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News Feb 2025

Pick your twin, Feb 12

1928 douglas dirt tracker 500

Two epic and very different twins are up for sale at the moment via Donington Auctions.

The first is a 1928 Douglas dirt-tracker with the trademark longitudinal flat twin, in this case a 500cc unit. It has an Australian connection, in the form of racer then designer Les Bailey.

The sale estimate is Au$15-20,000 (US$9-13,000, GB£8-10,000). See it here.

moto guzzi california 1992

Meanwhile we tripped over an old friend in the catalogue, namely a 1992 Moto Guzzi California III, in carburetor form. When new they stood out in the cruiser sector for light steering, good handling and plenty of power. We'd be sorely tempted by this one, but already have more than enough recent arrivals in the shed to deal with at the moment...

Showing just 3400km (2100 miles) on the odometer, it has an estimate of Au$6-8000 (US$4-5000, GB£3-4,000). See it here.

The auction cattledog is here.

See the treasure trove of Moto Guzzi stories on our feature page.

Anniversary Wings, Feb 12

50th
              anniversry gold wing

Honda is launching a 50th anniversary Gold Wing in bagger and tour (or Premium) variants. They come with commemorative badging and unique welcome displays in the dash, among other updates.

Part of the package is a coffee table book covering the history of the series, plus a unique 1:12 scale model featuring the first and latest versions.

Australia can expect to see them in the second quarter of this year. Prices are yet to be announced.

1975
              honda gold wing

Meanwhile we held our own little celebration, riding a 1975 model some 2000km (1200 miles) from Brisbane back to Melbourne in Australia. See the Gold Wing Run story here.

And see our profile on the original GL1000.

Farewell Lester, Feb 11

Lester Morris


From Classic Two Wheels: It's with great sadness that we mark the death of Lester Morris, on Sunday, February 9, 2025. Lester was one of Australian motorcycling's big personalities, in a career that spanned nine decades and included some fine writing for Two Wheels magazine, several books, working in the motorcycle retail trade, race commentary and theatre and television acting.


Lester generously gave his time, wisdom and help to many motorcycle clubs and young racers. He lived the motorcycle life, very well. Vale Lester.


Here's a link to his work on Classic Two Wheels.

Our photo is of Lester hard at it, testing the BMW R90S for Two Wheels in 1975.

Spaniard with a sting, Feb 10

Montesa king scorpion 250

It's not every day you get a two-stroke Spaniard dropping in for a visit and we felt we had to share this one – a 1975 Montesa King Scorpion 250. See the story.

Blast from the past – Triumph Thruxton 1200 R, Feb 8

triumph thruxton 1200 r

We've been playing with this today – a 2016 Triumph Thruxton 1200 R. More to come...


See the video review from when it was new.

Triumph produced a final edition of this series back in 2023 – see our story on it.

Friday Flashback: Seeing Red, Feb 7

kawasaki zx-12R

Some while back we mentioned laying our scone-grabbers on a shiny one-owner Kawasaki ZX-12R, filling out the rocketship end of a shed that already contained a Honda Blackbird and a modified Suzuki Hayabusa.

The bike has survived a major cull of our fleet and is a fabulous Sunday ride – see the story;

And see our Kawasaki ZX-12R model review.

Hailwood in the house – today's addition to the fleet, Feb 6

ducati MHR mille

A large man with a medium-sized transporter, namely Jay from East Coast Bike Transport, rolled up in the driveway yesterday and handed over a 1985 Ducati Mike Hailwood Replica Mille. This was the last iteration of the bevel series MHRs.

It was sourced from Brad's Vintage Cycles and this was the fourth time we've dealt with both businesses, with success.

We bought this one after Ducati expert and author Ian Falloon gave the green light and, while not in perfect shape, it has done less than 3000km. That's quite a find.

We'll be doing a few things to and with it over coming months – watch this space.

It represents some unfinished business, as our riding relationship with bevel Ducatis so far has been far more off than on, and this looks like something you could get your teeth into. We'll see...

Meanwhile, you can see Falloon's story on this model via his Substack channel;

And the raw stats via Motorcycle Specs.

See the 860 GT that was previously in our shed.

March V8 monster re-discovered, Feb 5

fred marsh v8

This isn't quite like trapping the Loch Ness monster, but it goes close. A 500cc V8 motorcycle, built in the 1960s by Briton Fred Marsh as a tribute to the famous racing V8 Moto Guzzis of 1955-57, has emerged from obscurity in storage after 45 years. It now has a place the British National Motorcycle Museum.

See the AMCN feature on the Guzzis.

