Mid America Auctions Online Catalog posted... hubba hubba...

[Jerry Wieland]

I personally could be swayed that it was ordered with a 1939 4 speed gear set. HD had to have tons of these gears and would have only been too willing to get real money out of them in a new bike. I think it is improbable but not impossible. When a friend of mine bought out Belmont HD of St Paul in the 70's he ended up with probably 50 sets of 1939 gears (I did not then know what they were).

The thing that I find totally far fetched is the front fork, horn and speedometer and then the story that 'this is the bike that started it all'. Just too many things to be explained away as a 'very special' bike. That being said I think the bike is absolutely beautiful and I hope Todd loves and cherishes it. I just wish he would quit trying to prove what is not provable. I am thinking that his 'proof' is merely a written statement by a relative of the original owner that it was ordered exactly this way. I have found that the human mind can be incredibly inaccurate in recalling things that happened yesterday much less years ago. Any detective will tell you that 5 witnesses to an event will give 5 totally different answers.

So, don't you think it is more reasonable that the 1940 gear cluster took a lunch, and was replaced by the only thing that the dealer had in stock, a crappy engineered 1939, and swapped out along with the shiftgate? Of course, Todd is going to say it was ordered this way, but he doesn't know any better than you or I. As for that documentation you said existed, where is it? You were stating as a fact for the whole world to see, so it must exist. Right?!!!!

[BEK]

Everybody, please read the first sentence in Bonham's own press release- all motorcycles from Pierce collection, No Reserve!

http://www.bonhams.com/press_release/14631/

[BoschZEV]

Everybody, please read the first sentence in Bonham's own press release- all motorcycles from Pierce collection, No Reserve!

Thanks for posting this link. It's the first time I've seen anyone give this information. It sounds like the bike was sold with no reserve. However, and not to belabor the point, if someone wanted to be sure that pre-auction press release wasn't superseded they would have to dig deeper since Bonhams 'Conditions of Sale' makes it clear they can change anything about any item up to the time it is actually on the block as long as they post a notice or the auctioneer makes an oral announcement:

http://images1.bonhams.com/original?...ns_of_sale.pdf

I'm not going to look into this further so unless someone else does the facts we are aware of as of now say you Knucklehead owners... er, I mean, owners of Knuckleheads are now rich.

[Bonhams Nick]

It's a very valid point raised about bidding against a reserve. But please note that the sale of the Knucklehead in question, and in fact, all the Pierce collection was at no reserve and so every bid was valid. The bidding was from several people in the room, but from $80,000 onwards was between a European collector on the telephone and the eventual buyer.
Nick Smith
Head of Motorcycles US
Bonhams

[BoschZEV]

Head of Motorcycles US
Bonhams

Thanks very much for providing the definitive word on this. With this Knucklehead and the just-finished eBay auction of a pre-production Honda, both sold for ~$150k, auction houses should find their loading docks filling up with new items in the months ahead, sent there in the hopes of making their current owners rich.

[panthersteve]

Hi all

Here we go with a thread revival but with a different angle.

While there were a few high prices paid there were also some that seemed a bit low to me. Some examples,
1916 Harley F 24000
1911 Merkel Twin 72500
1916 Indian Twin 25500
Was there something about these that I am missing ?

Cheers
Steve

[jellywrestler]

Hi all

Here we go with a thread revival but with a different angle.

While there were a few high prices paid there were also some that seemed a bit low to me. Some examples,
1916 Harley F 24000
1911 Merkel Twin 72500
1916 Indian Twin 25500
Was there something about these that I am missing ?

Cheers
Steve

yes you're missing that any of these arew worth very little in terms of nuts and bolts. It's the hype drama and investment that makes then worth what they go for on the day, not the passion etc that goes into getting and keeping these bikes alive