Bonhams celebrated its third major collectors’ motorcycle sale of 2009 in a typically commanding fashion at today’s Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show, Stafford. With 74% of the 470 lots offered successfully sold, this highly-anticipated sale raised a remarkable premium inclusive total of £981,638.Buyers from across the world packed into the sale room, emphasising the international appeal of the collectors’ motorcycle market. Many of the machines on offer were bought by high-profile private collectors throughout the EU as well as in Japan, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and the USA.The highlight of the sale was the 1948 Vincent Rapide v-twin famously ridden by Arthur Merrett at that year’s International Six Days Trial at San Remo, Italy. Recently restored, this historic machine sold for an impressive £57,600 (estimated £50,000 – 60,000).
Alongside this, the Vincent Marque was exceptionally well represented and the continuing strong demand for these Stevenage-built v-twins was confirmed by the excellent performance of others in the sale: the 1951 Series-C Rapide sold for £35,600 comfortably exceeding the top estimate of £26,000; the fully rebuilt 1949 Black Lightning Replica fetched £23,000; the restored 1951 Comet single sold for £14,375, despite not having matching frame/engine numbers; while the two Egli-Vincents made £25,300 and £18,400 respectively.Several British models that regularly form the cornerstone of any UK motorcycle sale proved to be top performers: the 1936 and 1952 Norton Internationals, which sold for £23,000 and £22,138 respectively (estimated at £14,000-18,000 and £14,000-16,000); the fully restored 1960-model Triumph Bonneville, which fetched £12,650 (estimated at £10,000-14,000); and the circa 1962 Velocette 499cc Venom, which made £8,050 (estimated at £7,000-9,000).Racing motorcycles of all types were strongly represented at the sale, with the famous ex-Francis Williams 1930 Cotton-Blackburne, also known as ‘The Village Fire Engine’, selling to a buyer in Mumbai, India for £34,500 (estimated at £25,000-30,000) whilst an entirely different Cotton from the modern era, the Rotax-engined v-twin ridden by Derek Huxley, found a new owner for £15,525 (estimated at £15,000-20,000). The post-war Velocette KTT MkVIII, restored in Sweden by its previous owner, fetched £34,500 (etsiametd at £28,000-38,000).Original ‘barn finds’ offered for restoration generated considerable excitement: the 1949 Ariel Red Hunter (£2,703), 1930 Matchless Silver Arrow (£9,890), 1955 Triumph T110 (£4,830) and circa 1911 FN Four (£13,800), all sold for well above their top estimate, demonstrating a very healthy appetite amongst enthusiasts.From an increasingly important sector of the market, a number of pristine Japanese machines performed particularly well, including the 10-miles-from-new 1975 Honda CB400F, which sold for an above-estimate £7,475 (estimated at £5,000-6,000). Other noteworthy results included the 1974 Kawasaki Z1A, fully restored by the editor of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics, the late Rod Gibson, which fetched £9,430 (estimated £7,000-9,000).Meanwhile two contrasting Italian machines performed equally strongly, with the limited edition 2001 Ducati 996R Corse racing-specification superbike selling for £16,675 (estimated at £10,000-14,000), while the circa 1949 Gilera Saturno, offered for restoration, was knocked down to a new owner for £5,750 against a top estimate of £2,500.Top performers among the ‘flat tankers’ were the 1923 Douglas 2¾hp Model TS, which sold for £7,103; the 1913 New Hudson 6hp Big Six v-twin, which fetched £17,825; and the 1912 Premier 3½hp, which made £14,375, all three exceeding their pre-sale upper estimate.Commenting on the sale, Ben Walker Head of the Motorcycles Department at Bonhams said: "The results reflect many different facets of the collectors’ motorcycle world – the growth in demand for Japanese classics, the value of a good provenance, and, where vendors are willing to be realistic with their estimates, the competitive bidding it attracts and the strong prices that are achieved as a result."
