Post Sale Update: This monument to deception sold for $910 after 11 bids on eBay in East Syracuse, New York.
In the November 12th, 1986 issue of Cycle News (you’ll need a subscription to their archive to view it), a Southern California company called Continental Marketing announced that they were undertaking some market research of a 250cc street bike that would be introduced the following spring. They followed that up by mailing out 50,000 fliers offering a “free motorcycle” called the Kamasura 250VRX – the lucky people that got the offer were only on the hook for shipping charges of $300-400. Not bad, right? Well, people were a bit surprised when they got their motorcycles in the mail, opened up the box, and found what was basically a women’s bicycle with a 39cc Sachs clone engine.
The fliers fraudulently mentioned that the Motorcycle Safety Foundation was involved, which was not true. But by the time the MSF issued a Cease and Desist, several people had already been duped. For more information on this odd story, check out this profile from Iceni CAM magazine.
If you’re curious as to what one of these looks like when assembled, you can head on over to the Lane Motor Museum to check one out in person!
Photo from the Lane Motor Museum
This example is still in the box and the seller says everything is included. The one issue seems to be a crack in the taillight lens. Find this boxed Kamasura for sale in East Syracuse, New York with an unmet opening bid of $499 here on eBay.