Seventies motorcycles made the most news at the 2020 Las Vegas Motorcycle auctions
Mecum/Bonhams/Somer Hooker
Mecum | Lot 180 | 1940 Crocker Big Tank V-Twin
Mecum
Mecum | Lot 180 | 1940 Crocker Big Tank V-Twin
Mecum
1922 Brough Superior Mark 1
Mecum
1922 Brough Superior Mark 1
Mecum
1922 Brough Superior Mark 1
Mecum
1922 Brough Superior Mark 1
Mecum
1938 Vincent HRD Series A Rapide Pic 1
Mecum
1938 Vincent HRD Series A Rapide Pic 1
Mecum
1938 Vincent HRD Series A Rapide Pic 1
Mecum
1938 Vincent HRD Series A Rapide Pic 1
Mecum
1938 Vincent HRD Series A Rapide Pic 1
Mecum
1972 Ducati 750 SS "Green Frame" sells for $198,000
Somer Hooker / NewAtlas.com
1972 Ducati 750 SS "Green Frame" sells for $198,000
Mecum
Bruno Spaggiari's Ducati 750S
Somer Hooker / NewAtlas.com
1969 Honda CB750 "sandcast"
Somer Hooker / NewAtlas.com
1971 MV Agusta 750S
Somer Hooker / NewAtlas.com
1990 Honda RC30 750cc
Mecum
1930 Excelsior Super X
Mecum
1953 Vincent Black Shadow
Somer Hooker / NewAtlas.com
1911 Pierce Arrow Four
Somer Hooker / NewAtlas.com
1924 PATRIA ACE-HENDERSON
Mecum
1972 Harley-Davidson XR750
Mecum
Seventies motorcycles made the most news at the 2020 Las Vegas Motorcycle auctions
Mecum/Bonhams/Somer Hooker
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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”
1972 Ducati 750 SS "Green Frame" sells for $198,000
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”
1969 Honda CB750 "sandcast"
Somer Hooker / NewAtlas.com
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.
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
1922 Brough Superior Mark 1
Mecum
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.
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.
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.
As a photojournalist, Mike’s work has been published in a dozen languages across 20+ countries. He has edited or managed over 75 different print publications, each with a different target audience: sports, automotive, advertising, marketing, design, ad infinitum. Mike has been working in the internet for more than 25 years and was the veteran of five internet start-ups before founding New Atlas in 2002.
1 comment
Steven Sgro
Great report, thanks. I believe you may have overlooked a Honda CB750 that sold for $40,700? Low serial number, Vic World restoration. Lot T272