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Five Motorcycle Sales Trends Shaking the Vintage Market

By General Posts

Prices for classic motorcycles are changing

by James Hewitt from Hagerty.com

There’s a Hagerty Motorcycle Price Guide that uses thousands of transactions to track values on 9751 motorcycles. Here are five trends that stood out to us in the most recent update, released in June.

The smart take in the motorcycle community of late, much like for cars, is that a full-on, concours-level restoration rarely pays — at least financially speaking.

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Estate Planning for Motorcycle Collectors

By General Posts

Or What To Do With Your Beloved Bikes When You’re Not Around To Do It

By John Stein with images from Sam Burns

As motorcycle fanatics, we’ve all laid awake nights wondering how we could add to our collections when at this point in our lives, doing exactly the opposite probably makes more sense.

The reason, of course, is advancing age and the misguided belief that just because we love this stuff, our children will as well.

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Alt-Rock Cruisers: BMW targets American brand’s market

By General Posts

by Jack Baruth from Hagerty.com

BMW R18 meets Indian Challenger and Harley Heritage Classic

The slightly ridiculous 1800cc, two-cylinder, leather-saddlebag, CHiPs-windshielded cruiser I’m trying to force through six stopped lanes of Los Angeles traffic can’t be taken as anything but an admission on the part of the Bayerische Motoren Werke that Harley-Davidson knows

a) what boys like;
b) what men want …

in America, anyway.

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4 Major Motorcycle Trends Sir Hagerty Witnessed at the Mecum Auction

By General Posts

by James Hewitt from Hagerty.com

Values have skyrocketed of late in the motorcycle world but there were still deals to be had.

The spending frenzy at Scottsdale’s January auto auctions may have garnered the headlines, but just a short road trip away in Las Vegas, Mecum’s motorcycle auction put on a similarly spectacular show for the two-wheeled crowd.

We reported last year that millennials prefer classic & vintage Harleys over Indians.

Knuckleheads are benefitting from broader, multi-generational appeal, and demand is increasing because younger buyers continue to move into the market while older ones aren’t leaving.

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Discovery of huge fuel-can stash reveals 500 rare artifacts

By General Posts

from https://www.hagerty.com by Charlotte Vowden

A shedload of surprises: Discovery of huge fuel-can stash reveals 500 rare artifacts

Editor’s note: In the interests of preserving the authentic whiff of petrol that pervades this remarkable story from our U.K. colleagues, we have made only slight concessions to an American lexicon. All quotations remain untouched.

Alan Pooley’s pursuit of petroliana was purely sentimental, but the collection of more than 500 automotive artifacts that he amassed during three decades of buying for love not money is so remarkable that it could fetch up to £65,000 (roughly $88,600) at auction. Including over 250 oil cans, 60 two-gallon fuel canisters, and dozens of enamel signs, oilers, and pourers, it is set to go under the hammer later this year.

“The important thing about this collection is that it is completely fresh to the market, but the exciting bit about it is that no one really knew about it,” says Tom Godsmark, an associate and vintage specialist at Cheffins auction house, the agency managing the sale.

“It’s a big collection in terms of scale, but it’s the extensiveness that’s so interesting because it ranges from little items such as lapel badges, old match boxes, and advertising pencils for Rudge bicycles to a fully restored petrol pump.”

Among the pieces which the late Mr. Pooley carefully stored, restored, and displayed in sheds at his home in Norfolk is a two-gallon fuel can that, to the untrained eye, stands out because of the large lightning bolt and bold lettering embossed on its side. Those in the know will recognize it as one of the few surviving examples of a limited-edition run of Shell Racing cans that were produced in the 1930s. With an estimated value of £400 to £600 (approximately $545–$818), it’s one of the rarest pieces of memorabilia to have been discovered in its original condition.

An automotive body finisher by profession, Alan, who passed away in 2020, was equipped with the skills and patience to rejuvenate items in a state of distress and spent a great deal of his spare time doing so. “It could be quite a long process, but he was a master of the art and was able to bring them back up to a really good standard, it gave him a huge buzz,” explains Alan’s partner, Karin Burleigh.

