‘The classic bike world is all about socialising’
Sometimes it’s great to prove the doubters wrong. As soon as we announced the revised date for our winter sale, people started telling me it wouldn’t work. ‘It’s too close to Christmas... too soon after the Bonhams sale...’ that sort of thing. But we took the decision to go with it – and the result was our best motorcycle sale ever in terms of overall sale value.
Of course, it helped that we had some fantastic machines in the sale. We did exceptionally well with the bikes from the National Motorcycle Museum reserve collection. All bar one of them sold – and all sold for over their bottom estimate, with some making way over top estimate. Take the circa 1923 Blackburne-engined 348cc Chater Lea, for example. Estimated at £10,000-15,000, it romped up to £55,200.
Everyday classics from the NMM punched well above their weight, too. An admittedly gorgeous 1969 Triumph T100T Daytona with what I thought would be a realistic estimate of £5000-7000 made £10,350. Even Classic Bike’s Rick Parkington spent money at the sale. It was that sort of day.
So, in the end, it was a great end to a very challenging year. Now we have to build on that and look to the future. For me, that means a return to traditional live sales with bidders in the saleroom. I really feel most buyers and sellers prefer that and enjoy the social aspect of an auction. The classic bike world is all about socialising – at shows, runs, autojumbles and auctions – and I genuinely believe the classic movement will bounce back stronger than ever.
We’ve provisionally scheduled three live sales for this year, alongside four live online auctions. If we have to reschedule or fall back on the live online format, so be it. But we’ll do all we can to meet you back in the saleroom. The dates we have for live sales are as follows:
• April 7 – live sale at the NMM
• July 7 – live sale at the NMM
• November 3 – live sale at the NMM The excitement of our winter sale has even inspired me – I’m on the lookout for a suitable vintage machine for this year’s Banbury Run, assuming it gets the go-ahead, that is.
We’re all the same at heart, aren’t we?
Former car racer and bike fanatic Mark Bryan has been a motorcycle specialist at H&H since 2014 handh.co.uk