LOST WAGES, FOUND MOTORBIKES

Bonhams' Malcolm Barber discusses the 'Shadowized' Vincent Rapide which sold for $47k inclusive of fees

The Las Vegas collector motorcycle auctions every January are the biggest vintage bike sale anywhere, with 1000 bikes going under the hammer this year.  Yet with this huge spread of machinery on offer, some of it at no reserve, I muse on why there aren't more 'ordinary bikers' attending these auctions - this year's event was a strangely mixed bag, with the Thursday Bonhams auction very successful for high-end collectors, while the 3-day Mecum auction was a benefit for dealers who'd come from around the globe. 

Ron Christensen, who sold his MidAmerica Auctions to Mecum, was still touting the herd as it crossed the podium 

In past years, some of these dealers have gone home empty handed, but they reaped a haul at Mecum, with '60s Triumphs going for $5-8k, Harley Panheads for $13-18k, and lots else going cheap or not selling at all.  Several familiar dealers from the USA and Europe looked pleased as cats with tweety bellies, having scored dozens of nice old bikes, which are currently en route to their respective salerooms.  

Bench and Loom's Jared Zaugg aboard the Brough Superior SS100 with sold, then didn't, at $285k...

The Herb Harris collection of fascinating cutaway engine included this ex-factory BSA Gold Star from the 1955 Earls Court show

Cool stuff at Mecum - a Norton Model 50 Featherbed in original paint, and a Harley KRTT

Alan Stulberg of Revival Cycles with the -unwashed- '33 Brough Superior 11-50 we rode in the 2014 Cannonball, on the Sinless Cycles display of Broughs and Vincents.  Good company!

No sale today...the 'Bigsby Special' replica Crocker at Mecum, cataloged with a story that was indeed a crocker something...

Bonhams starts off the week, and as in years past, there are buyers who go to one auction or the other, but not both.  Bonhams attracts the bankroll boys, and really knocked it outta the park this year, with a $4.2M total, and four world record prices set.  A 1950 Vincent 'White Shadow' sold at over $200k, and another 7 hit the century mark.  Records were set for a Matchless-Brough SS80 ($115k), Vincent models 'white' Shadow ($224k) and Rapide ($126k), and Matchless G50 ($115k).  Even with an approx. 75% sale rate, their total sales figure was remarkable, and the high rollers really made the auction.

Artist Jeff Decker shared the Sinless booth, and showed off his white-pencil technique for drawing Sprouts Elder

As usual, Malcolm Barber, now Co-Chairman of Bonhams, used his dry wit to keep things rolling, nudging indecisive bidders by making fun of them with good humor.  A huge selection of Herb Harris' 'cutaway' motors and even a full cutaway BSA Gold Star mostly failed to sell, with very high reserves; in the case of the Goldie, something like 10 times the value of the complete machine!  Clearly, it's passed into the realm of art, but art collectors aren't ready for a cutaway.

A fully race-kitted '53 Triumph Tiger 100 was truly mouthwatering at only $16k

It's hard to imagine a greater contrast to Bonhams than the Mecum auction, which is very fast-paced, averaging only 90 seconds per bike...understandable with 750 bikes to push through.  There's little 'color' at the auction (a job I used to do for MidAmerica), and the sheer volume of the event, in all senses, can be overwhelming, and challenging to sit through for more than a few hours.  Still, the results at the Mecum auction were astounding - 83% sold, with a total $7.3M changing hands. That makes a total sale for the weekend around $10.5M...which ain't chicken feed! The visiting crowd at Mecum must have numbered over 3000, and people milled around the bike lineups, getting a close look at the bikes; it's a terrific social scene, and a great place to hang out with friends from across the country or around the globe.

Hanging out at the AMCA booth - it's only fair I post them, as they made me the poster boy for membership renewals!

For whatever reason, the Mecum auction didn't draw out the high bidders, and the top price realized was $132k for an original-paint 1952 Vincent 'Touring' Rapide in rare Chinese Red, surely one of the finest original paint Vincents to be found anywhere, with an exquisite patina, which knocked off the Bonhams world-record mark for Rapides set two only days prior.  That's the auction biz!  Clearly, Vincents in original paint, or Shadows, are very hot again, although a lovely Rapide in 'riding' condition, with full documentation and history, went for only $43k at Bonhams.  Choose the Vincent you like - the same model can be had for $100k more if you prefer!  With over 11,000 postwar Vincents produced, the very top prices are clearly collector-driven, and not about rarity per se...

A super-rare machine with a great back story; in 1925, Indian bought a new Velocette K OHC bike, and set about copying it in its entirety!  The chassis and gearbox is nearly identical, and the engine is pretty close too, but Indian-style.  This 1 of 6 motor was installed in a SV Prince chassis.

Mecum has the benefit of TV coverage via NBC Sports Network, and full disclosure – while I recently resigned as a consultant for Bonhams, I enjoyed sitting in with the NBCSN ‘car guys’ as a commentator for the show this year, their first motorcycle auction broadcast.  Hopefully they'll continue to cover the motorcycle auction scene, as it's long overdue.

'THE KILLER'S' PANHEAD TOPS $385K...