His penchant for rescuing fuel canisters from ruin (originally known as “motor spirit” cans) extended to vessels produced by the Scottish Oil Agency, Mobiloil, Alexander Duckham & Co Ltd, and Anglos Taxibus Spirit. “If it wasn’t for him, some of those cans wouldn’t be in existence anymore, they would have just rusted into a little heap on the floor,” says Burleigh, who considers the “best” of the three sheds Mr. Pooley used to house his automotive memorabilia is the one in which he arranged his favorite pieces—on every available surface.

From to floor to ceiling—where oil pourers, Shell-branded hard hats, and Castrol Racing baseballs caps hung on hooks that he had fastened into the timber beams supporting the roof—Alan had curated his own at-home exhibition that showcased the containers, canisters, tins, tools, and signs that he treasured the most. “You name it, it was all there,” says Godsmark. “My first thought was Crikey! I imagine he liked going in there and just admiring it. I suspect it was a bit of a sanctuary for him.”

As a boy, Burleigh reveals, Alan cherished the time he spent with his grandfather, and as a man, the tools and Francis-Barnett water cycle that he inherited from him held huge nostalgic value. It’s this relationship and those heirlooms—which are not for sale—that she believes sparked Alan’s passion for automobilia and subsequent apprehensiveness to let any of it go. “He may have sold one or two things, but the majority stayed here,” she says. “Looking at the collection it looks like we spent our whole time at boot sales and auto jumbles, but honestly, we didn’t.”

With so many items in need of a new home, the collection will be divided into lots and auctioned gradually so as not to flood the market. “Collectibles such as gas pumps, fuel advertisements, enamel or tin signs are continually seeing a growth in value as the market continues to gather pace,” says Godsmark. “Values can be hugely varied, ranging from a few hundred pounds for a good example of an oil can right up into the tens of thousands for the best of class in petrol pumps.”

Of the six vintage motorcycles found in Mr. Pooley’s collection, Godsmark tips the 1937 499cc Norton Model 18 and 1966 649cc 650SS Norton as the ones likely to attract the highest bidders due to their condition, low mileage, and thorough documentation.

Making the decision to part with Mr. Pooley’s collection has been incredibly difficult for his three grandsons, who were entrusted with its care upon his passing, and the family’s biggest hope is that each of the items will find their way to “someone who will love it like Alan did.”

Launch of Honda CB750 & Dick Mann at AMA Daytona 200-Mile Race

By General Posts

by Todd Halterman from https://www.autoevolution.com

On Twitter by Honda Powersports: Monday’s passing of Dick “Bugsy” Mann, American Honda sends its heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and fans. Mann’s 1970 Daytona 200 win aboard the CR750 (the racing version of the CB750 four-cylinder) was momentous in Honda’s history Thank you, Dick, and godspeed.

The Honda CB750 Changed the Way Motorcycles Were Made, Raced and Sold

Though now highly prized for their potential as re-imagined cafe racer machines, the venerable Honda CB750 was – back in its infancy – the bike that changed the game.

So how did it happen that the Japanese took over the worldwide motorcycle manufacturing industry? To a large extent, it came down to the creation of a single model.

With five consecutive championship titles under their belts, Honda decided to withdraw from the World GP circuit in 1967 with a plan to develop high-performance consumer motorcycles at the forefront of their vision.

While Honda exported more than half of their output back in the mid-’60s, they didn’t make a large-displacement sport bike model which would appeal to the hardcore rider in the U.S.

And it’s not like the honchos at Honda failed to notice that glaring deficiency. Sales of Honda motorcycles in America were flagging in 1966, and the company knew a brand-new worldview was in order. While the company had created the Dream CB450 in 1965, they were still being outgunned by big bikes from other makers. The CB450 sold well, but for the vast majority of American riders, it just didn’t have the requisite zing and bottom-end torque they craved.

What really drove Yoshiro Harada, the head of Honda product development at the time, was hearing the news that Britain’s Triumph was deep in the development process of a high-performance, 3-cylinder 750 cc engine. With the ante thus upped, Honda laid out plans to compete by creating their own 750 cc engine, which would lay down 67 horsepower to overtake the juice you could get from the 66-horsepower Harley-Davidson’s 1300 and the proposed Triumph Triple.

