MECUM VEGAS JAN 26-31

[Allred]

1,750 BIKES FOR SALE AT THE MECUM AUCTION 'VEGAS JAN 26-31


A nice example of a '75 Trident (Thursday)



A bunch of Harley choppers on the block (Thursday)



I should have bought one of these when they were new, they weren't expensive, and I actually had disposable income at that time! (same goes for the GB500 single)



"The First Capt America", signed by Peter Fonda (Friday)

If Hack sees this I'm sure he will have some input.


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[motogrady]

$4000
$7000
$3000
$8000 to 300000

[Allred]

Captain America sold for $1.3 million in 2014, stirring up ever-more controversy about the authenticity of these machines,  so as the saga continues it will be interesting to see what it brings at Mecum in January.

https://e3sparkplugs.com/blog/peter-fonda-smells-big-stinking-rat-1-3-million-easy-rider-bike-sale/

https://money.cnn.com/2014/10/22/luxury/easy-rider-captain-america/index.html

[motogrady]

Holy crap.  A Million dollars for a motorcycle.

[Fatfatboy]

motogrady wrote

Holy crap.  A Million dollars for a motorcycle.

 Yeah,,, I can't think of one bike worth that kind of jack. Especially an old panhead that might or might not be the original.
Of course I feel the same about art work. It's just paint on canvas.

I think the red chopper above is a better looking bike than the Capt'n. America bike.

[motogrady]

Iconic, for sure.

I’ve always thought the billy bike was the better lookin of the 2.

[Allred]

motogrady wrote

I’ve always thought the billy bike was the better lookin of the 2.

I believe the Billy Bike was stolen along with the "mulitiple" Capt Americas, but a replica sold at Mecum in 2017 for $23,000

(I'm not sure how either of them "rode across America" with those 1 1/2 gallon peanut gas tanks!)

[oldironnow]

motogrady wrote

Iconic, for sure.

I’ve always thought the billy bike was the better lookin of the 2.

I've always preferred the Billy Bike.

[oldironnow]

Now help me out here, as I'm not soaked in HD tech lore, but the heads on the Cap'n Am bike pictured here look Evo to me.

[motogrady]

Ok guys.  Warning, the following is impossible to verify.

Yesterday, I stopped by a friends house.  
A good guy with no skin in the Capt America game.
Well, as a collector, he hopes the bike goes for a ton, as it will only help the value of his bikes.  

Anyway, the guy has been buying and selling stuff since the 70s.  I’ve met some pretty big names thru him.  Guys that back in the day were household names to the likes of us here.  

He knows, or knew, a lot of guys.
Including the main players in the Capt America saga.

During a conversation about Steve McQueen, and the numbers his bikes bring, I mentioned this thread, and knowing he was around those guys back then, asked him,
what he thought about the whole deal.

And got an earful of what might be construed as unpleasant
reality.  

Or complete bs.

Remember, I was informed, those guys, did not just play unsavory drug users back then, they really were unsavory drug users.

To what some would consider, the extreme.

Long story short, there were 2 Capt America bikes, and 2 Billy bikes.

All were 1964 pan heads, police bikes, bought at auction.
And transformed in a mere few days of nonstop building,
by both the main characters and a black guy,
high on crank, in the middle of a ghetto, for about a grand in labor.  

And that living the life they did, and with the finances that were available, required the bikes to just be scrapped for parts when shooting was over.  Nobody, at the time, thought the movie would be what it turned out to be.

And, Nobody ever found out who stole them.
Gone, without a trace.  
Not a word, from anywhere, after all these years.
Nobody boasting 30 years after the fact, of doing the deed or even hearing about it thru the grapevine.  

Which asks the question, were they ever really stolen at all?

If you were heavy into drugs, with their endless demand for money, and you had something you really didn’t need anymore, what would you do with it?

Were those bikes really stolen, or just parted out for some quick cash to feed a monster?

Apparently, one of the billy bikes were still around a few years after, Hopper offered it up, he still had one of the 2, for 6 grand but the guy telling the story passed, thinking 6k, the bike just wasn’t worth it.  Where that one ended up, who knows.  

Fast forward a decade or 2.
Or 3.

One of the guys in the movie, with a small part, hits it big on
a TV show.  The money flows, friendships forged in the making of Easy Rider remain.
Life is great, until the guy with the TV show gets cancer.

And, needing money for the astronomical medical bills,
builds, a Capt America bike. He knew the real deals, he was there when the movie was shot. And gets his friends to come together, and kind of validate it.  
To help a brother in a time of need.  

Well, the bike is sold, and enters the mainstream of life. The guy dies of cancer anyway.

Which leave Fonda and Hopper in a kind of quandary.

I mean, how do you admit to the general public you lied about something to that degree?

In time, they also pass, but the bike, and it’s lore, live on.