The Jerry Lee Lewis '59 Panhead, a gift from the factory

At Mecum's Kissimmee auction yesterday, Jerry Lee Lewis' 1959 Harley-Davidson FL 'Panhead' which he's owned for 55 years, and was a gift from the Harley-Davidson factory, sold for a remarkable $385k, including fees.  This places his Harley at lucky #13 on my 'Top 20' list of the World's Most Expensive Motorcycles; wholly appropos.   I was asked to interview 'the Killer' and provide text for the auction, which is below:

"Rock n’ Roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis has an outsize reputation as a larger-than-life character living with scant regard for public opinion. Regardless of debauched tales and extreme behavior, this electrifying showman not only climbs onto pianos, but also motorcycles…which should come as no surprise at all. In the 1950s, he seemed the most‘at risk’ performer of all, pioneering a new musical style with an aggressive, almost wild stage presence, as well as the original “sex, drugs, n’ rock n roll” lifestyle…yet he remains alive today, still performing on occasion, and still with a clutch of Harley-Davidsons in his stable.

The Panhead on delivery in 1959 from Ralph Murray of Harley Davidson Sales in Birmingham, Alabama

 Lewis bought his first motorcycle – well, a Cushman scooter – at 16 back in 1951, when he “wasn’t big enough for a real bike”, using money he earned working on his father’s farm. But ‘farm work’, and the Cushman, wouldn’t last long; his first hit record from the historic Sun Studios dropped in 1956, ‘Crazy Arms’, which sold 300,000 copies, mostly in the South. The next year, ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’ spread like a grassfire across the globe, and as a gift to himself, Lewis purchased a brand-new, blue 1957 Harley-Davidson FLH ‘Panhead’, with the big 74” motor. “It was a fine motorcycle, and I rode it all over the place. When I put out my first record is when I bought that bike.” 

Jerry Lee with his third (of 7!) wife (and cousin, Myra Gale Brown, aged 13) in 1957, with his first Panhead, also a '57 model

Jerry Lee Lewis was at the peak of his early career in 1958, having already sold millions of records, and established himself in the Rock ‘n Roll firmament alongside Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, and Little Richard. The Harley-Davidson factory, always savvy with ‘product placement’, gifted a pair of new 1959 FLH Panheads to Lewis and Elvis Presley. Jerry Lee got his first, which irked The King; “Harley-Davidson asked if I’d like to have a new bike, and they brought it down to Memphis and gave it to me at my house. Elvis got the second one, and there was a bit of personal talk about this – he couldn’t understand why he got the second one, so I asked if he wanted to trade! That was just a joke.”

Good times, when girl fans tore the clothes off his back...

Lewis really enjoyed this ’59 Panhead, “It’s a fine motorcycle, no comparison to my ’57 Panhead - the motor on that one wasn’t quite as nice. This motor is just as good as the day it was given to me.” Asked why he’s selling a precious piece of personal history he’s owned for 55 years, Lewis becomes pensive. “There was a time I wouldn’t take a zillion dollars for it, but now it’s just sitting there. You can crank that motorcycle up and she purrs like a kitten – but you have to kickstart it you know. I could probably sit on it alright today, but I wouldn’t take a chance. I’m 79 years old. This bike is like a child to me, but I’ve decided it’s time to let it go.”

 Jerry Lee Lewis’ loss is a memorabilia collector’s enormous gain, as few celebrity motorcycles have such an indelible association with a notorious and legendary owner. ‘The Killer’s ’59 Panhead, looking fresh as the day the factory gave it to him, still in his ownership after 55 years; it doesn’t get any better than that, and likely there will never be another classic Harley for sale with such solid gold provenance. If that doesn’t leave you ‘Breathless, Honey’, it’s time to check your pulse."

In the 'now it can be told' file, Lewis admitted a big reason he was selling the Panhead was to prevent a family feud after he dies, with many heirs clutching at whatever fortune he's retained after half a century.  He still has one bike, a Sportster, which he's revved up on stage in the past, and now sits in his Florida restaurant.

Here's a video of the auction sale:


  Subscribe to TheVintagent.com via email!

GRAND PALAIS, S'IL VOUS PLAIS..

The enormous, sweeping volumes of the Grand Palais, with its original Art Nouveau ironwork, is something to behold

Bonhams is hosting its February 5th Paris auction to coincide with the giant Rétromobile festival, an excellent reason to visit the City of Light in the winter (and it's a lovely place to be if it snows). The Grand Palais is perhaps the world's most spectacular venue for an auction, an Art Nouveau engineering masterpiece, which the city of Paris has recently put back into circulation to host regular exhibitions and events.

1958 Borgward Rennsport, an achingly lovely miniature of the Jaguar D-Type

As always, Bonhams kills it with their automobilia selection of sculptural radiator caps, original illustrations, and posters, and also as per the script, there's a fine selection of motorcycles for sale before the four-wheelers dominate the podium.  Even then, it's worth sticking around, as European auctions turn up stuff we never see Stateside...like a late-'50s Borgward 1500 Sports Racer with an aluminum body. Want!

One of many European racing posters for sale...

Other drool-worthy machines are a Norton-Velocette with dustbin fairing, and an endurance-racer Bimota HB-1, which is about the sexiest 1970s motorcycle of all.  While Triumph had their Hurricane, and MV made their heavy 4s, Bimota truly captured the sideburn-and-flares era with bikes that scream 'sex!' and 'speed!' with equal volume.  They're still reasonably priced (depending on your point of view), but I can't imagine these remaining in the low-to-mid 5-figures for much longer...

Cafe racer with a twist - a Velocette in a Norton featherbed frame, with a full dustbin fairing.  Cool!

Sadly, no Paris for me this year.  I'm busy building a photography studio, back in San Francisco.  If you go, kiss the grande dame for me, eh?

The only '70s Honda that matters...the 1974 Bimota HB-1 CM3. 

Subscribe to TheVintagent.com by email!