‘Project bikes have always been popular, but prices seem to be hitting new highs’
We’re just catching our breath after our car and bike sale at Sledmere House on July 4. As far as I know, we’re the first classic bike auction house in the UK to return to live sales, with bidders present in the sale room – and it feels good to be back.
Obviously, we had to lay out the saleroom and the rest of the venue so that our buyers could observe social distancing and we kept everyone’s details for Track and Trace. You have to do everything you can to keep people safe. But everyone was great. Both our viewing days were really busy and we had about 250 folk in the sale room – we’d normally expect around 400500 – but almost every one of them was an active bidder. It made for a great atmosphere and a really enjoyable sale.
The Covid crisis seems to have subtly changed the market and projects are suddenly in huge demand. Project bikes have always been popular at auctions, but prices seem to be hitting new highs. We sold a Triumph 6T project – a pile of bits really – at Sledmere for £2100. It was a bathtub model and I think we’d have done well to get £4500 for it fully restored. But there seems to be a growing number of enthusiasts whose main passion is working on bikes and they’re not too bothered if they spend more on a project than the finished bike is worth. They want something to do and they enjoy ‘saving’ a bike. A lot of them don’t even ride the bike when it’s done. But there are all sorts of reasons for owning a classic bike and the enjoyment of restoring one is certainly right up there.
I’ve also noticed a new wave of returnees to bikes are often looking for lightweight Japanese classics. These guys are typically in their 50s and 60s and they’re into the bikes they had when they were young. There’s definitely been a jump in demand for sub-250s. They’re light, easy to ride, not too threatening and they’re fun.
Our next sale is on November 7 at Sledmere House and I’m hoping things will be pretty well back to normal by then. I’m working on consigning a couple of interesting, single-owner collections already. Hope to see some of you there.