Newsletter: That never-sell bike? It’s for sale.
The handsome gent in our header wet plate photo is Bryan Bossier of Sinless Cycles, who loaned us – the Vintagent and Revival Cycles teams – that 1933 Brough Superior 11.50 for the 2014 Motorcycle Cannonball. He nicknamed the Brough ‘Margaret-Ann’, explaining “That was my father’s generic name for a dependable if ordinary woman.” Not that the 11.50 is ordinary, as that big 1100cc J.A.P. sidevalve motor hauled us 3600 miles across the USA, two-up at 65-70mph…and showed a clean pair of heels to a freshly restored 1936 Harley-Davidson EL Knucklehead, in a 50mph roll-on drag race. Both Alan Stulberg and I begged Bryan to sell us the bike after that epic ride, because we’d discovered that Broughs really are Superior, and despite its faded original paint and patina, the old girl hauled ass. Bryan demurred, then rode Margaret-Ann on a cross-country Chase, and kept her despite approaches by other collectors.
Twelve years later, Bryan has had a change in priorities, and decided to sell the bulk of his extraordinary collection at Mecum’s Las Vegas sale in February. Much as I love Margaret-Ann, I found an identical ’33 B-S 11.50 in San Francisco shortly after the Cannonball, and don’t need two. There are other bikes in his collection I covet, though, including his 1950 Vincent Black Lightning, which spent a year in my warehouse while I lightly fettled it for street use, and made a film about the bike with director David Martinez. I visited Bryan two weeks ago to shoot a promo film for Mecum, and Bryan was happy to let me ride all of his bikes, so I rode 5! Bryan has an actual mile-long driveway that winds between the mature oak trees on his estate, an old hunting grounds that had never previously had a house, which was a perfect place to run the bikes through their paces, and assess their handling and overall performance. Their beauty was beyond question, though, and requires little explanation: Bryan only collected the best of everything, and had no issue paying top price for an AMCA-judged 99.5point restored Knucklehead, for example.
Will I be bidding on anything? Well, after riding his 1939 Vincent Series A Rapide, I could see myself getting verrry comfortable on a long, fast tour on that big V-twin, the fastest production motorcycle in the world at the time. The 1928 Coventry-Eagle Flying 8 is a bike I’d actually negotiated over with the previous owner, and I retain an interest in 1920s super-sports machines: it’s J.A.P. KTOR OHV motor is the stuff of legend, and the bike had been fettled by my friend Sam Lovegrove, who has a magic touch. The bike was a blast to ride, and was the most sorted of all his bikes. I also dug the 1932 Sunbeam Model 95L, one of the prettiest bikes of the 1930s, and truly a racer on the road, with a speedometer the size of a dessert plate, and a terrific sound. I could go on, but you’ll have to watch the film when it comes out; hopefully I can share it next week.
We’re proud to share the last installment of the Leathertogs saga this week, all about the legacy of the brand, including its imitators or direct descendants. There’s also a lovely note from Riley Ward about doing such historical research; how it’s never really finished, and is subject to change with the introduction of new evidence. Which pretty much describes The Vintagent, too, which is why the series is a perfect fit. We’re about to hit our 20 year mark; my first post using The Vintagent name was on October 6, 2006, and a lot has happened in the intervening years. For The Vintagent, our big 2.0 moment came at the ten-year mark, when Sasha Tcherevkoffand his Zipped Media team built us a new website, to incorporate film as a weekly feature, after working with Corinna Mantlo for years on the original Motorcycle Film Festival in NYC. This all begs the question: will there be a Vintagent 3.0 on the next ten-year mark? The short answer is yes. For the moment, I’ll leave it at that.
It’s been a busy week, battling a printer that hates me (we are printing 5 more copies of The Long Way), sorting out my 1970 Cheney-Triumph and 1965 Velocette Scrambler (Kazu is shortening the seat, above), talking with designers and contractors about our new pad, kitting out Hippolyte the Amazon for bikes & a mobile darkroom, planning rallies in Georgia and Baja, and more, with family visits in between. No rest for the wicked here.
Any dream bikes you’ve seen on the Mecum site? Tell me about it. I answer every email. And if you’ve seen a film with motorcycles that kicks ass, ping our Curator for Film, Corinna Mantlo. Follow us on Instagram too.
– by Paul d’Orléans
PS: RIP Tim Curry and Dolly Parton. Yeesh, what a week. But hey, I’m enjoying Anya Taylor-Joy in ‘Lucky’. Seen it?
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