All revved up for stunning electric trials motorbike
IS THIS A COLLECTABLE OF THE FUTURE?
THE striking motorcycle that is attracting the attention of almost everyone currently visiting the auction centre is not a famous classic, at least not at the moment. It will be. Just a matter of time.
The machine is an electric trials bike, the first electric motorcycle that has ever gone under the hammer at our North Lincolnshire auction centre, indeed the first electric motorcycle that the vast majority of people say they have ever seen.
It is an Epure Race, one of a trio of sports models launched by Electric Motion, a company based at Vendarques in the South of France.
These bikes have been designed for off-road and trials riding but, with additions, can be made road legal.
At first glance the machine stats seem quite gentle: Top speed of 40 mph, with a battery range of 26 miles straightforward riding or 100-240 minutes of technical stunting.
However, bear in mind that this is a trials machine not a racer – and biker members of my team who have carried out tests say it is extremely quick off the mark, very lively and “a cracking piece of kit”.
It cost around £10,000 when it was bought, new, last year by a businessman, apparently something of a trophy possession because it hasn’t been used.
It goes under the hammer in an auction next Tuesday and whilst attempting to pick “antiques and collectables of the future” often turns out really badly, we can be pretty sure that this is one of them. (Assuming of course that it survives the ownership of someone who actually wants to compete with it!)
As an aside, I’d like to think that auctioning the electric motorcycle would win us a few brownie points with the green lobby, but I fear our popularity is likely to be somewhat short-lived given that we have also been instructed to sell the assets of Gas Monkeys, a collapsed Derbyshire company that, amongst other things, specialised in all terrain vehicles.
Multiple-thousands of pounds worth of quad bikes, parts and accessories are to go under the hammer in an auction next month that is expected to attract a lot of interest, albeit from a rather different audience.
Finally mention of another auction next week that highlights the surreal conditions continuing to prevail in the furniture market in which reproduction antique furniture is selling for more than the real thing.
We are putting furniture and furnishings valued at in excess of a quarter of a million pounds under the hammer on behalf of the Contract Furniture Group, the UK’s leading supplier to the hospitality and restaurant trade in this country and Europe.
The lots that are expected to attract the most interest are the “antique effect” leather sofas and armchairs, other reproduction pieces, closely followed by restaurant and bar furniture created from recycled materials – brand new furniture made from old wood and metal. (That auction also has some nice rattan style outdoor furniture that may be of particular interest as summer approaches).
Details of all the auctions are available at www.eddisonscjm. com.
The Hospitality Furniture Auction is scheduled to end at 1pm on Tuesday, May 24.
The Epure Race electric trials bike goes under the hammer in an auction that ends at 10am on Wednesday, May 25, and the Gas Monkey Auction will be taking place in June.