The Bargain Boutique
The Bargain Boutique
UP FRONT
David Edwards
NOT THAT I'M AN EXPERT OR ANYTHING, but I have learned a few things by attending bike auctions over the past several years. The first is to know your limits, then stick to them.
At the big Steve McQueen sale in 2006, prices were crazy but I was able to walk away with the least expensive thing of any real value, a 1920s wooden curio cabinet in which the King of Cool kept his toy motorcycles. Cost $600, a bit pricey for an otherwise inconse quential piece of furniture, but down right cheap compared to the fool who ponied up $60,000 for a pair of Per sol sunglasses allegedly worn in The Thomas Crown Affair.
Another trick: Always look for the item that is out of place. At the Bonhams & Butterfields auction held in conjunction with the Legend of the Motorcycle Con cours last year, I spied a modern Spondon aluminum frame amongst the vintage lots. Closer inspection showed it to be in pristine shape, never used, tailored for a mid-1990s Triumph Triple. Included were Marvic wheels, a WP fork, Works Performance shock, black-anodized rearsets, Brembo rear caliper, artftilly drilled sprock et and Spondon-made alu minum tank, clip-ons and tubular single-sided swingarm.
In essence, a streetfighter chassis kit just waiting for a motor, tailsec tion, twin headlights and front brakes. It's so light, it practically needs a tether to keep it from floating away. The Brit ish company was one of the major play ers in the `fighter movement, though lately things have been tough, and ap parently Spondon is now owned by the same fast-talking fireworks magnate (no jokes, please) who purchased the rights to the Dreer Norton.
Anyway, only myself and one other person even bid on the chassis, and he dropped out pretty quickly. I won the lot for $1600 plus~ fees, all-up $1872. For that kind of money I may just hang it on my office wall and admire the scrumptious welds. Nah!
Turns out the chassis was owned by Mike Corbin, of seat fame, who was us ing the auction to whittle down his im pressive collection of motorcycles and memorabilia. I told him I was the new owner of the Spondon. "Good for you," he said. "Do you know I paid $9000 for that, dealer cost, back in the `90s."
Complete the bike, Mike offered, and he'll treat it to one of his custom sad dies. Such a deal! Anybody got a cheap/salvage Triumph Triple with title?
That same "item out of place" adage also worked for me at the big Mid America auction in Las Vegas this past January, though I had to tüdge the "know your limits" dictum just a bit.
staring at me in tne auction catalog was a blast from my past, a 1991 Bi mota YB1O Dieci, so-named because it was the tenth (died) of the boutique bike-maker's models to be powered by a Yamaha motor. A 135-horsepower, five-valve-per-hole FZR 1000 four-cyl inder, to be exact.
I authored Cycle World's dual-test on the Dieci and its swankier sta blemate, the hub center-steered Tesi 1D, for our May, 1991, issue. I came away impressed by the Tesi's technology ("Makes everything else look about as exotic as a four-door Chevy Nova.") but was well and truly smitten by the more conventional Dieci.
"Smaller in size than some 600s and packing a liter-sized wallop anchored by a rock-solid chassis, the Dieci feels like the world's horniest FZR400," I wrote. "It's hard not to be captivated by this bike's various bits and pieces. Behold the top triple-clamp and the frame's swingarm-pivot plates. Craft ed from aluminum billet, they proudly wear milling marks where a CNC ma chine has taken out excess alloy. Check out the welds that join the frame to gether, each worthy of inclusion in a master welder's portfolio. Lift off the bodywork and delight in the sheer ma chine-ness of the chassis that greets you. The innards of most modern sportbikes are best left cloaked, but the Dieci'sneat, simple and uncluttered-beg to be shown off. If the Dieci stands a chance of snagging your $27,000, it'll do so on the strengths of its craftsmanship."
Screeeech! You read that right. A whopping $27K, and that's in 1991 dol lars! No wonder just 224 YB1Os were built from 1991-93. But almost two decades later, a quick web search of recent auction results showed that a well-kept Dieci, albeit with gummed up carbs, had recently been hammered down for just $6500. Italian exotica for the price of a new middleweight runabout? Screw the backyard re-land scaping (again), I'm in!
Problem was, several other bidders were, too. My self-imposed $6500 limit came and went. Okay, Rule #1 has a little leeway. One more round of $500 escala tions and the Bimota was mine for $8000 plus 6 percent buyer's fee. More than Tin tended, but still a helluva lot of machine for the money.
Of course, actually living with an ex otic is not without its tribulations. A week after purchase, moving the Dieci around the garage, I was caught out by that instrument of the devil otherwise known as the self-re tracting sidestand. Aaarrgghhh!!! Luck ily, the resulting tip over only scratched some paint and smashed a turnsignal. Just pop over to the local Bimota shop for a replacement lens, right? Let's see, would that be Phoenix, Las Vegas or San Francisco?
