Featured Heaven On Earth For Motorcycle Lovers! Mecum Auction, Las Vegas

Sandi T, have you thought about powering the vest from the bike battery? You'd just need drop the 14v of the bikes electrics to the 7v for the vest with a suitable resistor(r) of the correct value and power rating. I was going to do this with my gloves but found the original batteries lasted long enough. Obviously it would mean having a short flying lead between you and the bike which you would probably forget was there but with an appropriate connector which just pulls apart (like used on jet skis etc) it wouldn't be an issue and your vest would NEVER run out of power however long the ride.

 

More a case of boosting the battery with the powerbank whenever you’re off the bike, Sandi. If you had one, it might have saved you having to buy a second battery.

 

Thank you, @Pegscraper and @learningtofly! I'm grateful for your thoughts and suggestions.

Tony, do you know how quickly my 7V battery could be recharged--at least partially--when I'm off the bike? We typically stop for a fairly leisurely lunch on trips but this time around our "longest" stops were probably only 15-20 minutes to gas up, use the restroom, and have an energy bar and a drink. I don't have any experience using power banks so am clueless as to the speed with which they work.

Pegscraper, yes, I did initially look at both options for a vest but wound up opting for the battery version for a several reasons. First is the one you mentioned--being tethered to the bike and worrying about forgetting and yanking the cord. The other reason was I thought it would be nice to have a vest that I for different circumstances--a cold dog walk, a football game, etc. But I guess if I had a power bank as Tony suggested, I could use that and still use the vest off the bike. The other thing that occurred to me is that it seemed fairly rare that I would need a heated vest due to our climate. Well, that has been proven wrong on multiple occasions! I have a question for you, Pegscraper, because I'm pretty much a dunce when it comes to electrical "stuff". What is a "resistor", how does it work, and how would I determine the correct value and power rating?

Thanks again to you both. I appreciate it!!

 

I wouldn’t like to guess, Sandi. However, if the battery charges via USB then it might have pass through capability, meaning you could charge it whilst riding. Worth checking, anyway.

 

More Mecum photos! Day #1 continued.

In these next two posts tonight I'll stick basically with bike photos but tomorrow I will "branch out" and show a bit more of the auction and whole vibe of the event.

This was one of the first bikes you would see as you entered through the main arena doors each morning. Beautiful! I didn't get a shot of the lot number so do any of you know any details on this Brough Superior?



Russell fell in love with this little Harley. I do believe that if he'd bought a bidders badge (at $200), he might have been in the running. It wound up going on Thursday for $26,000. He said he'd only have gone as far as $10K but the energy (and the auctioneers) did seem to keep people bidding!

1933 Harley-Davidson Peashooter SMA Racer. It was originally owned in Australia.







This was Russ's alternative choice. Just kidding. But we did see the Wall of Death at the Handbuilt Motorcycle Show in Austin a few years back and then again at Tucson H-D last year! This bike was NOT in either of those shows. There were not only bikes on display in the large level two room and the alternate areas and the staging area but also on the auction floor. They were literally EVERYWHERE!



1986 Suzuki RG500 Walter Wolf Edition



Next up, Harley's nod to the Cafe Racer craze. When I first started riding I loved cafe racers when I saw them but didn't even know what that meant. This really doesn't quite cut it but leave it to Willie G. to be the designer to give it a try for H-D. There were several of these up for auction including these two displayed down on the auction floor.





There was a collection of Triumphs from Stockholm (MC Collection Stockholm presents a Tribute to Edward Turner) that was impressive--both that there were 26 bikes in the collection and that they came from Stockholm! Here are ten of them lined up. Steve had me note that each of the bikes had a small pool of oil underneath it. Those were the good ol' days, eh?



Here's one from the collection--a 1954 Triumph T15 Terrier. 143cc 8.3hp single, 3-speed



Continued in my next post...

 

The Bikes of Mecum 2024 continued

There were a number of v-e-r-y old bikes--well over 100 years old. I could probably have done a thread just on those! Here's one from 1911. Check out the belt drive on this one!

