As we suggested in our preview of the Las Vegas motorcycle auctions, the string of high prices achieved by 1970s motorcycles in January 2019, had resulted in a bumper crop of resplendent 1970s machinery being available this year … and there might be a few bargains to be had. We were right! Here's a look a the top sellers and the most interesting bikes.
During Las Vegas auction week in 2019, a sale we dubbed “The Sale of the Century”, a Green Frame Ducati 750SS sold for US$247,500, a Honda NR750 (RC40) sold for $181,500, a Honda VFR750 (RC30) sold for $121,000 and both versions of the MV Agusta 750 S set record prices at $137,500 for the original and $126,500 for the “America.”
This resulted in an unprecedented number of Green Frame Ducatis, MV Agusta 750s, “Sandcast” 1969 Honda CB750s and Honda RC30s being available this year, prompting us to write in our preview: "Simple economics suggests that with the sudden abundance of those bikes on the market, prices should fall. That means there is very likely a bargain to be had if you’ve been waiting for a brief period of oversupply. If you’ve been waiting to get a good example of a particular model, Las Vegas in January is the only place on earth where you’ll be able to compare several specimens."
Let’s deal with the 1970s models to begin with, as each one has an interesting tale.
Ducati 750SS “Green Frame”
The Ducati 750SS was built in limited numbers to commemorate Ducati’s most famous victory, the Smart-Spaggiari 1-2 victory at the 1972 Imola 200. Just over 400 of the resulting 750 SS "green frame" street versions were produced in 1974 and in Las Vegas last year (2019), one of them sold for $247,500 to become the most expensive 1970s motorcycle ever sold, exceeding the $216,951 (£154,940) paid for a 1970 Clymer Münch TTS Mammut at Bonhams Spring Staffordshire Sale in 2018.
The record auction price previously paid for “Green Frame” Ducati 750 Super Sports was $176,000 fetched by Gooding & Company during the official Pebble Beach auction in 2016.
The highest price paid for a “Green Frame” this year was $198,000, (pictured at top at the fall of the hammer – the $180,000 hammer price attracted a 10 percent buyers premium) though a bid of $195,000 was rejected on another “Green Frame” (with buyers premium, that was effectively a bid of $214,500) and the motorcycle (pictured directly above) remained unsold. We had expected that particular bike to go close to the $247,500 record, as did the vendor, but the marketplace decided otherwise.
Another 1974 Ducati 750SS Green Frame sold for $132,000, while still another could attract no more than a bid of $85,000 and it was passed in.
Ducati 750S and 750 GT models from the same “Rennaissance” period at Ducati have always risen with the SS tide, but the 750S model reached new highs in Las Vegas with a bid of $130,000 that was refused. The bidding was a very special bike that was given to Bruno Spaggiari for his second place in the Imola 200 when he and Paul Smart put the marque on the superbike map. The bike is believed to be one of the development prototypes for the Ducati 750 Sport that went on sale in the fall of 1972. Approximately 50 early production 750 Sports are known as Z-stripes for their distinctive tank graphics, and this bike wears Spaggiari's signature on the seat shell and a side cover signed by Fabio Taglioni himself. The bid was more than double that of any previous offer at auction for a Ducati 750 Sport.
1969 Honda CB750 “Sandcast”
When a Honda CB750 is referred to as a “sandcast model” it means it is one of the 7,414 CB750s cast in low-volume steel molds before Honda felt confident enough in the demand for its new model to invest in new volume-production die-cast molds. In 2019 in Vegas, a “sandcast CB750” sold for $35,200, so quite a few people decided to sell their bikes and cash out this year. With the increased supply, demand fell, and the best prices achieved from a bumper crop of pristine motorcycles were $27,500, $24,200, and $23,100. One sandcast model achieved a bid of $29,000, but the bid was rejected and the bike failed to sell – that’s effectively a bid of $31,900 for a bike that was subject to a Scott Williams restoration in the 1990s and has travelled just 400 miles since restoration.
The record for a Honda CB750 was paid in 2018 when a pre-production (one of four built and two extant) Honda CB750 built for promotional purposes in 1968 fetched £161,000 (US$263,725). The only other known Honda CB750 Prototype (the other one still extant one of the four) sold for $148,100 on eBay in February, 2014. Apparently, none of the parts of a standard CB750 fit those two prototype machines – they really were one-offs (or four-offs as the case may be) built to assess marketplace interest.
