The Bonhams sale of Collectors’ Motorcycles and Motor Cars held in association with the Vintage Motor Cycle Club’s Banbury Run on Saturday 15th June saw some 100 lots sold for a combined total of £1.51 million.Highlights among the motorcycles sold included two restoration projects offered from deceased estates. A 1928 AJS 349cc K7 that had been in storage since the 1960s and was offered for total restoration sold for more than 10 times its £1,000 estimate at £10,580, while an incomplete c.1951 Norton 490cc ES2/International stored since the late 1970s/early 1980s realised £7,130 against the same estimate. Another restoration project – a 1921 ABC 398cc – achieved more than double its £2,500 estimate at £5,290.
Top-selling motorcycle lot was a restored 1907 NSU 460cc that had been on display in the Dover Transport Museum, which achieved £13,800. A restored 1939 Ariel 995cc Model 4G ‘Square Four’, meanwhile, sold for £13,225.Trials bikes always do well at Bonhams Oxford and this year was no exception, with a trio selling well above their estimates: the ex-Brian Povey 1959 James 199cc Commando achieved £3,220, while a 1961 Francis-Barnett 249cc Model 85 made £1,840, and a c.1960 Triumph 199cc Tiger Cub sold for £2,760.