Is the bike coming up for auction really the wrecked one, rebuilt?

Or, is it the result of a clandestine scheme, involving 3 of the
biggest names of that bygone era?

With all the main characters now dead, nobody alive will ever really know.

Thinking about it for a moment, I mention to my friend,
“You know, even if the bike going up for sale
is a copy, a fake, whatever, the fact it was part of scheme, in that time, between those characters, those actors, gives it a life, a story, a legacy of its own.”

“Yeah, I agree”, my friend told me.

He continued.
“To be part of that, that bike, in the underbelly of life at that time, with those guys, is, in a way, cooler than being in the movie itself.”

There was a pause, and we both chuckled.

Cant wait for the auction.

[motogrady]

 https://youtu.be/J1cDECkN2xg 

 https://youtu.be/hjYAEtO-Ohk 

[oldironnow]

Love the tale!

Everyone is dead, and this bike exists.

I say that engine is not a '64 Pan.

[motogrady]

Well, we need hack to get in on this one.  Or fat2.  He knows HD.

 I know if you watch the intro, the bike sure doesn’t have a disc brake on the front.

Weather that was added when the bike was built after being wrecked, who’s to say.  

Supposedly, the guy that built a replica and panned it off as as an original, to help with his medical bills, knew bikes.  
Enough to know what the first 2 had on them.

[Fatfatboy]

I too like the Billy bike better.

If the bike in the photo is the acclaimed Captain America bike I have some reserves in its authenticity. If it’s the bike it’s been heavily modified from the original.

The original had a chrome frame. That one looks painted.
Other things I see;
The gusset at the steering neck. There wasn’t one on the original.
I don’t see a mouse trap on the one in the photo. The original had a mouse trap.
Those controls are not from the original bike.
The original only had one brake. The rear and is was drum.
That tranny cover and rear foot pegs are not from that era.
The horn on the one pictured has a chrome cover. Not so on the original.  

All of these are items that could have very well been changed but if you had something that was as iconic as the captain America bike why would you?

Great story Mr. Grady and makes wonderful since. I would tend to have to believe that.

[Allred]

Mecum has added a 1950 Vincent Black Lightning to the January auction.

The Black Lightning was a special, lightweight, racing version of the Black Shadow. Only 31 were made.

One sold at Bonham's in 1918 for $929,000 so it will be interesting to see what this one goes for.



.

[oldironnow]

Effin gorgeous, but were they difficult to work on, being frameless?

Did you pick up a sense of their reputation while enjoying England?

[Allred]

oldironnow wrote

Effin gorgeous, but were they difficult to work on, being frameless?

Did you pick up a sense of their reputation while enjoying England?

There were some around back in the day, but no one I knew had one, and I never got to work on one or ride one. They had a reputation of being too unconventional, temperamental and "unreliable", but I don't know how much of that was true or a myth. People said the same of Velocettes, but I found if you cared for them properly they were as reliable as any other 1930-designed motorcycle!

My uncle had one, a Rapide I think, but it was way before my time. My Father, who was a Rudge Ulster owner, said the Vincent was a pain to work on and constantly needed attention and couldn't understand why his brother owned the damned thing!


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[Allred]

How much do you think this no reserve 1985 Yamaha YZ490 will go for?

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[motogrady]

Allred wrote

How much do you think this no reserve 1985 Yamaha YZ490 will go for?

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😁

Don't know about that yz, but that Montesa Cota sure looks good.

I tell you guys, I've thought the Observed Trials thing would pick up a bit, now that the boomers are all busted up and maybe burned out on the new scene.

I know I'm over trying to huck a 450 4 stroke that weighs in around, well, a lot, over today's jumps and, wait for it, man made whoop de doos.

The street,ya, fills the need.

But, I must admit, one does miss the smells of the woods, the camaraderie of competing,
the visuals of mud and fresh paint on a well prepped bike.

And, the scent of Blendzall in the morning..........

[motogrady]

Fatfatboy wrote

I too like the Billy bike better.

If the bike in the photo is the acclaimed Captain America bike I have some reserves in its authenticity. If it’s the bike it’s been heavily modified from the original.

The original had a chrome frame. That one looks painted.
Other things I see;
The gusset at the steering neck. There wasn’t one on the original.
I don’t see a mouse trap on the one in the photo. The original had a mouse trap.
Those controls are not from the original bike.
The original only had one brake. The rear and is was drum.
That tranny cover and rear foot pegs are not from that era.
The horn on the one pictured has a chrome cover. Not so on the original.  

All of these are items that could have very well been changed but if you had something that was as iconic as the captain America bike why would you?

Great story Mr. Grady and makes wonderful since. I would tend to have to believe that.

I think this is the one going up.  It's been in some museum for quite awhile.
Def looks a bit more like the real deal...