Most of you work in big companies so you know the most important job you have every day is to suck up to the boss. Well, occasionally I have to write about motorbikes because my boss is a temporary Australian who, like our food writer John Lethlean, rides a motorised velocipede.
The third-highest price paid for a motorbike at auction was this month at Monterey, where someone with a death wish paid $1.2 million for an 83-year-old Crocker Small Tank 1000cc V-twin. Think about it. This bike is nearly as old as the man so good his parents named him twice.
Anyway, this was Production No 12, one of 14 hand-built by Al Crocker and Paul Bigsby and, unusually, completely unmolested. It believed to be the only unrestored, comprehensively documented, real Crocker V-twin in the universe. The small tank was the fastest production motorcycle in the world, leaving Harleys and Indians for dead.
Another (but this one was restored) Crocker Small Tank brought a mill, Bonhams got a 1938 Brough Superior SS100 away for $465k and a 1912 Indian Twin Board Track Racer doubled estimate to sell for $376k.
If you're in the market for two-wheel fun then Shannons has a few well-priced numbers up for sale at its Spring Classic Auction in Melbourne next month. If I were you, I'd focus on the 1965 Sunbeam Tiger MK1 Convertible for about $70k.