2011 Auction Prices...for a box of bits?
Discussion
Saturday morning, here having a leisurely breakfast and the postman's just delivered the regular Bonhams Ignition auction update; it's always an interesting read. With cup of tea #2 in hand I turn to page.7 and note the 1930 Brough Superior Black Alpine 680 Project, which really is a box of bits ready for restoration. The owner thought the boxes of bits may be worth £500' instead they sold for £40,550!! The owner and his wife are in their 80's...this makes a nice story for the elderly couple.
I love the way Bonhams have laid out the bits in sort of the right place to make it look like a bike!
Broughs are worth fortunes - I remember seeing a couple of years ago that one sold for c£250k.
My interest in them is because the vicar at the school I went too had 5 (five) of them.
At the time he had 2 on the road and just moved the number plate and tax disc from one to the other!
I'm sure that the 2 he had on the road were SS100 Jap engined, air cooled, turn a screw thing on the top of each cylinder to reduce the compression so you could kick start them - 1200cc v twin that made a fantastic sound.
Lever throttle, hand gear change, advance retard lever on the handle bars etc.
He also owned 2 Morgan 3 wheelers, was a very interesting guy to know, a real eccentric and not your average vicar.
I remember asking him how he knew what speed he was doing as the bike didn't have a speedo, his answer:
"You know that in 30mph areas the lamp posts are required to be a certain distance apart by law"
Me: No I didn't
Him: Well they are. So if the bike if firing everytime I pass a lamp post I know that I'm doing about 70 miles an hour.
Top bloke was Mike - RIP friend.
Broughs are worth fortunes - I remember seeing a couple of years ago that one sold for c£250k.
My interest in them is because the vicar at the school I went too had 5 (five) of them.
At the time he had 2 on the road and just moved the number plate and tax disc from one to the other!
I'm sure that the 2 he had on the road were SS100 Jap engined, air cooled, turn a screw thing on the top of each cylinder to reduce the compression so you could kick start them - 1200cc v twin that made a fantastic sound.
Lever throttle, hand gear change, advance retard lever on the handle bars etc.
He also owned 2 Morgan 3 wheelers, was a very interesting guy to know, a real eccentric and not your average vicar.
I remember asking him how he knew what speed he was doing as the bike didn't have a speedo, his answer:
"You know that in 30mph areas the lamp posts are required to be a certain distance apart by law"
Me: No I didn't
Him: Well they are. So if the bike if firing everytime I pass a lamp post I know that I'm doing about 70 miles an hour.
Top bloke was Mike - RIP friend.
skeggysteve said:
I remember asking him how he knew what speed he was doing as the bike didn't have a speedo, his answer:
"You know that in 30mph areas the lamp posts are required to be a certain distance apart by law"
Me: No I didn't
Him: Well they are. So if the bike if firing everytime I pass a lamp post I know that I'm doing about 70 miles an hour.
Top bloke was Mike - RIP friend.
That's a good story, and I wish it was true, but (without changing gear) 1 firing is the same distance if your doing 10 mph or 100 mph."You know that in 30mph areas the lamp posts are required to be a certain distance apart by law"
Me: No I didn't
Him: Well they are. So if the bike if firing everytime I pass a lamp post I know that I'm doing about 70 miles an hour.
Top bloke was Mike - RIP friend.
Maybe the minimum speed it would run at in top was 70?
john2443 said:
That's a good story, and I wish it was true, but (without changing gear) 1 firing is the same distance if your doing 10 mph or 100 mph.
Maybe the minimum speed it would run at in top was 70?
John,Maybe the minimum speed it would run at in top was 70?
It is true and not a story.
But if what he told me is not possible then please don't explain it as I don't want to have my teenage memories torn apart.
john2443 said:
That's a good story, and I wish it was true, but (without changing gear) 1 firing is the same distance if your doing 10 mph or 100 mph.
Maybe the minimum speed it would run at in top was 70?
It used to be a common saying on old slow revving bikes that they fire every lamp post and it probably wasn't too far off the mark.Maybe the minimum speed it would run at in top was 70?
If he could estimate the revs (or had a rev counter) then it's not so fanciful.
mph said:
It used to be a common saying on old slow revving bikes that they fire every lamp post and it probably wasn't too far off the mark.
If he could estimate the revs (or had a rev counter) then it's not so fanciful that he could estimate the speed quite accurately.
A nice memory.
If he could estimate the revs (or had a rev counter) then it's not so fanciful that he could estimate the speed quite accurately.
A nice memory.
lowdrag said:
Those very nice people at Bonhams wrote straight back and sent me a high resolution 19x13in file of the photo, so I can get a nice big A2 printed and put over my desk. Here's the actual phot, but a bit smaller. my thanks to Andrew who started this thread for his help.
Stunning picture.Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff