We’ve always said that if one of these came up at the right time, it would become the world’s first million dollar motorcycle. Well, it’s gonna happen next month and … this will be worth watching.
There has never been a motorcycle sold for more than a million at auction.
Several have gone close, with the Gold-plated speedway bike of Ivan Mauger selling for US$1.7 million in 2016 putting forward the best case, but that price included a few other bikes and a museum-load of trophies and memorabilia.
Mauger won the Speedway World Championship six times, the World Pairs Championship twice, the World Long Track Championship thrice and he was four times a member of the World Speedway Teams Championship Team. What's more, he exemplified the Kiwi spirit and although he was a "box office" drawcard at any major event, he maintained an extraordinary work ethic. As a professional speedway rider, he went to work every night somewhere in Europe and if he didn't win, he was only a wheel away, and most trips ended with more silverware being taken home. It was a museum full that sold with this lot, and it's all on display in a museum in Canterbury, Mauger's home town in New Zealand ... so let’s set that one aside.
The Captain America Harley that Peter Fonda rode in Easyriders sold at auction for $1.65 million in 2014 but the sale subsequently fell through based on doubts about the authenticity of the bike. Money eventually changed hands, but there has never been a verifiable claim on how much the final price was. No one person appears to have the full truth about the provenance of the bikes claiming to be one of the original filming bikes and it is a crying shame that such an icon should be mired in such ugly controversy … but this was a “no sale.”
There have been countless other near misses across the last 20 years, including one of Sylvester Roper’s original steam cycles that sold for $425,000 in 2012 – it could easily have smashed a million given its historical significance, but it didn’t.
Ditto for Elvis Presley's 1976 Harley-Davidson FLH 1200 Electra Glide when a bid of $800,000 ($960,000 with BP added) was knocked back. The next time the bike went to auction, it was again passed in, with a high bid of just $300,000. Ouch!
As things stand today (April 26, 2024), the record price at auction is held by a 1908 Harley-Davidson ‘Strap Tank’ at $935,000, with a 1951 Vincent Black Lightning ($929,000), a 1915 Cyclone Board Track ($852,500) and a 1936 Crocker ($825,000) close behind.
So the barrier we have expected to be smashed a long time ago has still not been broken. Stamps, baseball cards, comics and countless other cultural relics regularly sell for multiples of millions, and the record for a car is now $150 million, but never has a motorcycle sold for more than a million dollars at auction.
The latest contender with an excellent chance of breaking motorcycling’s four-minute-mile is a bike that won’t need much introduction to baby boomer motorcycle enthusiasts – it’s one of the original eight debutante bikes that Ducati took to the 1972 Imola 200 mile race. Unlike the big L-twin it was based on, the Imola bikes ran desmodromic valve gear, which enabled it to run at higher rpm and hence make more power.
Ducati blitzed the field in that race, with Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari finishing 1-2 and recording the first of many wins for the signature 90-degree Ducati V-twin. That basic engine configuration kept Ducati at the forefront of superbike racing for half a century, and was only recently superseded when the V4 arrived.
History has shown that this win set Ducati on a course for world domination.
Ducati now dominates global motorcycle road racing very convincingly, having won the premier MotoGP class AND the World Superbike (modified production) class – the two most important global championship series – in 2022 and 2023, and currently leads both classes for 2024.
The entire story of the bike to be auctioned is told in this 2019 Cycle World article, where it is clearly identified as Paul Smart’s second bike on that fateful day when Ducati hit the world stage.
It is identical to Smart's winning bike, and it was there to ensure that if things didn't stay sunny-side up in practice, that there would be an immediate replacement available.
The bike is one of the seven purpose-built Imola racers known to survive, and it has been inspected and validated by the world’s foremost motorcycle historian, Ian Falloon. Ian actually did “write the book” on most Ducati models, and a Falloon Report on a bike at auction ensures the provenance is sound. In a world where skepticism is part of established scientific methodology, buying a storied object without validating the story is imprudent in the extreme.
Ian Falloon’s article on the famous race is the most informative I've seen. There's an eight minute clip of Ian talking about the 750 SS on Ducati750ss.com - the Ducati 750 Super Sport is a limited edition (401 units) replica of the Imola bikes and now sells for $200K+.
The Gooding & Company auction description also makes a statement that we support: “the chance to purchase one of these famed 750 Imola Desmos may never appear again.” Maybe there will be another opportunity a decade or two from now, but don't count on it.
The last time one of the original eight Ducati Imola race bikes sold at auction (Sotheby’s in September 2001), it set a world record price of $121,250 for a motorcycle at auction and the sale prompted Cycle World Editor Phil Schilling to write an article entitled simply $100,000 Ducati.
$100,000 was a ridiculous amount of money for a motorcycle at the time, but with 23 years of hindsight, we can now say that 19 of the original batch of 1973/1974 Ducati 750SS road bikes have now sold in excess of that figure.
Those bikes were roadgoing replicas of this bike.
Those fabled green-frame replicas now sell in excess of $200,000 at auction, with the record for A REPLICA being $247,500 and motorcycle broker Paul Jayson reporting that one changed hands for $500,000 privately.
Gooding & Company has an estimate of $650,000 to $750,000 on the NOT-A-REPLICA, which is perhaps a trifle conservative.
It all depends on who wants it, and how serious they are. If there's more than one serious buyer, you never know what might happen.
Go big … or go home!
Gooding & Company Geared Online Motorcycle Auction Online Catalogue Available: Monday, April 29
Auction Begins: 8 May 2024
Lots Begin Closing: 17 May 2024
Bidder Registration: www.goodingco.com/register
