With the majority of the shows behind us its time to take a look back and see how this year has been for the hobby. I’m a glass half-full guy so you won’t be reading about how the hobby is tanking and the younger crowd isn’t into collecting, etc… . What I will say is that I do believe the economy is affecting discretionary spending. In the shows I’ve attended this year the entry and mid-level stuff has been stagnant. I’ve seen a lot of pretty nice bikes that a year or two ago would have been snapped up immediately just languish. The same with parts for these bikes.

I think rampant inflation has dulled the market for this stuff right now. The cost of living, especially if you have a family, is outstripping earnings and folks just don’t have a lot extra for hobbies. A sit down meal at just about any restaurant for a family of four is going to wipe out a $100 bill pretty quick. I follow several other collectible markets such as luxury watches, cars, and motorcycles and have seen this same trend. The luxury watch market in the past two years was crazy with some watches seeing 100% gains. That has quickly subsided and WatchCharts.com shows a 30% decrease over the past year and the market is still in decline. While this may be more of a market correction I see entry and mid-level collector car and motorcycle sales have slowed as well.

On the flip side I still see top-shelf bicycles and parts bringing strong money. Personally I don’t dwell too much on the money aspect as that would just suck the fun out of it for me. Hobbies are supposed to be fun and offer a diversion from everyday life. Fortunately there are bikes that fit just about every budget and now may be a good time to pick up a bargain. Like everything the market and hobbies are cyclic so I’m sure we’ll see things turn around and the buying activities at swaps pick up. I look to the upcoming Copake auction as something of a bellwether to see where the market is heading. Regardless of how things are going its still good to get on an old bike and just enjoy the ride!