‘Watch a bike going through the gears on our private road’

Our final classic bike sale of the year comes as we get on with turning our now not-so-new premises into a facility fit for the future. In between running numerous sales this year, we’ve been gradually bringing the site back to life after its long period standing empty. It’s slowly coming together and we’ve got a special viewing event lined up on the weekend before our October sale. On Sunday, October 9, we’ve invited a number of local bike clubs and regular clients to come and see what we’re all about – and to have a look at the lots consigned for our auction on October 16. We hope to repeat the preview event format for all our motorcycle sales next year – it’s all part of the plan to make our sales go with a bang.

And, as we start to attract buyers and sellers from further afield – we’ve sold bikes into Hungary and consigned bikes from the south coast and Scotland recently – we’ll be bending over backwards to make the auction experience better for both. Because we have most of the bikes on site for some time before a sale, we can even arrange for potential bidders to come along and not only hear a bike running, but watch it going through the gears on our private road. That’s not something all auctioneers can offer and it should provide a lot more clarity on a bike’s mechanical condition.

There’s a nice cross-section of machines already consigned to our final sale of the year. Although we’ll keep the catalogue open until about a week before the sale, it already includes a few race bikes – often not the easiest bikes to sell. But we’ve got to know quite a few folk within the classic racing world and we’re starting to get quite a few race machines consigned through word of mouth recommendation. There’s a couple of nice vintage machines, too – a sector of the market that seems to be fairly stable at the moment. There are a couple of more modern classics, a few projects and, of course, some traditional British iron.

Now, I’d say prices for ‘traditional,’ postwar British classics have come down a little of late, but there’s always an exception. At our July sale, a 1961 BSA Super Rocket went for £12,000 including commissions – normally, a nicely restored example like that would make around £8000. But there were two bidders in the room who really wanted it. The exceptions are still out there. They always will be in the auction room spicersauctioneers.com