Appreciating bike

[Bustaspoke]

I still want a bike that rides like a new bike but looks like a 1983 bike, Honda nearly did it but bottled out.

That's why I like the looks of those Kawasaki Z900 RS.
Back to the original subject,there's a nice RD04 Honda Africa Twin on flea bay for £3500. I doubt you'd lose money on it,depending on how worn the consumables are.

[Mr Moofo]

Surely you have to look at things that have a certain cachet - Cagiva Elefant, Ducati 900, Original Monsters
Or fanboi status - Buell S1, Moto Guzzi ( Moto Guzzi people will get moist over anything, no matter how tatty or rubbish), old British, old Italian

That said SP1/2 are doing quite nicely, as are the original FireBlades - and even Mark 1 Speed Triples are going up in value quite quickly

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

MT07

The CB-1 was all about having an IL4 engine whether it made sense or not, so more likely CB650R as a modern equivalent if we're ignoring the original's 45-ish bhp, but I see where you're going.

I still want a bike that rides like a new bike but looks like a 1983 bike, Honda nearly did it but bottled out.

There's that many versions of the CB1100 and Z900 to choose from...

Z900RS doesn't do it for me, and I've spent a few hours looking at them, test rode a CB1100 and it rides like a big, heavy CB400 Super Four, not like a modern bike, it feels closer to an 80s bike, but it's dull.

[dern]

I've stuck a few things on watch lists on ebay to see where things stand over time. I'm wary of old 2-strokes and old classics, too much to go wrong imo and too much scope for a project. I've put watches on things like early blades, R1s, cbr/rvf/vfr400s, 916s, that kind of thing.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Be aware of spares costs, old Japanese two strokes are nice if you understand two strokes and can get things like pistons, rings and crank seals, avoid European two strokes as you won't get the parts, GS1000s and Z900/1000s are good as spares availability is good thanks to both engines being popular race engines and they're as simple as a 4 stroke gets.

I'm a bit wary of newer stuff as the engines are complicated and can be a bit fragile (in comparison with big old Suzuki/Kawasaki engines), the electronics will be getting to the point where they give trouble and the carbs are a lot more complex than a set of Mikuni VM33s.

Good luck, hope you find something you want and that it works out.