Wednesday Walk: More Motorcycles

This is in response to a Challenge by @tattoodjay to take photographs of things on a walk. Things you don’t normally see. I really like the challenge and the challenger so here I am again.

This particular walk was at the Meecham Vehicle Auction that happened recently in Phoenix. It is a big deal in a big venue, State Farm Stadium (where the Cardinals play) that had over 1500 sales entries.

There were a stunning number of historically significant motorcycles, bikes that moved the needle in the time line of the trade.

Including this one: A 1939 Borough Superior, the most collectible nameplate in the business. Called "Rolls Royce of Motorcycles" at the time the company was in business from 1919 to 1940. They built 3048 motorcycles (covering 19 models) and roughly 1000 are still known to exist.

This particular motorcycle was bid to $140,000 at the auction and did not sell with the reserve price not being met. Why is a nameplate that you never heard of so valuable? Well, you have heard of it, if you have seen the movie (or read the book) "Laurence of Arabia". T E Laurence owned 8 of them and died riding #7. The 8th one was delivered to his estate as he had ordered and paid for it.

As Borough Superiors go, this one was rather mundane. It is one of 119 manufactured by the company in 1939 and there is absolutely nothing special in the provenance of this bike. And yes, like pieces of fine art, Burough Superior motorcycles are carefully provenanced prior to any sale.

The top 10 list of motorcycles ever known to be sold includes 6 Burrough Superiors and 4 Vincents. Two of the Superiors were in pieces and not complete but both sold for over $300,000. This bike is the second Burrough Superior that I've ever seen in person.

This is a simply pristine 1939 Indian Scout. The Scout was the smaller Indian and was more popular than the bigger bikes. The 1939 was the last hardtail of the line and is sometimes called "The best motorcycle Indian built". This is simply a gorgeous example of a pre WWII US motorcycle.

This 1952 AJS 'Boy Racer' used exotic alloys (many developed in WWII) extensively to lower weight and just look good. AJS as a company folded in 1931, but the nameplate carried on via Matchless, Associated Motorcycles and Norton as each company faded.

I'm going to leave this Wednesday with this 1947 Velocette Scrambler. A guy named Jack Miller imported some of these Velocettes from England and was really the first superstar SoCal motocrosser with them. The Velocette single was widely regarded as the best single cylinder motorcycle made at the time and the Miller team raced them with great success. This particular bike is just as it came from the dirt. An unrestored original.

This is the end of this #Wednesday Walk. There are certainly more motorcycles at the Meecham Auction, I'll promise at least one more walk there for next week. I'm having such fun, I thank you for putting up with it!

All Words and Photographs in this post are mine, for better or worse.

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