Picture Motorcycle: STAFFORD SHOW, OCT 2011

Attracting 50,000 or so punters daily, twice a year, Stafford is the big gun of motorcycle autojumble/show/auctions in England. Run over 3 days, it takes two to cover all the stalls, club stands, vendors, and demonstrations, and then there's the Bonhams auction, which sets the benchmark for motorcycle prices around the world, with always a few super-rare gems to attract press attention.

Malcolm Barber auctions 'Moby Dick' at the Bonhams Stafford sale

This year's star was 'Moby Dick', the 1929 Brough Superior SS100 which was developed into the world's fastest road-going motorcycle in it heyday. With a solid gold provenance, and absolute documentation of every stage of the machine's life, it was clearly going to sell well, and it did, at £210,000 inclusive, landing it at #6 on my 'Top 20' auction sales. Two years ago, of course, it may have set a world record, but things have changed.

A Brough Superior '680' basket case with Bentley and Draper frame brought £40k

As obvious examples; at Stafford, good Vincent Rapides sold at around £30k, good Shadows about half that again...which is about half what they were selling for two years ago. Around 11,000 post-war Vincents came out of Stevenage, which disqualifies them as rare, but makes them the perfect 'bubble' indicator, being an obvious target for beginning collectors, and long-time wannabes with full pockets, gripped with desire as the market hype for Shadows is rising, and despair as prices inevitably crash with bad economic news. The Vincent market was in exactly this place in 2001... and 1990.

Plenty of bidders at the Stafford sale

While Moby Dick isn't a good 'comparable' for Brough SS100s, being unique, the sale of a good '31 BS SS100 at Stafford last May for £130k indicates the frenzy for investor-bikes seems to have cooled, and the 'car guys' haven't skewed the bike market, as some feared. Still, an exquisite, original condition JAP-engined SS80, perhaps the most original in the world, sold for £100k last weekend, which may mean la créme de la créme is holding value...and the rumored post-auction sale of the AJS 'Porcupine' for an undisclosed sum (somewhere between $650-$700k I would guess) seems to support this. Bottom line; World-class motorcycles may be worth a bit less than last year, but will still fetch good money. And its a great time to buy a 'normal' bike, as prices have dropped significantly since 2008.

Decent weather meant large crowds

Fantastic AJS 'Big Port' with Binks 'Mousetrap' carb...

The Benelli O/C stand

Reliving youth (1)...a BSA B33

Invacar...

BSA 'Daytona' Gold Star project in the autojumble

Another BSA...this one a triple, with A10 timing case, and double-overhead-cam conversion. See the factory version in my post on the London Motorcycle Museum.