Post Sale Update: This Ambo sold for $7,500 after 17 bids on eBay. The Moto Guzzi Ambassador was developed as a successor to the V7, which was initially built to provide a police platform in their home country of Italy. The Berline brothers convinced MG to bring it to the US in an attempt to snag some cruiser customers away …
No Reserve “Custom” – 1979 Honda CX500C
Post Sale Update: This CX sold for $2,215 after 22 bids on eBay. In 1979, Honda introduced the “Custom” version of their unusual CX500. It was a common move at the time for the Japanese – release a “Custom” or “Special” version of a standard to expand the product portfolio and create a mild cruiser to appeal to American tastes. …
Unexpected Bobber – 1973 BMW R75/5 Custom
Built with “no expense spared”, this bike started as a numbers matching R75/5 and now it’s…you tell me.
Whopper Of A Chopper – 1979 Suzuki OR50
The asking price for this ($3,500) is a little silly, but it’s so rare that I thought I should make you aware of it at the very least. I’ve featured one in the past that sold for just over a grand but example had 10 times the mileage. This little moto has just 160 miles.
5 Miles – 1983 Yamaha Virago XV500
Today, factory customs are mainstream staples in the motorcycling world, but that wasn’t always the case. Customizing bikes – at least in the manner we know today – was largely unheard of before the 1970’s. Custom choppers did exist, and people would modify bikes for track and racing purposes, but custom street bikes couldn’t have been less embraced by magazines …
Restored – 1979 Fantic Chopper 125
Post Listing Update: Despite 9 bids on eBay up to $4,600, this Fantic did not meet reserve. In 1971, the Conservative Party in England introduced legislation known as the “Sixteeners Laws” – it banned 16 year olds from riding bikes that were 250cc and up. European and Japanese manufacturers responded with a wave of 50-125cc mopeds that were informally called …
1981 Kawasaki KZ440 LTD
In 1974, Kawasaki built a production plant in Lincoln, Nebraska to crank out their new mid-sized street bike, the KZ400 twin. It made Kawasaki the first international motorcycle manufacturer with a plant in the US – something they would celebrate 4 years later with an exclusive run of Americanized KZ1000s. In the early 80s, the KZ400 grew into the KZ440. …
The Grinch – 2013 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Ultra Classic Custom
This bike has been up for sale for 11 days but I couldn’t bring myself to share it until we finally hit December because I can’t stand it when Christmas music and decorations go up right after Thanksgiving. Obviously, I don’t expect any of you to buy it, but I thought it was worth a chuckle for the last month …
Born Free Best British – 1961 Triumph Bonneville by Choppahead Kustoms
Post Listing Update: Despite 72(!) bids up to $19,700, this custom Bonnie did not meet reserve. Built by Choppahead Kustoms in East Freetown, Massachusetts, this custom Triumph is called “The Hail Mary” and it recently won Best British at Born Free. In addition, it was shown at the Brooklyn Invitation and it was the cover bike for the August 2017 …
“Fauxari Enzo 1” – 2002 Honda VTX1800S Custom
This weekend, Mecum is auctioning off a whole bunch of collector cars…and two weird motorcycles. One is a special construction chopper that I can’t find interesting no matter how hard I try, while the other is a custom Honda with a matching trailer. For some reason, it’s been turned into a “Ferrari.”
No Reserve – 2004 Honda Rune
View PostUnrestored – 1948 Indian Chief
Post Listing Update: Despite 43 bids up to $20,200, this Chief did not meet reserve. In 1947, Indian sold 12,000 Chiefs. The next year, Indian only built 3,000 of them as they were shifting production to smaller bikes like the Arrow. The relative rarity makes the ’48 Chief special, but this example is even more interesting as it’s had just …
#69 – 1999 Excelsior-Henderson Super X
If you like Excelsior-Henderson but you don’t have the coin to buy the entire brand, maybe I can interest you in this early production example of the Super X, an attempt to bring the company back in the late 90s.
Q-Tec Quad Conversion – 2015 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic
In a small town in Belgium called Dilsen-Stokkem, Sandy Poglavec created a Harley shop called Poechy’s Classics. After 20 years of customizing bikes with an automotive specialist named Erick, both gentlemen decided to start a company called Q-Tec Engineering to develop trikes (and even quads) on the Softail platform. Here’s one of the rare quad builds, which does not require …
Ending Soon – 1965 Harley-Davidson FLH
Post Sale Update: This Panhead sold for $21,077.77 after 26 bids on eBay. 1965 marked the last year of the Panhead motor and the first year of the Electra Glide (electric start). It was also the year that this beautiful FLH was built, which means it is one of just 6,900 examples. This bike still looks great thanks to a …