One of the highlights of the recent International Classic Motorcycle Show sponsored by Carole Nash was the Bonhams auction, which saw Barry Sheene’s 1977 world championship winning Suzuki RG500 sell for just over £500,000, while an ex-Mike Hailwood/Giacomo Agostini MV Agusta works racer from 1965 went for just shy of a cool million.
We watched in awe as auctioneer Bee Harford worked the room, with the two phone bidders from unknown locations upping the ante on the MV. The room erupted in laughter as she asked ‘anybody in the room?’ before the gavel fell at £850,000 (which equated to £967,000 after commission) – blowing the estimate many times over.
It was five minutes of pure drama, but the conclusion of months of painstaking work behind the scenes, as Bonhams colleague Ben Walker had painstakingly researched the machines and worked out the logistics of getting these extremely valuable motorcycles from the Far East, where they were part of a large collection, to the auction in Stafford.
We spoke to Ben, who is Bonhams’ department director for motorcycles, to find out just how much work went into getting these motorcycles to auction. He told us: “It was a real pleasure to bring them into the marketplace. With a machine like this (the Sheene Suzuki) you never really know what's going to happen. I was having lots of conversations and had a few sleepless nights in the in the run up to this sale.
They’ve come all the way from the Far East and it was a little bit dicey because the boat got stuck out in Sri Lanka and they only arrived the week before the auction. When they finally got off the boat and were on a truck on their way up to Stafford, I can't tell you the amount of relief I felt. The 1965 works MV Agusta was in the same container, and I don't think I've ever had a sale where I've had two machines of that calibre in the in the same auction… and I've been coming to Stafford for 25 years.”
Ben graduated from Southampton Institute in 1996 with an honours degree in Fine Art Valuation, and the forensic level of research he puts into the bikes before they go under the hammer is genuinely impressive and shows just how importance provenance is with these automotive antiques.
The bikes’ journey to Stafford started with Ben boarding a plane to meet with the seller and inspect the collection, which totaled over 80, in person. He then set out to confirm the background of the bikes, examining period photographs, researching factory documents and speaking to experts who have played a part in the bikes’ histories.
Barry Sheene rode two XR14 RG500s in his second championship winning season. One remains with his family, so much of Ben’s research was establishing which specific events the sale bike – with frame number 1201 and engine 1202 – had participated in. While Barry had started the season on his other machine, this combination had raced in four Grands Prix – winning the Swedish Grand Prix and being the machine on which he ended the year at Silverstone.
But the MV proved harder to place, but Ben’s persistence was able to confirm it as a genuine 1965 works four-cylinder racer ridden by two of the greatest motorcyclists ever – Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini.
The bike had been bought by the great world champion John Surtees in 1986, being ridden in many parades before being sold to a private collector in 2005. After flying out to meet the owner, Ben knew the MV was the real deal. He continued:
“The first thing I’ll do is to feel the frame and engine numbers, to see if there are any undulations or evidence of it being restamped. I’m always looking for signs of originality and this MV has got it by the bucketload. I’ll then start looking at photographs to see if I can positively identify it. It was a little bit more tricky because there are no surviving records.
I spoke to David Hailwood (Mike’s son) to just see if he had any idea of what the frame numbers were for the bikes that his father rode, and I reached out to one of Agostini's guys to see if he had a record, but unfortunately there is no primary evidence to say to which one of them rode that bike – but it can only be Mike Hailwood or Giacomo Agostini and that in itself is just beyond exciting.
You're getting absolute legends either way. When I first walked in to see the collection you’re like ‘no it can't be’. It was an extraordinary moment and, of course, I had an idea what was going to happen at the auction but I never thought that it would reach the giddy heights of £970,000, just shy of a world record price for a motorcycle at auction.”
With no factory records available, Ben used his 25 years of motorcycling expertise to build the story of the bike. Agusta museum director Enrico Sironi confirmed its authenticity, while speaking with other experts and examining photographs helped to build up a fuller story of the bike’s history.
He looked through the Kelsey photo archive, zooming in to see if he could catch a glimpse of the frame number and even counting the number of rivets on the fairing to positively identify the bike with serial number 1109. Little touches, like the perforated part on the left hand footrest, linked the bike to Agostini – as it was known he had introduced this to protect his boot – and added to the authenticity of a completely unmolested motorcycle.
What happens to the bikes now remains to be seen, and is in the gift of the new owners, but as well as being linked to his sellers Ben also knows the buyers well too. He’s hopeful that the Sheene bike, in particular, won’t be locked away in a private collection, adding: “The gentleman that’s bought it is a die hard enthusiast and I think he’s going to do something interesting with it.”
