Well, this is what I get for taking a photo at a popular event. I thought the bike was rare enough to present a challenge (as only 21 examples were ever built), but Eric Epton quickly identified that this exhaust is from a Husqvarna that was featured at the recent Mecum auction in Las Vegas. It is indeed a 1932 Husqvarna Model 50 TVX!
Photo from Mecum
The example at Mecum had a sale estimate between $18,000 – $24,000 – it went for $26,400. Per the Mecum description:
“This handsome Swede is an incredibly rare Husqvarna, one of only 21 ever made. The Model 50 was the firm’s sporting single-cylinder, overhead-valve 500cc machine built between 1929 and 1933 and developed in several forms, including a standard sporting model with relatively light weight and good power (360 pounds and 30 HP).
Husqvarna had used Sturmey-Archer multi-speed rear hubs and gearboxes since the ‘Teens, before embarking on manufacturing its own gearboxes starting in 1933. The Swedish firm was never a huge customer for the giant Sturmey-Archer company (which supplied gearboxes to the whole of the British motorcycle and bicycle industry), and Husqvarna only built motorcycles in the hundreds and low thousands in this era. But when Sturmey-Archer began offering its OHV sports engine to customers in the early 1930s, it was an up-to-date OHV design based largely on the AJS/Sunbeam model, with steel side plates reinforcing the overhead-valve rocker gear. It was a successful system, and both of those factories found racing success in the 1920s using this simple exposed-valve and rocker system. Sturmey-Archer copied the best for its own engine, which was also used with its house brand Raleigh for a short period. In 1931, Husqvarna ordered 21 Sturmey-Archer OHV motors for the Model 50, making this an extremely rare machine.”
For more pictures and information about the bike, check out the original Mecum listing.
Photo from Mecum
If you want to see it in person, you have good news! I got an email from Bobby Weindorf, the curator and restorer at one of my favorite motorcycle museums in the world, saying:
“And now that exhaust, and the rest of the bike, reside here at Moto Talbott!”
You shouldn’t need any other reasons to visit Moto Talbott, but now you can go check out this exhaust in person yourself!
Photo from Mecum