‘There’s great interest in the NMM collection bikes’

This year we’ve seen the rise of the live online sale format and had to get our collective heads round the concept of virtual viewings, socially-distanced viewings and viewings by appointment only. But, while we in the auction business have certainly had to adapt, it’s actually been a successful year for us, with our rescheduled, live online, summer sale proving to be our best sale ever. Who’d have thought it?

Others in the classic world haven’t been as lucky as us, though. Take our friends at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, for example. The conference and hospitality arms of their operation are what fund the running of the fabulous museum that houses probably the finest collection of British bikes in the world. But lockdowns and the effect of the pandemic on their conference and hotel businesses, has meant the museum has been unable to open for months. To make up some of the shortfall in income, the NMM has decided to sell some machines from their ‘reserve collection’. And that’s where we can help.

There are 53 bikes from the collection in our Winter Sale on December 11-12 and there’s great interest in the bikes from such a well-known and well-loved collection. All of them are Grade A collector’s machines and a successful sale will help protect the future of the NMM. Examples include a Norton F1, Royal Enfield Interceptor, Triumph Trident, Sunbeam Model 90 bullnose, Velocette KTT, works Excelsior Manxman, AJS 7R and a confirmed-a-smatching-numbers Brough Superior SS100. It’s a rare opportunity to purchase a machine with the quality and provenance you’d expect from a museum like the NMM.

The sale will be conducted live and online, broadcast from Bicester, using a system we perfected at our summer sale and sales by other Bonhams departments. Live viewings of lots are available by appointment prior to the sale and we’ll be accepting commission bids and telephone bids as well as online via the sale link bonhams.com / auctions/26118/. We’ll probably get through 25 lots per hour, rather than the typical 35 lots in a live sale room.

It’ll be a rare and exceptional event, though. Just keep your eye on the screen to watch the bids (there may be a slight time lag on the audio feed) and enjoy the chance to bid for a piece of history.