The where-abouts of the machine was not generally known until its owner and former Marsh apprentice Fred Lowman revealed it was still very much in existence. VisorDown has the story here.

Meanwhile Old Bike Mart in the UK had the pic shown here, along with a personal story on it appearing for a demo run at the 1976 Isle of Man TT. That's Marsh at left.

Million dollar twins, Feb 4

mecum las
              vegas

The giant 2000-lot motorcycle auction by Mecum in Las Vegas, which concluded last Sunday, set a couple of records. The pic is a snapshot of the top three bids.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the 1915 Cyclone racer. This was a firm that was only production from 1912 to 1917 and managed to produce some very advanced machines. This one, for example, features bevel-driven overhead camshafts.

It was restored by a 'name' expert, Stephen Wright, and fetched Au$2.13mil (US$1.32mil, GB£1.06mil). Cracking the US $1mil mark is a significant milestone.

Meanwhile Crocker V-twins were similarly innovative and proprietor Al Crocker built a reputation for making sophisticated go-fast gear for Indians, along with a line of speedway bikes and even a scooter, across the 1930s and through to 1941.

Just 70 of his light and fast V-twins are thought to have been built, with 68 known survivors. In their day, they had performance which was more than a match for a Vincent twin.

Though they've long been desirable, the price for this 1938 example (listed as number 46) has set a new high. It went for Au$1.42mil (US$880k, GB£709k).

See the Mecum page

See our Auction Action index

The homing Gold Wing – 50th anniversary Honda GL1000 run, Feb 3

honda gl1000

The mighty 1975 Gold Wing has made it home after a 2000km (1200 mile) run down the east coast of Australia. Join us for a few thoughts on riding one of the great classic tourers, in our final road diary update.

MV Agusta set free, again – Feb 2

mv agusta
              serie oro 2025

Historic Italian marque MV Agusta has seen yet another episode opened in the soap opera of its history, this time being set free from part-ownership by the troubled KTM conglomerate.

This is one of those rare situations where both companies are probably better off, with the outstanding share-holding in the firm being sold back to its previous owners for a relatively modest sum.

Motorcycle.com has one of the better explanations of how the finances work.

See the MV Agusta F4 Nero in our shed

And the F4 Serie Oro story by Ian Falloon

Eden and fat cows – the 50th anniversary Gold Wing run, Feb 2

garden of eden gold wing

I can now say I have ridden a Gold Wing to the Garden of Eden and have found the source of fat cows. These revelations and much more in our road diary update for today.

Strong numbers at big Las Vegas sale, Feb 1

mecum
              hondacb750 hayabusa

The annual Mecum Las Vegas auction – this year  boasting 2000 motorcycles – saw strong numbers, with the usual sprinkling of weird anomalies.

What did your money buy this year? Honda CB750-Fours were doing well, as the example above suggests. Previously we would have only expected those sorts of numbers for earlier K1 and K0s.

The catch here is the CB had received a high-end restoration, with zero miles since.

Meanwhile an identical result for an early Suzuki Hayabusa backs up what we've suspected for a while, which is they are now very much on the collector radar.

Conversion: Au$33,600, US$20,900, GB£16,700



mecum kawasaki
              harley

1970s Kawasaki hero bikes are pretty much a currency now with the price shown here consistent with recent events in the USA, where they're worth more than they are in Australia. We suspect this Harley Panhead for similar money was a solid buy.

Conversion: Au$47,700, US$29,700, GB£24,000

mecum indian
              vincent

Exotic V-twins from different eras and different sides of the Atlantic. The Indian price seemed about right, but we were surprised at how little the Black Shadow went for and would have expected at least 30 per cent more.

Weirdly, a freshly-restored Series B Rapide, albeit with a good story, went for Au$160,000 (US$100,000, GB£81,000) just minutes later.

Conversion: Au$97,200, US$60,500, GB£48,800


mecum ducati
              indian

In case you were wondering, the top two lots so far (with a day to go) were these. Good quality green frame 750 SS Ducatis have been in this range for some time. However 1920s American four-cylinder bikes have reached this level more recently and there were two others not far behind in this auction.

Conversion: US$198,000, Au$318,000, GB£160,000

See the auction here.

See our features page for stories on the Ducati Imola bkes, (the inspiration behind the SS), Suzuki Hayabusa and Honda CB750-Four...among many others!

Bluey spotto and the great outdoors – 50th anniversary Gold Wing run, Feb 1

honda
              gold wing 1975

One of the things that takes your mind off the discomfort of long motorcycle trips is playing spotto. For this trip, we've added the wonderful illusions offered by your local town...this and more in today's update.

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