Happy Days are here again for one Triumph

On December 8, 2021, a new world record was set for the price paid for a Triumph motorcycle as the auction hammer came down at $231,562 (that’s £175,100 in real money) for a 1949 Triumph Trophy 500. Before you splutter your tea all over your OBM – best not to, we’re not that absorbent! – this was a rather special Triumph Trophy. Well, it would want to be for all that money!

In fact, it’s probably one of the most famous Triumphs of all time and encouraged more than a few young men to take up motorcycling.

After all, if you’re of a certain age, didn’t you want to be as cool as The Fonz? This Triumph was indeed the very motorcycle ridden by Arthur Fonzarelli (although not by Henry Winkler who didn’t ride!) in the smash hit TV series, Happy Days. Remember the famous scene in which, after Fonzie’s bike is run over and Mr Cunningham says: “It’s just a motorcycle,” The Fonz replies by saying: “Just a motorcycle, huh, Mr C? Let me tell you a little story. When I was young, I was a complete nerd, okay? I tried everything to be cool.

Nothing I tried worked, and then it came along. It changed my whole life. It’s the whole reason for me to live. Just a motorcycle, eh? And I suppose your mother was just a mother?” I think, however old we were, we all nodded our heads at that.

The Fonz’s Triumph was customised by legendary stuntman Bud Ekins, although the limit of that customisation appears to have been fitting buckhorn bars, removing the front mudguard and applying a liberal amount of silver paint. It actually replaced a 1947 HarleyDavidson

Knucklehead bobber used in the first series (Henry Winkler couldn’t ride that either!), but when no one on the crew could start it, it was replaced by the Trophy. After Happy Days ended in 1984, the bike was stored away and untouched until it was found in 2000. Since then, it has come up for auction several times. It first sold in 2011 for around £66,000 but failed to sell a few years later when it was advertised on eBay for £75,500. In 2018, it went across the Julien’s Auctions block for £135,485 before being offered

for sale again at the end of 2021. The new owner is media celebrity Richard Rawlings, famous for his Fast N’ Loud TV series and his Gas Monkey Garage in Texas.