A Regular Motorcycle Loses Value Every Year. A Classic Motorcycle Can Sell for Rp300 Million
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5 min read
An ordinary motorcycle in Indonesia loses 8% to 37% of its value every year, whether it is a matic scooter or a sport bike, and it never really stops losing value after that. A classic motorcycle can do the exact opposite. A well-documented Vespa VGLB from the 1960s, the kind Indonesians call a Vespa Kongo, has sold for up to Rp300 million, roughly five times what a brand-new Vespa costs today. Both of these are true about old motorcycles at the same time. What separates them is not age. It is documentation, rarity and a story that can be verified.
An old motorcycle sitting in a shed for thirty years is not automatically a classic. Three things separate a genuinely valuable classic motorcycle from a bike that is simply worn out: originality (how much of it is still the factory parts, not replaced or repainted), documentation (a clear, traceable ownership history and matching paperwork), and rarity (how many other examples of the same bike still exist in similar condition). A motorcycle missing all three is worth close to nothing extra for being old. A motorcycle with all three attached to a story a buyer can check is a completely different asset. The two case studies below show what that looks like in practice.
The clearest Indonesian example of a classic motorcycle is the Vespa Kongo. In 1962, Indonesia's Garuda Contingent III (KONGA III), roughly 3,457 troops, was deployed to the Congo under the United Nations Operation in the Congo (UNOC) peacekeeping mission, serving until the end of 1963. When the contingent came home, the Indonesian government rewarded the soldiers with Vespa scooters, distributed by rank: green 150cc Vespas for the highest ranks, yellow and blue 125cc Vespas for the rest. These scooters were VGLA and VGLB models, actually made in Germany, not Italy, and many still carry a Garuda bird logo on the front body and the words "eks Brigade Garuda" in their ownership documents.
That paper trail is exactly what makes a Vespa Kongo valuable today. The community that tracks and trades them, Vespa VGLA VGLB Class Nusantara (VABCN), has only around 90 members, because genuine, documented units are hard to find. Depending on condition and how complete the paperwork is, a Vespa Kongo now sells for anywhere from Rp40 million to Rp300 million. Compare that to a brand-new 2026 Vespa Primavera, which starts at about Rp55 million to Rp57.5 million on-the-road. A well-documented, 60-plus-year-old scooter can be worth the same as, or several times more than, the showroom price of a new one.
A second, unrelated example makes the same point from a different angle. A Vespa VBB from 1962, a different model line from the Kongo, changed hands for an estimated Rp200 million to Rp300 million after sitting completely unused since the year it was bought. Its owner, Andi Wardana, said the odometer still reads 0 kilometers. The scooter had never once been ridden, only displayed, so every part, down to the paint and the original accessories, is exactly as it left the factory. Among VBB scooters, which Piaggio built continuously from 1962 onward, collectors treat the very first model year as the benchmark version, which is part of why this specific bike commanded such a high price.
Notice what both stories have in common. Neither one is valuable just because it is old. Each has a specific, checkable reason a buyer can point to: a documented military gift with matching paperwork, or a zero-kilometer odometer nobody can fake after decades. That is the bar a motorcycle has to clear before "vintage" turns into "valuable."
Most old motorcycles in Indonesia are nothing like these two examples, and that is the point. NetWort's own motorcycle depreciation data shows a Honda Beat losing roughly 8% to 22% of its value within a year or two, and a Honda CB150R sport bike losing 21% to 37% in the same window. Those numbers describe almost every motorcycle on Indonesian roads, including one that happens to be old. Being from an earlier decade does not, by itself, create originality, documentation or rarity. A motorcycle bought new in 2005 and ridden hard for twenty years has none of the three, and it is worth roughly what the depreciation curve says it is worth, not more.
If you own a motorcycle you genuinely believe fits this description, an inherited scooter with its original papers, a rare model with a documented history, do not record it in your net worth at the same declining rate as an ordinary bike. On NetWort's Holdings page, a motorcycle logged under the Vehicle category depreciates at a default rate of -10% a year unless you change it. That default assumes an ordinary motorcycle. For a genuine classic with real documentation, you can set your own annual rate when you add the asset, so your recorded net worth reflects what the bike is actually worth, not what a generic depreciation formula assumes it is worth.