Hold on to your hats boys ...................

[T. Cotten]

...The Knuck craze had to do with choice original paint bikes bringing huge dollars drove up the prics of Knucks....

So Duffey!

How and why did OP machines become so rare and precious?

Thanks in advance as always,

....Cotten

[duffeycycles]

About 15 years ago at Wauseon, I told Todd Bertrang that he needed to upgrade his popularity if he wanted to sell his bikes at top dollar vs bottom dollar.
He was asking 40K for an 80K Knuck & it wasn't getting much attention. [the white 1940]
He started doing videos of his bikes telling about the unique features of each machine etc.
People started watching them.
They started respecting his knowlege about them.
He promoted them quite a bit before testing waters at auctions with high reserves.
It is possible to manipulate prices at auctions by using high reserves & having people bid them up to just below a reserve a few times.
That drives the prices up across the board.
He did have really nice OP Knucks that began selling at record prices instead of selling below market value.

[T. Cotten]

About 15 years ago at Wauseon, I told Todd Bertrang that he needed to upgrade his popularity if he wanted to sell his bikes at top dollar vs bottom dollar.
He was asking 40K for an 80K Knuck & it wasn't getting much attention. [the white 1940]
He started doing videos of his bikes telling about the unique features of each machine etc.
People started watching them.
They started respecting his knowlege about them.
He promoted them quite a bit before testing waters at auctions with high reserves.
It is possible to manipulate prices at auctions by using high reserves & having people bid them up to just below a reserve a few times.
That drives the prices up across the board.
He did have really nice OP Knucks that began selling at record prices instead of selling below market value.

Good grief, Duffey!

You are blaming one eccentric for the whole market?

The OP machines were decimated decades before he came along.

If you were part of the judging system, you were part of the problem, as everyone was told to restore, restore, restore!

....Cotten