Vincents Dominate At H&H Classic Bike And Scooter Auction At The National Motorcycle Museum

With 86% Of Lots Sold

28/07/2022     General News

1953 Vincent Black Shadow - Beautifully restored sold for £63,250

Three Vincents from the 1940s and 50s dominated this H&H Classics sale at the National Motorcycle Museum on July 20, returning strong prices and some 86% of machines sold.

This beautifully presented Black Shadow has been fully restored. Purchased by the current owner some 12 years ago in large lumps! It was a complete restoration that took two years to complete. No expense was spared on the quality of the work and parts. An all correct numbers machine as verified by the VOC, it comes complete with a current V5C and original RF60 logbook. This machine has been on display and has not been used for a few years, therefore light recommissioning will be required before any use.

1953 Vincent Black Shadow - owned and ridden by vendor for the last 25 years sold for £41,400

This Shadow was bought by the vendor in 1997. After buying the bike he discovered that it had a non-matching rear frame member, at some time in the late sixties a previous owner and his wife had both owned Vincents, this one and a Comet. It appears that in various engine swaps the swinging arms ended up being transposed but in June 2004, following the greatly appreciated help of the Vincent Owners Club, the vendor was put in touch with a club member who had the original Shadow rear frame. He was quite happy to re-unite the parts with the correct bike and correspondence detailing the exchange is included as well as the two continuation buff log books tracking the various changes.

1947 Vincent Rapide Series B - a very early production Series B Sold for £51,750

This Series B Rapide was sold new by Williams, of Cheltenham, in July 1947. Vincent Owners Club records confirm that the frame and engine numbers match

Introduced post war, the Vincent-HRD Rapide Series B went into production in 1946. The fastest motorcycle you could buy, at the time. Unit construction allowed Vincent to combine the engine and gearbox into a single casing. Philip Vincent summarised his frame design philosophy in his memoirs, writing "What isn't present takes up no space, cannot bend, and weighs nothing — so eliminate the frame tubes!

‘GDG 339’ had several owners prior to 1959, as documented in the accompanying old-style logbook, and has been kept in dry storage since c.1966 when its then-owner - a Mr. Cooper - dismantled it and rebuilt the engine. Invoices for parts supplied by Ross Motors Ltd, of Hinckley, are included in the sale together with an expired tax disc dated June 1967. This machine was fitted with a sidecar sometime in its life.

1976 Kawaski KH 500 "KH FIVE" Allen Millyard Built Machine The Only One In The UK - Sold For £47,150

1976 Kawasaki KH 500 "KH FIVE"

 This stunning machine is one of just three built and confirmed by the world-famous Allen Millyard sold for £47,150.

Built for one of his dear friends and made into an 850/5 in 2005 and known as the KH FIVE, like most of Allen's specials they use his signature technique of adding an extra cylinder (or two).The other two KH Fives are in the United States

This well-known machine has been seen and displayed in multiple magazines, shows and Facebook groups.

Allen Millyard built this 850cc five-cylinder bike in 2005 from a pair of Kawasaki KH500 triple engines. The crankcases were cut by hacksaw into sections and welded back together as a five-cylinder crankcase.

He stripped down two triple crankshafts and reassembled them as one five-cylinder crankshaft, at 1-5-2-4-3 interval. The gearbox output shaft was extended to allow the engine to be fitted centrally in the frame. The engine was then ready for assembly with one centre cylinder, two left-hand cylinders, and two right-hand cylinders. The oiling system was modified by joining a pair of three-cylinder oil pumps together.

1941 Norton Big 4 -Excuisitely restored rare WW2 military bike, compelte with rifle and gasmask - Sold for £27,600

Echoes of WW2 are made tangible with this extremely rare military machine was estimated to sell for £24,000 - £26,000, but topped that by more than £1,000.

The current vendor has painstakingly restored this Norton Big 4. The attention to the authenticity of this machine has taken a great deal of research and it packed with correct accessories for the time of dispatch.

These workhorse bikes played a vital role during the war. Approximately 4,700 of the nearly 100,000 military bikes made by Norton during WW2 were Big 4 sidecar outfits. They were designed to carry two or three men plus their fighting equipment over very rough terrain and the Big 4 was also used for reconnaissance and carrying loads of ammunition to the frontline troops.

1922 Matchless H2 Combination that has been the subject of a stunning restoration sold for £25,875.

1968 Lambretta SX200 Special ‘Ochre’ the only known original survivor in this colour sold for £26,450.

Many regard the SX200 to be the finest scooter Innocenti produced, and possibly regarded as the best scooter ever made.

Discovered by an Italian collector in Sicily she is in her original Yellow Ochre colour which is now regarded as the rarest of all the SX200 factory colours. She has never been re-painted save for necessary touch ups performed during the professional conservation carried out by Rimini Lambretta Centre who are regarded as the best in the world for this work. The panels all fit very well. The seat is the original and is in exceptional original condition. Our consultant rode this scooter during our recent visit to the vendor and it performed 'like a new scooter'.

1966 Lambretta SX200 Special Original - time warp in stunning condition sold for £27,025

Only 564km from new, believed genuine with corroboration. Untouched SX200 in stunning condition, won in a raffle at the Milan Motor show in 1966 and never used.

This 1966 specimen has to be seen to be believed. Won by an Italian non-scooterist at the 1966 Milan Motor show he then passed the scooter to his son who also did not want to ride it. The scooter was then purchased by Nigel Cox, the owner and curator of the famous Weston Lambretta Museum in England in the 1990’s. The scooter was then sold to a mutual collector who passed it to the current owner. In all of this time it was stored in collections practically unused. It is almost impossible to find this top marque Lambretta in such untouched and superb original condition.

1967 Vespa SS90 Super Sprint - a superb example sold for £21,850

The Piaggio industrial group was devastated by the consequences of World War 2. Amongst the projects muted to rescue the company was an idea to help mobilise the Italian public with a new transport concept ‘The motor scooter’. During trials the buzzing noise of the engine and body shape combined for the scooter to be christened the ‘Vespa’ the Italian translation for wasp. From the launch in 1946 it was such a success that it has become as one of the favourite global design icons of all time, The Vespa.

This SS90 with only 3 previous owners from new was previously owned by the late Bill Drake the legendary Vespa expert.

1966 Vespa SS90 Gori Racer - essential part of scooter performance history sold for £18,400