Though Honda was already the industry’s leading maker of motorcycles (due in no small part to the success of the most popular motorcycle in history, the Super Cub), the introduction of the CB750 sought to become the world’s top manufacturer of quality motorcycles as well. They were up against some formidable competition as comparable models from Triumph, BMW, and Harley were already on the road.

So what were the targets? Honda wanted to make a long-range, high-speed touring machine, so they turned to science for answers in the form of a newly-minted paradigm dubbed “ergonomics.”

Those targets included: Stability at highway cruising speeds, a reliable and cooled braking system that would handle frequent rapid decelerations from high speed, minimal vibration, and noise to fight rider fatigue on long hauls with a rider position which complimented the smoother power plant, lights and instruments which were large, gauges which were easy to read, easy maintenance and servicing for all the various modules of the bike and the use of top-quality materials and production techniques.

Perhaps the most significant innovation for Honda’s showpiece bike? The adoption of disc brakes. While that design decision proved costly and time-consuming, it was also a stroke of brilliance and one which made the CB750 a favorite of the serious riding set.

Released to the U.S. public in January 1969, the announcement of the new bike’s retail price, $1,495, was met with stunned silence at a dealer meeting in Nevada. The other shoe had officially dropped. Large-displacement bikes were selling at that time for between $2,800 and $4,000, and the 2,000 dealers on hand for the announcement exploded into applause when they recovered their wits.

And they had good cause for their optimism. The CB750 immediately commanded a premium sales price in dealer showrooms of between $1,800 and $2,000 to get one out the door.

Featuring an integrated crankshaft and metal bearing to replace the split-type, press-fit crankshaft with a needle bearing used in previous Honda motors, the CB750 was a great leap forward in design as well as price.

As great as this new machine was, the company initially had a serious problem. They could only manage to make something like five bikes a day, and that was clearly not enough to meet the demand for what had become a major hit with the market. Production was pushed to 25 units per day and then to 100 units, but that still left an enormous pile of backorders building up under and an entirely expected sales landslide.

It became clear that the production of the original sand-molded crankcases would never meet the rate requirements of mass production, so the factory switched over to producing crankcases of a metal, die-cast construction. The bikes were such a hit with the riding public that the production of engines and chassis was moved to a Suzuki factory in mid-1971. The “sandcast” CB750 models are now fetching enormous prices from collectors of up to ten and fifteen times higher than their new-off-the-line premium price back in the day.

But what really made the bikes a smash hit with the public?

Performance. Pure and dependable performance.

The factory racing team at Honda R&D took the new machines to compete at a 10-Hour Endurance Race in August 1969 to coincide with the commercial launch of the big bike, and Honda dominated, notching one-two finishes with the teams of Morio Sumiya and Tetsuya Hishiki taking first place and Yoichi Oguma and Minoru Sato pulling in a close second.

The deal was done when rider Dick Mann blew away the field on his CR750 during the AMA Daytona 200-Mile Race run during March 1970. The field was now wide open for large-displacement Japanese bikes, and in 1972, Kawasaki launched the 900cc ZI to compete on the big-bike stage…and the rest is, as they say, history.

Honda Motorcycle bought in 1981 with zero miles in original condition

By General Posts

Honda motorbike bought in 1981 that has zero miles on the clock because it was confiscated by its teenage owner’s father and locked in garden shed goes up for auction for £2,000

  • Honda CB100N was bought 40 years ago but was never ridden by its teen owner
  • Strict father banned him from riding it and it stayed untouched locked in storage
  • After father died, son found his bike in remarkable condition four decades later
  • The 1981 bike is now going up for auction and is expected to fetch up to £2,000

by Katie Feehan from https://www.dailymail.co.uk

A 40-year-old Honda bike with no mileage on it has been rediscovered and is up for auction after the disapproving father of its first teen owner banned him from riding it and locked it away in storage for decades.

The 1981 Honda CB100N was bought brand new by the youngster in his youth while he lived with his parents.

