In case you haven't heard, this year marks the first time Ever that motorcycles will be judged on the grass at the uber-prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. There hasn't been a whole lot of press around this momentous sea-change on the 18th hole turf, and in some ways it seems a bit of a back-door 'in' for Us (and there's little mention of bikes in their online or publicity materials), but a crack in the mighty facade of Cars and Money has appeared, and 8 motorcycles have slipped through the wall.
Ed Gilbertson, chief judge at Pebble (also at the much-lamented Legend of the Motorcycle Concours), selected the bikes around a chosen theme of pre-1960 British. Which affords a massive spectrum of historic machinery, and the chosen represent a well-trod path of Exemplary marques. Brough Superior, Vincent (Gunga Din!), Norton Manx, AJS Porcupine, etc. There's a real oddball thrown in for historic interest/breadth; Pete Young's 1914 Premier!
And I'm sure Pete is feeling, after winning a prize at the Legends with this machine, and being among the Select at Pebble, like his $8000 purchase was Money Well Spent!!! Considering the relative value of the other motorcycles (well, the Manx is cheap compared to an SS100, or Gunga), the Premier is an interloper, a pauper at the King's table. I love it. Then again, even a J.A.P.-engined SS100 is small fry compared to the financial Colossi usually found on the fairway - one-off Bugattis and Hispano-Suizas, unique championship racing machinery, Cars of the Stars, etc.
To bolster this toe-in-the-water into motorcycling, MidAmerica Auctions will have a tent set up directly at the entrance to the venue, and will be conducting (also for the first time) a silent, online/live auction. No cattle auctioneers, no Vintagent discussing the relative merits of 500 bikes in sequence (we'll save that for Vegas in January '10), but all the motorcycles will be under the big tent, available for scrutiny for 4 days, before the close of the auction on Sunday August 16th. I do believe each motorcyle will have a 'buy-it-now' price which will stop the auction, in case one of the Car people is outbid at the multi-million-dollar Gooding auction, and needs a consolation prize. That's the hope anyway! I'll be there to talk about the motorcycles with anyone interested, and Ron Christensen has lined up an interesting array of machines - check the link above, you don't have to be there to buy bikes. And if you have detail questions about a machine, just call, the phone will probably be handed to me!
The best part? Brough-Superior will début TWO of their new machines, and have an impressive display within the MidAmerica tent. More on this shortly!