MV Agusta 750S
In 2019, both versions of the MV Agusta 750 S set record prices in Las Vegas with the voluptuous original selling for $137,500 and the revamped “America” selling for $126,500. This year’s offerings played out quite differently with the original 1971 MV Agusta 750S on offer selling for $55,000 and two 1976 MV Agusta Americas selling for $50,600 and $37,400 respectively. Bonhams offered a fully-faired 1974 MV Agusta 750S America which was passed in after a high bid of $58,000.
Honda RC30
In 2019, a Honda VFR750 (RC30) sold for $121,000, the highest price ever achieved by one of the homologation race specials. In 2020, Bonhams offered one RC30 in Las Vegas and Mecum offered four. The brief period of oversupply resulted in significantly cheaper products, with sale prices of $53,350 and $33,000, and three bikes passed in with high bids of $52,000, $42,000 and $35,000. One Honda RC40 crossed the auction block this year, with the 300-only rarity attracting a final price of $101,750, which is considerably lower than the $181,500 fetched by an identical model last year.
The two most expensive choppers ever to sell at auction
Custom motorcycles came of age with the sale of Indian Larry’s 1956 Harley-Davidson Indian Larry Grease Monkey for $220,000 and his 2004 Indian Larry Chain Of Mystery for $165,000, (below) with those two sales becoming the most expensive chopped motorcycles ever to have sold at auction.
Actually, the Captain America chopper ridden by Peter Fonda in the movie Easy Rider (1969) sold for $1.35 million at auction, but the auction sale subsequently fell through.
The Most Expensive Motorcycle of the week
The highest priced motorcycle of the week was the 1922 Brough Superior Mark 1 90 Bore, one of three surviving such Brough Superior Mk I motorcycles in the world that use the OHV JAP motor.
We predicted in our auction preview that this bike would be one of the most expensive motorcycles sold this year, and at $308,000, it turned out to be the top seller of the entire week. This bike was unknown for many years, being purchased as a basket case from a deceased estate in Australia. The bike’s previous history cannot be traced beyond two decades, and it has been in bits for all of that time.
The restoration of this bike was undertaken by Classic Style Motorcycles in Melbourne, Australia, winning ‘Best of Show” at Motorclassica in 2019, and at its second public outing, it was the top seller at the most important motorcycle auction event in the world.
In closing, we've included all the major results, all the major sales which didn't meet reserve, and a host of fascinating sales, some of which quite simply don't make sense. Be sure to check out 1987 Suzuki RG500 Skoal Bandit that sold for $57,200, a record for the model. And be sure too to check out the 1969 Honda CL125 that sold for $19,250. While the price of the Skoal Bandit Suzuki is related to it being the rarest of the RG500 variants, we simply can't explain the Honda CL125 price.
1940 Crocker Big Tank V-Twin
High Bid: $380,000
Bonhams Lot 180
January 23, 2020
Official Auction Description
A high bid of $380,000 was the biggest bid of the week, but not nearly enough to secure the Crocker. Last year, Crockers sold in four different places across the country for $825,000, $715,000, $704,000, $550,000 and $423,500, so even with a 10 percent buyers premium, if the bid had been accepted, it would have been the cheapest Crocker to sell for some time.
