If you've been interested in working on your own motorcycles for any length of time, then chances are excellent that you've already watched prices change over time. Even if you've only been changing, say, your oil and brake pads over the past handful of years, you've probably had some opportunity to watch prices change on these regular maintenance items that every rider has to attend to if they're going to take good care of their machines.
Of course, the deeper you get into any given bike, the greater the opportunity you will have had to see this. From small things like screws to more specialized things like specific gaskets, or carburetor boots, or even full assemblies, pricing (and availability) will vary wildly over time. And this isn't a hard and fast rule, but generally speaking, the further away from when a thing was new that you get, the more expensive and difficult to find parts may start to get.
There are exceptions, of course. I love my vintage Hondas for many reasons, but one definitely has to be that I'm not made of money. And comparatively speaking, because Honda has had a tendency to use a lot of the same parts across multiple models, there's often a good chance that you'll be able to still find most parts for even my 40-year-old V4. Are there certain things that are more difficult or expensive to find than others? Of course, but it's a lot easier on the wallet (and your headache medicine supply) than some things. It's all relative, you know?
Antique Harleys are a completely different animal, though, and that's a situation where Craig (aka the Bearded Mechanic) is taking us all along on his Model J journey as witnesses to the process. By now, if you're at all interested in that sort of content, you've no doubt seen some of Matt Walksler and Wheels Through Time's deep dives into some of the bikes they've worked on. Walksler's mastery and depth of knowledge is incredibly impressive, and the fact that he knows so many people and has so many contacts in that world that he can network with to find parts is also really cool to see.
But what if you aren't as well-connected in that world as someone like Matt Walksler? And what if you decide that hey, you want to try your hand at restoring an American legend in your spare time? That's where Craig's journey is particularly interesting and valuable, because he's a bit closer to the "hey, what if I just....?" that a lot of people might be.
The bulk of this video is spent looking at a Driscoll's Strawberries flat box full of parts that he's procured over the past few months for the Model J. Using a couple of nice, hi-res prints of photos of a complete Model J from Wheels Through Time, along with a manual and other documentation for the bike, Craig has been working to determine what he needs to both obtain and do to slowly bring this bike back to life. While Walksler is working on the engine, Craig is working on the frame, and doing things like getting the right handlebars and floorboards and cables in order to get it closer to good running order again.
Because there's so much historical documentation available for Harley-Davidsons going back to the very beginning, Craig is also able to easily track what each of the parts he's been tracking down would have cost in 1919 versus what he's finding that they cost in 2025.
The good news is, he's finding pretty reasonable parts availability; at least, for the things he's shown us so far. And on a piece by piece basis, many of them don't seem terribly out of line; they just seem like the price for a lot of things in 2025.
But when you compare them to what they would have cost in 1919, that's when the differences become stark. Granted, paying literal pennies for iindividual parts looks a whole lot different in a time when the average weekly take-home pay for a worker in a manufacturing industry was just over $22 a week, as it was in 1919.
But that $22 is an interesting figure, because as Craig notes, it's just a little over that amount that his entire box of parts would have cost to obtain back in 2019. In 2025? I won't spoil the video for you, but take your best guess at just how very much more all those parts ended up running him as he slowly gathered them all together.
It takes a special kind of maniac to get this into vintage motorcycles, dedicating their blood, sweat, tears, and dollars to putting them back together the right way. But I'm pretty sure most of us wouldn't have it any other way. If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well, and that (I think) is what sets most enthusiasts apart. Well, that and a stubborn refusal to quit.
If you're up for a little game, take your best guess at what you think a box of these parts costs in 2025, watch the video to see if you were right, and then tell us about it in the comments. Or, share your own motorcycle restoration tales in the comments; we always love to see those, too. Happy wrenching (and swearing)!
