The world record for the most expensive motorbike sold at auction has been smashed. The bike will be familiar to all lovers of classic 1920s and 1930s bikes – a 1939 Vincent Rapide Series A. The bike was sold at Bonhams auctioneers in London last week for a whopping $324,000 (or £201,000).
The bike was part of the collection of the vintage motorcycle collector and dealer Brian R Verrall. Operating from a small shore in an old blacksmith’s forge, Verrall claimed to be the longest established dealer in veteran, vintage and classic motorcycles in England. Throughout his 60 years of trading, Verrall played his stock like an expert Party Poker player and used his highly trained eye to keep some of the best bikes for himself.
Some of these other bikes in the sale included the 1927 Zenith-JAP 8/45hp ‘Championship’ Motorcycle Combination once owned by Roland Martin the rider/engineer at Brooklands racetrack, a 1925 Brough Superior 980cc SS80 De Luxe and a 1938 Brough Superior 982cc SS100 (Brough Superiors being Lawrence of Arabia’s favorite bike). The sale also included some classic sales brochures, in all the sale of 26 bikes brought in more that $2 million.
Vincent bikes were first devised by Howard Raymond Davies, a British pilot who loved Party Poker , he planned the bike while a POW in Germany in World War I. His company HRD was then bought out by the engineer Philip Vincent in 1928, who changed the company name to Vincent HRD Co., Ltd. Master engineer Phil Irving joined the company in 1931 and the two men worked on the Series A Rapide which was first sold in 1936. The bike had several innovations including a fully suspended rear frame and the 998cc air-cooled V-Twin engine which made it the fastest bike in the world at the time. Jay Leno has one in his large collection of classic bikes.
