stories to this one Kawboy. David Silver did a very similar thing with Honda's and made a huge business out of it as well.
But here's the thing. If it had been left upto North Americans with all these cheap old Jap classics around , people like the German shop or more recently Zed-Parts would never be making reproduction parts for our bikes because the demand was never there. It took the Europeans and their huge love for the hobby to get Jap classics prices to where they are today. The KZ 1300 where I live are still very cheap , so if was left up to people like me to support someone like Zed-Parts , he would have gone broke by now. If I can buy a bike for $800 , why would I go looking for new parts for it when its worth nothing. But we have all benefitted from the explosion of interest in Jap bikes- albeit the prices are high -I checked out the german shop the other day when Stan was looking at re-wiring his bike- holy grap- a wiring loom for $650. But if it wasn't for the increasing value of these bike in Europe , that part wouldn't even be available.

Very interesting read! And I still need a few things from that German shop, and dreading the bill...