[John] In association with Bonhams we're really proud on the channel to bring you an official preview
of the Autumn '22 sale, and I'm joined by Ben from Bonhams and we're here in this fantastic location
at the Haynes Motor Museum with these wonderful Formula 1 cars behind us, to show you some of the
highlights from the sale and we're going to begin with this, an absolute cracker. It's a 70s what 750SS?
[Ben] Yeah 1974 750SS Ducati. Very, very beautifully presented from long-term ownership. The gentleman
who's selling the motorcycle has had three of these during his motorcycle career.
He's had this one for the last, I think it's the last 20-25 years approximately. Kept in a
carcoon in a humidified garage, and you can see how much care he's taken and how much pride he's had
in this motorcycle. In fact I know it was a really tough decision for him to sell the bike. He knew
the bike when it was being restored in Switzerland, and the invoices that we've got on file
for the restoration are quite extraordinary. I mean a huge, huge sum of money was spent on bringing
this bike up to the standard that it's in now. It then was sold to a collector in America who
I think was in the fashion industry. Kept it in his, whatever, 15th floor apartment
and then our vendor bought it from America back to his collection, and has kept it cosseted, heated,
warm ever since. Original fibreglass tank, he's been very careful not to use it for a risk of
damaging it. [John] But it's original as it would have left the factory. [Ben] Absolutely.
But he has had it running with a slave tank fitted to it. So otherwise there's you know,
a few minor things like the seat should be in leather rather than in suede. But nothing that's
you know, too dramatic or difficult to change. And overall very, very nice. [John] The
ultimate of the round case Ducatis and like I say, I've seen one or two of these come up
in auction over the years, but I've never seen one in condition like this. [Ben] No, no it's really really
lovely. Estimate's £140,000 to £170,000 which seems about the right level to me. But if that's a
little bit too rich for your pocket we do have a one owner from new 900SS from 1982, £10,000 to £15,000
as an estimate which again seems very very good value to me. And we've also got a 450
Desmo from same period as this which will also be coming across the block. [John] Very nice, very nice.
[John] Moving of from this stunning Italian machine then to pre-war British bike,
another icon, a Gold Star, but this is a very
special Gold Star. [Ben] Yeah this is something really, really special. It's actually the earliest one
in existence. Coming from a very, very well-known collector, the late George Wander,
who we all knew extremely well and is a great loss to the motorcycling community.
This bike he used and campaigned. In actual fact the evidence of his use is still on the
bike with the [ _ ] tag which is on the frame. I met him at that event where
he was riding it. And he obviously took great pride in his machines and
absolutely the right thing to do conserving this bike. [John] Yeah, I mean that is incredible that
it's been left like that in its original finishes largely, and I mean he was a real
expert and historian on these bikes and he's got an excellent website that he built
which is a great reference point for anyone interested in these JM24 early machines.
[Ben] Really he was the man. When it came to these bikes there wasn't anyone else out there who would
know more than George about these early Gold Stars. [John] So it's got a good provenance for that as well.
[Ben] Fabulous provenance. This is actually the second example built, and the oldest one in existence.
Matching frame and engine, and was a running bike. George used this, he wasn't afraid to use it either.
[John] So it could be used again and enjoyed. Early edition one, I mean we did a video on this earlier
in the year showing the history of the Gold Star, and for me this is the one that, yeah, I love these.
This edition is superb. [Ben] Well estimate is £20,000 to £30,000 and it is being sold at no reserve. [John] No reserve.
[Ben] And again, really one of the ultimates for the Gold Star or the BSA collector. [John] So George,
there's another bike from his collection as well I believe. [Ben] Yeah well George was
also really well known for being a Rocket 3 expert. In fact George's nickname
was Rocket George, and we've got the bike that he owned from new in the sale. Very
original motorcycle, very nicely presented. Again something which he took care of and
we're very proud to have in the auction. [John] Yeah and he was a BSA man through and through and
and responsible for building and the replica Wal Handley M23 Empire Star which can be
seen at the Brooklands Museum, and we filmed that earlier in the year and it's a superb thing.
[John] That is lovely. A bike with Gold Star race heritage as it were, on to another race heritage machine
with an incredible story to tell. [Ben] Yeah well that is the machine that Barry Sheene rode
in his last ever race winning event. 2002, Fred Warmsley who Barry had an extremely close
relationship with, in fact Fred prepared all of Barry Sheen's for him later career.
