Auction Recap – The National Motorcycle Museum Motorcycle Auction

In Auctions by AbhiLeave a Comment

This Sunday, H&H Classics auctioned off 170 lots, all but two of which were motorcycles. Here are the results of my five favorites.

1. 1969 Honda CB750 Prototype – this is one of four prototypes, and the sale estimate was between $48,429 and $55,348…the final sale price was $217,932! That number is the highest auction sale price ever for a Japanese bike. For a bit of perspective, I featured the only other complete prototype back in 2014, and it sold for $148,100 on eBay.

The seller of the other bike had the following to share about the four prototype bikes:
– The Red bike was taken to the crushers in Iowa back in the early 1990s (I know, as we got there literally days too late, coming away with only a small handful of parts from it).
– The Gold bike made its way to Europe, only to be completely disassembled by its owner (who has no intention of selling) and it has remained in that state for the last 25 years or so. [Obviously, that’s no longer the case!]
– The Dark Green bike has never been heard from.
– The Blue/Green prototype motorcycle featured in that listing, which was the one American Honda used for all of its initial promotional brochures, flyers, and sales literature.

2. 1992 Bimota Tesi 1D Folgore Bianca – estimated to sell between $22,908 and $24,296. It did not meet reserve. If the Bimota Tesi 1D wasn’t special enough for you, a Japanese company called WhiteHouse used the Italian as a platform to build a rare model called the Folgore Bianca (White Lightning). Unless a customer requested differently, the changes were cosmetic only. Personally, I think it’s uglier than the original but it does a much better job of showing off the hub-center steering setup. For more information on the model in general, check out this article on Faster and Faster. This example had been sitting in a private Japanese museum for at least 10 years and it’s going to require some work to that 888SPS motor before it gets back on the road.

3. 1987 Lamborghini Design 90 – estimated to sell between $118,031 and $124,974. It did not meet reserve. In the 80s, Lamborghini looked at ways to bring money in that did not involve exotic hypercars. They built the LM002 SUV with a Countach V12 motor, sold said famous motor to a company that wanted to use it in their powerboats, and even looked into licensing their name for a motorcycle. They contracted with Boxer out of France to build 25 bikes called the Design 90. With a MSRP of approximately $13,500 it was about twice as expensive as any other bike available at the time. The Countach-inspired styling wasn’t enough to motivate buyers and just 6 were built before the project was abandoned.

Basic specs included a 130 horsepower inline 4 Kawasaki motor displacing 1,000cc, a curb weight of 374 pounds, and a top speed of 161 miles per hour. For more information, check out this story on Bike Advice. This example has 4,500 miles with just one owner, and it hasn’t been used in a decade.

4. 1920s Patria 1263cc – estimated to sell between $69,446 and $83,335. Sold for $68,752. Patria was founded in 1921 by Antoni Serra in response to demand from the Spanish government for a military-capable sidecar platform. His original idea was to use an inline six motor but he did not win the bid so he tried again with the inline-four from an Ace. Unfortunately for him, that didn’t work out either. According to Sheldon’s EMU, “It is believed some 12 of the four cylinder machines were built with engines of 998cc and 1263cc capacity, and all went to the civilian market. One of these has survived.” Well, that’s this one!

5. 1985 Sinclair C5 – estimated to sell between $1,388 and $1,666. Sold for $1,797. I first learned about this trike last year when Vy and I visited the National Motorcycle Museum. An “electrically assisted pedal cycle”, the C5 was very much ahead of its time. It was a financial failure that has evolved into a cult classic. Simply put, battery tech wasn’t good enough at the time so the top speed was 15 miles per hour and the range was 20 miles. 14,000 were built but just 5,000 were sold before Sinclair Vehicles went bankrupt. This example has never been used and it came with the original box and some accessories.

Just watch this period TV ad:

6. I don’t really care about this bike, but here’s a bonus for you Beatles fans. 1969 Honda Z50A – estimated to sell between $27,777 and $55,556. Sold for $78,126(!). Take a Z50, make it the one that John Lennon used to own, and you get a very valuable two-wheeler. Consider me unimpressed.

In the music video for “Something”, it looks like this bike gets some screen time between 1:17 and 1:34:

For the entire list of results, head on over to H&H.