1911 Harley-Davidson 7B 35ci single



1909 Emblem Single 1200 single from the Bud Ekins Family Trust Collection



1938 Triumph T80 Tiger Can someone tell me what's up with the exhaust design on this one??!



I love Vincents and there were a number of them here. And here are two of them. I'll post photos of the others as I find them while wading through my m-a-n-y photos.

1952 Vincent Black Shadow



1959 Vincent HRD Series B Rapide



I also love Nortons and here are a couple of those.

1966 Norton Atlas 750



Norton 750 Commando Combat I don't know the lot number so don't know the year. Anyone??



There were quite a few brands that I'd never heard of and this was one of them. I may have a little research to do before next year's auction in January of 2025!

1952 Rumi Gobbetto 125cc parallel twin



This tidy little Matchless was displayed inside the main entry doors for everyone to see as we entered each day. It was also featured on the Auction Poster and even on our South Point Hotel key cards! A famous boy, this one. I'll have to see how much he fetched at auction.

1960 Matchless G50 Racer 496 cc Single, 4-speed



And a few sporty fairing-ed offerings all lined up in formation...

The Ducati was estimated to sell between $190K--220K, the MV Augusta for $115K--130K, and the little Honda for a more modest $7K-10K. I can tell you that these estimates were over estimates because the 10th highest priced bike of the whole auction sold for $110,000 and it was a 1973 Munch 1200 Mammut with Velorex Type 562 Sidecar (whaaaat is that?!)

1074 Ducati 750SS
1974 MV Augusta 750S America
1989 Honda CBR250RR Replica (maybe it was less because it was a replica?)



More tomorrow! Have your coffee (or tea) ready.

 

This would be the next step!


I am looking forward to the next part of your report!

 

The exhaust is standard on the T80 Sandi thanks for the great story.

 

Sandi, a resistor is just an electrical component that resists the passage of electrical current, effectively dropping the voltage under load. You work out the required resistor value with ohms law using the power rating of the item you're powering.
You could also use a small IC regulated DC-DC voltage regulator (similar to those plug in USB adapters you use in the car cigarette lighter) which may be a better bet depending on the current draw of the heated vest and wether it has any sort of built in electronic controller for adjustable settings. I've no idea if there's any sort of commercially available plug-and-play solution but that will be a better bet for anyone not into electrics/electronics. I've always been interested and enjoy that sort of stuff.

Anyhow, back to the auction!!

Most of us may not be able to afford many of the bikes for sale here but I just think it's great that the pioneering old machines of yesteryear are still being found and rescued!

From a later vintage, that RG500 brings back a funny memory. A friend test rode one at a Suzuki open day at a local bike shop in 1986, me following on the new GSXR1100 and nearly wetting myself when we hit a crest in the road just as the RG hit the powerband........cue massive wheelie which he just managed to recover!

The same friend passed away in 2017 in his 80's and had a few old bikes in bits in his garage. His Dad once owned a 1929 500cc Beardmore Precision but I've no idea what happened to it.

I also like the old Vinnies. There was a beautiful Norvin at a local bike show a while back, brilliantly put together and looked very minimalist and lightweight so I imagine it went very well!

 

Sheesh! Well, here I am a full 3 weeks later to revive my own darn thread and continue with the promised vintage and antique motorcycle auction report. I apologize for the sizable delay. I do (of course) have "excuses" including being quite ill for a couple of those 3 weeks and most recently, "swapping" the touring bike on which I rode to this event for another. I'll share a bit about that elsewhere.

Anyway, I hope that those of you who followed this thread "back when" haven't completely lost interest.

The scope and scale of the auction was impressive! It was great fun to be able to be pretty much anywhere on the premises with our $20/day passes.