Barry wasn't going to do the 2002 Goodwood Revival, but whilst Fred was over in Czech
Republic for the last round of the Inca series with John Cronshaw riding this bike, he got a
phone call from Barry to say 'I want to race at Goodwood'. I think that was on the Sunday.
Fred and John rode day and night to get back into the UK, John having won the Inca Series on
this motorcycle. Day and night back to the UK to get the bike ready. At this point
the engine is quite tired. Fred managed to, I think they got back on the Tuesday evening,
by Wednesday evening Fred's at Goodwood with the bike ready for Barry to use.
On practice on the Friday the engine lasted about one and a half laps. So the late George
Cohen, another great friend of ours, had one of Fred's 90 bore Manx engines. Fred made a phone call,
George loaned the engine. Came down on the Friday everything was installed, and on the Saturday
Barry finished second, and on the Sunday he finished first. [John] Amazing. [Ben] Yeah. Now the bike as you see it now
isn't quite as Barry rode it on that day. We know it's the original frame, we know
it's the original fairing. The engine is now the Cronshaw engine so FW02, in frame FW02. [John] It
was the original pairing. [Ben] Original pairing, yeah. It's not the original rear swing arm,
it's not the original forks. It is the original back wheel, it's not the original front wheel.
But even so it's the bike that was used on the day. Fred sold it April 2003 at the Stafford
show to a consortium of collectors. They had a bit of a disagreement as to how the machine should
be kept. One of them wanted to race it, the other guys wanted to preserve it.
So August that year it was sold to another collector, and we're now selling it on behalf of
the family of that collector. And the estimate on that is £55,000 to £75,000 which for something
as special as Barry's last ever race bike, I think is fair. Again it reflects the fact that it's
not the engine, and it's not the rear swing arm. [John] But that's the life of a race bike, things get swapped.
[Ben] Exactly, yeah. [John] The heart of the machine is there and the photography that goes with it. It's on the catalogue
or in the catalogue and on the website you can see this story you unfold there of the race, the
event itself. There's some great images. [Ben] I mean you rarely find a race bike where there hasn't been
some major alterations, such is the life of a race machine. Frames get bent, engines get blown,
parts get replaced. But it's got some really fantastic letters of provenance from Fred
confirming that it is the frame. [John] That's wonderful. [Ben] Yeah it is, it's really wonderful. I mean
a real sort of special moment. [John] A wonderful race machine and there's some great competition
machines in the auction to look forward to. [Ben] Always have a great selection of race bikes, and in particular for
the autumn sale we've got the Warwick Blackwell collection. Well-known personality at Stafford,
someone who again was a regular attendee at ours sales. And it turns out he had an amazing
collection of race bikes which my colleague James has consigned to the sale, and when he went to
visit Warwick's family the bikes were in sheds, garages, containers and it was all you know, sort
of all over the place. But there's a lot of TZ Yamahas, we've got 250 Harley-Davidson,
we've got MZs, and we've spent a lot of time trying to piece the parts back together. A
lot of stuff was not in components, but it was you know, parts had been taken off and scattered. But
that should be really interesting, and those bikes are all going to be sold at no reserve. [John] So from a
stunning racetrack machine, to this incredible race replica early 90s NSR250 two-stroke. Two-strokes
in particular at the moment from this period are becoming very collectible, very desirable, and
this looks stunning. [Ben] Yeah, achingly rare. I mean I don't know how many made their way over to the UK.
Approximately 1500 were produced for the Japanese market, and this I think a lot of people
consider to be the ultimate 250 race replica. It's been registered in the UK since 1995. Single
owner since that point. It's done just under 24,000 kilometers from new. And I mean as you can see
this is all original paintwork, transfers. [John] The graphics are superb. That Rothmans, you
know logos from that period, just really iconic. [Ben] Well I mean isn't it great to have the Renault
right there. [John] Who parked that there? [Ben] I don't know honestly, but it's fabulous, absolutely fabulous. And
like you say, really up and coming and kind of where the market is heading at the moment.
Estimate £10,000 to £15,000 and it'll be very interesting to see what this sells for. [John] Yeah
I mean it is stunning condition. The bodywork, no cracking around the sort of points
there where it fixes to the frame. I love the pro arm rear suspension on these, truly.
And there's going to be a 90s hall at the show at Stafford so this really is the period. [Ben] It fits very nicely in
with the with the sale, with the show. And again if you look at the pegs, the handlebars,
nothing's been down the road here. Everything's really, really nicely presented. [John] Brilliant, and this is one
of a number of Hondas in the sale. There's a couple of others in particular that caught my eye. There's
a really nice CBX1000, a really early one. [Ben] Yeah so we've got the pre-production CBX. That should again
be very interesting to see what that achieves at the sale. Sandcast of course so very, very rare.