1938 Vincent HRD Series A Rapide
High Bid: $250,000
Mecum Lot F253
January 24, 2020
1930 Brough Superior SS100
Sold: $239,250
Mecum Lot S141
January 25, 2020
1940 Harley-Davidson EL Knucklehead
Sold: $220,000
Mecum Lot F189
January 24, 2020
1916 Militaire Four Cylinder
Sold: $214,500
Mecum Lot F88
January 24, 2020
1914 Henderson Model C
High Bid: $200,000
Mecum Lot S53
January 25, 2020
1934 Harley-Davidson CAC Speedway
Sold: $181,500
Mecum Lot F188
January 24, 2020
1911 Pierce Arrow Four
High Bid: $167,500
Mecum Lot S138
January 25, 2020
1930 Excelsior Super X
High Bid: $150,000
Mecum Lot S239
January 25, 2020
1953 Vincent Black Shadow
Sold: $143,000
Mecum Lot F202
January 24, 2020
1924 Patria Ace-Henderson
Sold: $137,500
Mecum Lot S104
January 25, 2020
1972 Harley-Davidson XR750
Sold: $137,500
Mecum Lot S207
January 25, 2020
1915 Harley-Davidson Twin w/Sidecar
Sold: $132,000
Mecum Lot F55
January 24, 2020
1939 Indian Four
Sold: $132,000
Mecum Lot F156
January 24, 2020
January 24, 2020
1929 Brough Superior 680 OHV Project
Sold: $126,000
Bonhams Lot 174
January 23, 2020
1915 Harley-Davidson 11F
Sold: $110,000
Mecum Lot F186
January 24, 2020
1923 Harley-Davidson FH Experimental
Sold: $110,000
Mecum Lot S169
January 25, 2020
1912 Pierce Four
Sold: $104,500
Mecum Lot S139
January 25, 2020
1928 Cleveland Four Cylinder
Sold: $104,500
Mecum Lot S150
January 25, 2020
1992 Honda NR750
Sold: $101,750
Mecum Lot S134
January 25, 2020
1915 Indian 8 Valve Board Track Racer
High Bid: $100,000
Mecum Lot F168
January 24, 2020
1913 Miami Cycle Man. Co. Flying Merkel
High Bid: $100,000
Mecum Lot S240
January 25, 2020
1953 Vincent Black Shadow Series C
Sold: $99,000
Mecum Lot F254
January 24, 2020
1954 Vincent Black Shadow
Sold: $99,000
Mecum Lot S137
January 25, 2020
1954 Vincent Black Shadow
Sold: $99,000
Mecum Lot T81
January 23, 2020
1949 Vincent 998cc Black Shadow Series-C
Sold: $97,750
Bonhams Lot 165
January 23, 2020
1994 Harley-Davidson VR1000 Road Racer #21
Sold: $95,700
Mecum Lot F126
January 24, 2020
1917 Henderson Detroit 4 Model G
Sold: $93,500
Mecum Lot F258
January 24, 2020
1942 Indian 442
Sold: $90,200
Mecum Lot F331
January 24, 2020
1926 Excelsior Super X Steve McQueen
High Bid: $90,000
Mecum Lot S241
January 25, 2020
1918 Harley-Davidson 60.33ci Model 18J
Sold: $88,550
Bonhams Lot 161
January 23, 2020
1911 Flying Merkel V-Twin
Sold: $88,000
Mecum Lot F167
January 24, 2020
1938 Brough SS 80
Sold: $88,000
Mecum Lot S193
January 25, 2020
1917 Pope Twin
Sold: $88,000
Mecum Lot S69
January 25, 2020
1903 Mitchell
High Bid: $87,500
Mecum Lot S187
January 25, 2020
1930 Harley-Davidson CA Speedway
High Bid: $85,000
Mecum Lot F187
January 24, 2020
1913 Henderson Model B
High Bid: $85,000
Mecum Lot S53.1
January 25, 2020
1914 Jefferson Twin
High Bid: $80,000
Mecum Lot F204
January 24, 2020
Harley-Davidson Double-Sided Neon 60x24
High Bid: $80,000
Mecum Lot K90
January 25, 2020
1900 De Dion Bouton Tricycle
Sold: $79,200
Mecum Lot F191
January 24, 2020
1908 Indian Racer
High Bid: $70,000
Mecum Lot F155
January 24, 2020
1913 Dayton Big Twin
High Bid: $70,000
Mecum Lot S123
January 25, 2020
1974 Yamaha TZ750
Sold: $66,000
Mecum Lot S211
January 25, 2020
1910 Harley-Davidson 30ci Model 6A Single
High Bid: $65,000
Bonhams Lot 159
January 23, 2020
1917 Henderson 60.40ci Model G Custom Board Track Racer
High Bid: $60,000
Bonhams Lot 158
January 23, 2020
1952 Vincent Series C Touring Rapide
High Bid: $60,000
Mecum Lot F203
January 24, 2020
1905 Indian Single
High Bid: $60,000
Mecum Lot S140
January 25, 2020
1939 Matchless 982cc Model X
Sold: $59,800
Bonhams Lot 167
January 23, 2020
1937 Indian Chief
High Bid: $59,000
Mecum Lot F97
January 24, 2020
Official Auction Description
1987 Suzuki RG500 Skoal Bandit Sold: $57,200