However, his boyhood fantasy of riding a motorcycle never materialised because his strict father banned him from riding it.

Instead the machine was left to languish in storage for the next four decades.

After his father died the unnamed owner, who is now aged in his 50s, was tasked with clearing out his house in Bridgewater, Somerset, and stumbled upon his old but immaculate bike.

He agreed to sell the time-capsule Honda to neighbour Graham Tozer who has now put it up for sale at auction.

The bike still has its original tax certificate with an expiry date of July 31, 1982. The odometre displays the exact mileage of a mere four tenths of a mile.

Mr Tozer, 64, said: ‘I’m a collector of classic bikes and cars, so six months ago my neighbour called me up and said they needed rid of it.

‘He was born in the house and spent all of his life there. When he was a youngster he really wanted his own bike but when he brought it home his dad wouldn’t let him ride it.

‘He’d saved up for such a long time to buy it but his father just said, ‘you’re not going on that. You can stick it in the shed’.

‘Apparently his dad was really strict. He was ex-military and he was the boss of the house.

‘I would have loved a bike like that when I was younger but my dad probably would have done the same thing.

‘To have a motorbike from the eighties which hasn’t been touched is so unique. It really is like the Holy Grail for collectors.’

George Beale, a specialist at Charterhouse Auctioneers of Sherborne, Dorset, said: ‘These bikes were ordinarily used for commuting, so those which are still on the market from the 1980s tend not to be in the greatest condition.

‘But with a little work this one could be like brand new, which is incredibly unusual for something so old.

‘It would be rare to find any vehicle from the 1980s without any miles whatsoever. It just so happens that this young boy’s tyrant father was far more forceful than he was.’

The Honda is being sold with a pre-sale estimate of £2,000 at the Haynes International Motor Museum on October 14.

The Last Crocker Ever Built

By General Posts

The Duesenberg of Motorcycles
By Steve Klein with images from the Bob T. Collection

The Crocker motorcycle has long been known as “The Holy Grail of Motorcycling” due to its rarity.

It also carries the nomenclature, “The Duesenberg of Motorcycles,” due to its hand built high-quality, and finally “America’s Superbike,” due to its performance. Three titles suggesting strongly that no other machine has reached such a high pinnacle of acclaim.

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Royal Enfield Meteor 350 Road Test & Review

By General Posts

So, you want a new, retro-styled street bike under five grand? There is Good News & Bad News.

The Meteor 350 is a bang-for-buck motorcycle. The Enfield name has more mystique than any of the major brands in this space, and those who appreciate Royal Enfield’s history will be proud to ride the modern-day version. Folks place more value on the bike’s style and personality. The Meteor 350 rides exactly the way it looks, as it advertises – “Cruise Easy”.

If you want a turn-key retro motorcycle with a warranty and a few modern luxuries, give the Meteor a try. It’s a nifty way to go motorcycling without getting in over your head.

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Steve McQueen’s first Husqvarna motorcycle may sell for a small fortune

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by Gary Gastelu from  https://www.foxnews.com

1968 motocross bike valued at $100,000.

Motorcycle enthusiast Steve McQueen owned dozens of bikes over the years, but a few are more special than others. This 1968 Husqvarna Viking 360 was the first of the brand’s bikes owned by Steve McQueen. (RM Sotheby’s).

McQueen had a particular penchant for Husqvarna motorcycles, like the one he rode in the “On Any Sunday” documentary, and one is coming up for auction at the RM Sotheby’s Monterey, Calif., event on August 13.

It’s not just any Husqvarna, but the first one he ever owned.

His Solar Productions movie company purchased the 1968 Viking 360 from Swedish motocross rider Bengt Åberg just after he competed in a race on it in California.

The single-cylinder two-stroke was fully restored in 2014 and remains in mint condition, so its next owner will have to decide if they want to chance messing it up to find out what it’s like to ride in McQueen’s riding boots.

RM Sotheby’s estimates the Husky could sell for up to $100,000, which is a far cry from the millions that many of McQueen’s cars have sold for, but quite a lot for a dirt bike.