Our first motorcycle/estate auction was a huge success. Saturday May 8th, was a perfect central Oregon day. The Bidders started to show up at 8am, and spent a couple hours previewing the collection. When the bidding got underway the bid cards were flying in the air. We ended up selling over 30 motorcycles and over 300 lots of tools, equipment and vintage parts. Keep checking back for news on our upcoming auction later this summer.
Post auction
Last week I attended the Mecum Motorcycle auction in Las Vegas. I finished my car auction in the morning headed up to the SouthPoint Casino to catch the motorcycles crossing the block on Thursday afternoon. Mecum had a great assortment of bikes. Lots of choices whether your favorite was British, American, Japanese, Italian, Spanish or German they had something there for you.
You’ll be the first on to unwrap the Italian made Bimota.
Rickman Honda 750, was a favorite of mine selling for $18,000.
Rare High Pipe 305 Honda Dream, first one I’ve ever seen sold for $22,000.
Vintage motocross bikes are on of the hottest segments of the vintage bike market.
Auction week in Vegas
It’s motorcycle auction week in Las Vegas. The Mecum auction starts on Monday and runs thru Sunday with the Bonhams auction on Thursday. I’m going to be at Mecum auction on Thursday. If you’re in the market for motorcycle head over to Vegas this week. Expect to pay top dollar for the most collectible bikes.
Dry Falls
I finally got a chance to hop on my motorcycle for a quick trip. I have missed riding my Kawasaki. But this weekend we were reunited again. I did a quick service and grabbed my backpack for a run up to Dry Falls, Washington which is about five hour northeast of Portland. Dry Falls is located in the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington. The falls were created by the massive floods that engulfed eastern Washington during the last ice age. It an impressive site, and the amount of water that rolled over the area is estimated to be all the rivers in the world combined and multiplied by 10!
Dry Falls
Up through the canyon, 12,500 years ago I would be at bottom of the river, with 300 feet of water above the top of the canyon.
Selfie!
Three quick turns.
The first weekend of June, I jump back on the old Gpz for my first trip of the year. For the past three years I’ve been going back to eastern, Washington to help an old friend with his annual car show.
I always leave Portland just after dawn and head east thru the spectacular Columbia Gorge. With the Columbia river on one side of the highway, and mountains on the other its hard to keep your eyes on the road. While it nearly 400 miles you only need to make three turn on get there.
A couple hours of riding east on I84, and its a turn north on hwy 395 and thru the Tri Cities, and then a right turn and east on Hwy 26. This is probably the prettiest part of the trip as it takes you through the Palouse area of Washington State, where the majority of white wheat and brewing barley is raised on the rolling hills. Finally and another left on to highway 97 and you are there. No navigation needed.
The rusty Indian
Most of my friends are always on the outlook for old and interesting cars or motorcycles. They usually send me a text message with a couple of pics and the question, “what do you think its worth?”. When I started in the auction business, I worked as an appraiser. I’d help the auction consignors establish a value, so they could get an idea of what their car might be worth before putting them in the auction.
I thought I was pretty good at that job.
But in today’s vintage car/bike market I can’t even come to understanding the market. This 1944 Indian Chief showed up on a local tow company website for their weekly auction. It was hard to get a good look at the old Indian with the posted pictures, so I went out to look at for myself. The Indian Cheif has been neglected for the past 60 years, it was rusty and had been disassembled. It was loaded with what is referred to as patina today.
It was an ex military bike bought in 1950, and by 1953 was put away. Needing a complete restoration, I thought it was worth $5-8,000 in present condition. On Ebay you can find fully restored ones priced from $15-40,000. It sold for $14,600 rust wins again.
2019 is starting off with a Bang!
Tonight we start our fundraising season for 2019. It’s my first Monday evening auction we’ll see how it goes, I think we’re going to crush it! Along with our new fundraising clients in 2019 we will be going forward with a couple new partners, stay tuned for our formal announcement later in the month.
I had a Thursday off and went to Las Vegas for the Bonhams motorcycle auction this year. Prices were up on all makes and models of bikes. Interest in vintage motorcycles is strong right now not just here in USA but worldwide. I’ve included a couple of my favorites.
2019 is going to be an exciting year for us and we look forward to meeting you at our next event.
Holy grail of motorcycles the Vincent’s.
The King of Cool, Steve McQueen’s Triumph sold for $175,000.
End of Summer
Did it feel like the summer just blew by? It did to me! I spent Labor day weekend at the Portland Grand Prix. The Indycars returned back to Portland after their last race here in 2007.
It was estimated that 40,000 race fans showed up Sunday afternoon for the big race. Having always been a Indycar fan, I opted for spending a little more money and got the pit pass too. I think being in the pits is almost more interesting than the race. You get a chance to watch mechcanics put their final touches on the car before the start of the race. The best part is hearing the cars being warmed up, and they sound awesome too.
My first trip to the race was in 1984, and in those days its was three-day-party! We would ride our motorcycles down from Spokane, and meet up with my friends parents who would drive their motorhome down from eastern Washington. Fun times. Looking forward to next years race.
The good looking guy in the black hat is me! 1984