Coolest Motorcycles From The Bonhams And Mecum Auctions

In between whoops from bros at the Reel ’Em In slot machines, hoots of drunken bachelorette party girls, and the mobs of conventioneers, you could see a curiously different crowd strolling the Las Vegas casinos last weekend—auctioneers and bidders. Auction houses Bonhams and Mecum rolled into Sin City at practically the same time, with mind-boggling portfolios of two-wheelers in tow. These huge motorcycle auctions have been staged in mid-January for the last several years, with Bonhams’ one-day affair on January 24 at the Rio, and Mecum’s massive cache of more than 1,700 machines offered at a six-day mega-auction on January 22–27.

Of the two, Bonhams is probably the more sedate setup, and the auction house holds the new record for the most expensive motorcycle sold at auction—$979,000 for a 1951 Vincent Black Lightning last year (as of this writing). Over at the Mecum hoedown it’s another story, with a carnival-like vibe, rapid-fire transactions, and three times as many bikes being offered and sold over the course of several days. Mecum claims to be the world’s top auction house for vintage and antique motorcycles, and its 2018 Vegas event was the largest single auction of motorcycles ever. It makes for a prime weekend if you’re a heavy collector or bike enthusiast, when some of the rarest and most sought-out motorcycles in the world all gathered in one city.

Turns out dueling gavels is a good thing.

The Bonhams event held some top-shelf metal, including a 998cc 1949 Vincent Black Lightning Series B and a 1938 ex-Steve McQueen Triumph Speed Twin, which was restored by McQueen’s buddy Dave Ekins and sold for $175,000.

Then there was the outrageous 1974 Münch Mammoth TTS-E 1200, arguably the world's first superbike; two years before Honda's game-changing CB750, Münch had already produced the world's first modern inline-four. This one sold for $112,000.

This year’s Vegas auction featured plenty of diverse lots, many of them older two-stroke Japanese models, which for some reason haven’t seen much love on the auction block. But with the sheer volume of bikes on offer this year, we had to narrow it down to some favorites.