Now that 2022 is over, I wanted to share a little summary of the 10 most viewed auctions of 2022 we had at Iconic Motorbikes. Here’s some highlights and some of my thoughts!
1. 1996 Yamaha YZR500 OWJ1 Raced by Kenny Roberts Jr – sold for $321,000 from Iconic HQ to California. This was a big one for a variety of reasons – it has all kinds of historical significance, it was our most viewed auction of the year, and it’s the biggest public sale we’ve made.
2. 1992 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-7R K2 In Crate – sold for $69,978 from Iconic HQ to Mexico. This was a fun one – the winning bidders were battling it out from Hungary and Mexico. We figured it would be a ~$40k bike and were shocked to see the bids keep rising. This was early in the year (February) and brought us a bunch of attention from European magazines and websites.
3. 1990 Honda RC30 with 3 miles – sold for $90,950 from Iconic HQ to Canada. We’ve sold a couple of “zero mile” RC30s, but this one was original down to the battery acid pack which had never been opened. It was originally sold in England and made its way through Europe before we imported it from the Netherlands.
4. 1986 Suzuki RG500 Gamma – sold for $27,910 from England to South Carolina. Most of the bikes we sell are out of our shop in Santa Monica, California. But we’re always excited when people list motorcycles from their own homes, especially when the sales are international like this Gamma or a Laverda Jota we sold out of Paris.
5. 1992 Honda NR750 – sold for $125,832 from Iconic HQ to California. We’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being able to offer plenty of awesome RC30s and RC45s, but the NR750 might be the most fascinating of all of Hondas offerings. I did a little review of my time on one, if you haven’t seen it before.
6. 1998 Yamaha R1 – sold for $16,050 from Massachusetts to Argentina. Nothing particularly crazy here, though it was a very nice example of the first year R1. I’ve been surprised to see how dramatic the difference in value is between the 1998 (first year) and 1999 models are for collectors.
7. 2020 Supreme x Honda CRF250R – sold for $21,400 from Iconic HQ to Mexico. I don’t understand this bike/sale at all, because I don’t understand why Supreme is popular/adds value. I guess I’ll just leave it at that.
8. 1994 Honda RC45 With 1 Km – sold for $90,950 from Iconic HQ to Florida. Another special Honda RC that’s still new, this beautiful RC45 was originally sold in Germany and came with an impressive amount of documentation.
9. 2016 Honda RC213V-S #96 In Crate – sold for $265,000 from Iconic HQ to California. This is arguably the Holy Grail of Honda motorcycles, and I feel very lucky that we had the chance to find one a new home. We put it up for auction in 2022 but it did not meet reserve, however someone bought it on our classifieds immediately after the new year started. The new owner is going to have us make it a runner so that he can ride it on the street/track every once in a while, which is awesome!
10. 1992 Honda NR750 “Iconic Black Series” – sold for $110,000 from Iconic HQ to California. This bike came to us with horrible paint, and at the time we hadn’t found a painter who was capable of matching the factory paint (which has a neon base to it, among other things). Adam had the interesting idea to create a custom NR – we had Jason LeCavalier at Artistimo Custom Design in Wisconsin paint it black, installed WSBK-spec Ohlins forks and Nissin calipers off a Honda CBR1000RR race bike, JB Power Magtan magnesium wheels (originally designed for a RC30, we used a modified RC45 hub on the rear wheel), an Ohlins shock (originally designed for a RC30, we had the remote reservoir location flipped), a custom titanium exhaust built by Mixers, custom velocity stacks to mimic Euro-spec (unrestricted) NRs, and a few cosmetic touches. It was quite a gamble but it ended up being profitable and when things settle down we’d like to do more custom builds like this. Right now we’re (slowly) working through a Kawasaki H2 SX SE (the same bike I took on my 50 hour cross-country ride) that we’re trying to make into a modern take on the Muzzy Raptor, but it’s low priority behind customer bikes and our own inventory for sale. Who knows what the next one will be…
11. A bonus point is given to this 1955 Vincent Black Shadow Series D – sold for $93,625 from England to California.
A lot of what we sell on Iconic is sportbike-focused, and that’s not the same focus as what I enjoy sharing here on Bike-urious. So sales like this (or even the new Husky Norden that’s ending on the auction site this morning) make me happy as it’s one of my long-term goals to broaden our genres of offerings.
Thanks to every member of the Iconic family, no matter how you support us!