I really enjoyed getting a taste of a big auction and found the auctioneers really interesting. There were 4 or 5 of them and they would switch every 20-25 minutes or so. My favorite was Jimmy Landis who I learned is the head auctioneer. What made him my favorite was his particular cadence and style as well as his sense of humor. I actually got to meet him one evening! We were heading downstairs from our hotel room to meet Russell for dinner. We saw someone exit the elevator and Steve realized that it was him. When Steve called out, "Mr. Landis?", he turned around and came over to say hello. He was quite gracious but looked bone tired.



Each morning we went to the auction the same woman manned the table outside the main entry doors. On the table were stacks of catalogs, that days green sheet, note booklets, and pens. Mid-day on the second day we were them, I went out in the hallway to get another green sheet and the woman had creatively "reorganized" the table using the pens!



MotorTrend+ televises and streams all of the Mecum Auctions live which we knew from watching the motorcycle auction a year ago. It was cool to see their camera setup and also be able to see the auction from the MotorTrend view on the overhead jumbovision display in addition to our own live view.



The technology was really interesting. The bids were posted both on the jumbo vision display and on a large screen directly behind the auctioneer table.





Meanwhile, there was also a guy doing motorcycle photo shoots in the display / waiting area.



I got a kick out of this guy. With his shorts and sneaks, he does NOT look like the Hell's Angels members that I've seen at motorcycle rallies. Do you know what the "81" stands for!?



Always lots of activity on the auction floor.....





Continued in my next post...

 

In addition to the auction itself, there were a few vendors sprinkled about. I was a bit disappointed in this part of the auction, though. I was hoping for a women's sized tee-shirt that displayed the Mecum Motorcycle Auction but the one women's version only advertised Mecum with no reference to motorcycles. Nonetheless, there were some interesting booths including a high end custom leather jacket vendor, a booth related to the Motorcycle Cannonball Run, and a painter whose work was quite interesting. I thought I'd gotten a pic or two of the paintings but thinking back, I think I figured it was bad form to photograph the artists work. His art was all motorcycles of one sort of another and done is quite a realistic fashion. Additionally, he had painted images within the larger image which were sort of "hidden" nuggets. Very cool!

The custom jackets were gorgeous and the leather incredible. My friend, Russell, was quite interested until he heard the starting price for a jacket -- $2,500!







From the Cannonball Run booth......



This bike has competed in the run multiple times.



In addition to the motorcycles, there were items called "Road Art" that were auctioned off at the beginning of each day.





Here are a few of the cool items that we saw on display before they went to new homes.









To be continued (shortly this time!) --- more motorcycle photos! Stay tuned...

 

I am here eagerly awaiting your new photos and interesting stories!

 

@Sandi T .
If I'm not mistaken the 81, stands for the 8th letter of the alphabet ( H ) and the 1st letter ( A )
Hells Angels

 

Yep, @Bikerman, you are correct!!

 

What's my prize

 

A heart emoji, @Bikerman. If you lived in Arizona your prize would be me taking you on some gorgeous desert motorcycle rides with us in the glorious sun! But.....

 

. How can you be so cruel. I've booked up loads of trips this year. Arizona would be the icing on the cake. I guess I'll just have to settle for your fantastic road reports instead. Not all bad then

 

Thanks for the writeup Sandi!

I wonder how many of the bikes came from the National Motorcycle Museum that recently closed in Iowa. I was there in August just before they closed the doors for good in September and some of the bikes in your pictures look familiar.

 

That's a good question, Marco. I thought of that, too, but didn't see any evidence that there were bikes from there. But that doesn't mean there weren't. There were, however, multiple "collections" that were sold off on particular days. One was a collection of 26 Triumphs from the 50's to the 70's that came from Sweden. Another was a collection brought by someone named David Silverman. I don't know the story behind that. And I heard that Michael Wolf of "American Pickers" brought a bunch of bikes last year...and home with a boatload of money!

I ran out of time today to post more auction action but will plan to post more photos and stories tomorrow (Wednesday).

 

The "Easyrider" movie bikes come to mind. They had one or two of them at the museum, including one with the stars & stripes tank. Also some of the vintage Indian bikes look familiar.