Then we've also got the Nico Bakker CBX which is getting a lot of interest.
We saw it at A 1000 Bikes. [John] Yep, saw it at Mallory Park, really unusual. [Ben] Actually this bike's been at
1000 Bikes. We know that the gentleman has evidence by the scrutineer's sticker on on the front.
But yeah, the Nico Bakker bike should be really interesting to see what that achieves. [John] I'm joined
now by Andy who's a motorcycle specialist at Bonhams. Good to see you again Andy. And
we're going to start looking at this bike which is what an Excelsior Super-X, something you don't
see much in the UK for certain. [Andy] You really don't. I mean so in 1928 this actually was used by the Dutch
police back in the day. It's just a really unique thing. I mean in the UK they're so, so rare
and the guy actually imported it in from Holland from the Yesterday's guys and had it since 2015.
Used as part of his collection. Used around the UK, which as you've seen with the clutch and
everything it's pretty terrifying to use on the road. So you've got to be careful of you know,
how you use it and not get into that mindset of the British way, just like the American way. [John] Very
unusual compared to the Brit bikes. This is a fantastic example, and what, V-twin, inlet over exhaust. [Andy] Yep.
The foot clutch as well. [John] Foot clutch right, just to make things even more even more challenging. [Andy] Even more interesting. [John] And
electric kits on these as well which you didn't get on many UK bikes. [Andy] No you didn't and they work
really well. I mean yeah the lights actually work pretty good and once you're in the dark you can
actually see compared to British bikes which you know with the lucas jokes, they actually could use
these properly on the road. [John] And it is a running example this one? [Andy] It is yeah, actually used by Alan
Cathcart about a month ago for an article coming up in I believe Real Classic and other titles.
And yeah I saw it run and it sounds fantastic with the open pipes. Just a real good American
bark to it. [John] Superb, what's the estimate on this? [Andy] £20,000 to £24,000. [John] it's a lot of bike for
the money. [Andy] It is, I think it's a real unique example. Especially if you're into like the Americana and
that kind of scene, this is the kind of bike that you don't really see around here in Europe. I think
it's a kind of nice little gem your collection to have. [John] Superb. So moving from an American machine to
an unusual European Danish machine this one. [Andy] Exactly, yeah. Nimbus, so really interesting manufacturer. They're
only known for creating four cylinder bikes, and you can see in the later designs they
were more working towards the car engineering having the enclosed crankcase and the gearbox.
I believe they were used by the Dutch postman as well. [John] Okay all right, really sort of utilitarian
machines yeah in its day, but at the same time quite exotic in being an inline four. [Andy] Yeah I mean [ _ ]
shaft drive as well so there's no chain to clean, very unique and very good. Low maintenance.
[John] Press steel frame on these as well. That's quite unusual isn't it. [Andy] Yeah and that's what kind of set
them apart from that kind of with FN as well who also did four cylinders at the time, it
kind of set them apart. They also, Nimbus were one of the founding creators of the telescopic forks.
[John] Oh right, didn't know that. Sp they're
interesting machines, quite unusual. Again you don't see many of these in the
UK, but what's is the estimate on this? [Andy] It's £7,000 to £9,000.
[John] There's plenty of earlier machines in the auction as well. [Andy] We've got a really good selection of pioneer
machines dancing from a 1904 Aerial, 1906 Peugeot V-twin, 1912 New Hudson which was actually granted
the second ever Pioneer certificate ever made which is really great and a fantastic history of
Angus Maitland who was the owner of Trump JAP manufacturer he works at Brooklands which is amazing
history. And also a 1912 Abingdon King Dick, and also a 1913 Rudge Multi which is, we think is in
lovely reasonable condition. [John] So yeah, something for everyone there then which is great seeing. So Andy
remind us how we register for the sale. [Andy] So you can register online or you can register in person when
it comes to the auction itself. Now the sale is taking place on the 15th and 16th of October and we're
part of the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show. So yeah, come along, have a look. The online catalogue
should be on soon. Full lots, descriptions, pictures, everything. There's over 600 lots. [John] Wow,
lots to go out. [Andy] So much to cater. [John] And it's a great event to go to and I can thoroughly recommend it.
It's great being there at the auction itself and yeah, we look forward to seeing you at Stafford. [Andy] Can't wait.