A dealership is usually the usual place to buy a motorcycle, however, when the frames reach a certain age, they usually go to a different commercial circuit, that of auctions. Precisely the last motorcycle auction at Bonhams, the famous British bidding house, offered some venerable grandmas that reached high prices.
Here we show you some of these old ladies who, despite their advanced age, still have considerable sex appeal. And so they were valued.
Hildebrand & Wolfmuller (1894)
Awarded for the negligible figure of 195,500 euros.
Considered the oldest numbered example in existence, this unit was in impeccable condition, with the obvious exception of the tires and treads that need to be replaced.
The Hildebrand & Wolfmüller was the first motorized two-wheeler to go into series production and its design featured a 1,488 cc, four-stroke, parallel-twin, water-cooled engine.
If you look closely you will see that the mechanics of steam locomotives is replicated in the long connecting rods that directly attached the pistons to the rear wheel. These parts opened and closed the exhaust valves via pushrods actuated by a cam in the hub. The latter contained an epicyclic reduction gear and no flywheel, so the rear wheel – a solid disc – served that purpose.
Lateral rubber bands assisted the pistons in the return stroke. Fuel was fed from the bulky tank to a surface carburettor and from there, through atmospheric inlet valves, to the cylinders where it was ignited by a platinum hot tube, developed by Daimler.
The box-shaped rear fender acted as a reservoir for engine cooling water, while one of the frame tubes served as an oil reservoir. The tyres, made under license from Dunlop by Veith in Germany, were among the first to be mounted on a motorcycle.
More simple were other details such as the simple shoe that acted on the front tire as a brake, automatically closing the accelerator. The latter element was controlled by a twist grip but there was no clutch, making starting an athlete-worthy procedure. You had to push the machine until it started and at that precise moment, the driver jumped on it while trying to regulate the speed of the engine.
Despite delivering just 2.5 bhp at 240 rpm, the Hildebrand & Wolfmüller was capable of speeds close to 50 km/h.
Opinions differ regarding how many machines were produced and figures ranging from 800 units to 2,000 are considered. Those that have survived to this day are extremely rare specimens… and expensive.
BMW 493cc R32 (1924)
Sold for 143,750 euros.
Notable features of this example include a German registration plate (“Sb-9313”, not necessarily original); a Glashütten Mühle tachometer; a Bosch headlight and horn; and an “Inh. Jose. Hauser”, the nameplate of the Augsberg supplier.
The design of Max Friz – along with his colleagues Rudolf Schleicher and Franz Bieber – signified the birth of an icon that has evolved to this day.
Launched at the 1923 Paris Salon, the R32 is the first motorcycle to be sold as a BMW. That innovative model featured a 494cc side-valve twin engine with horizontally opposed cylinders.
As used by other manufacturers, BMW’s M2B15 engine was designed to be installed front to rear, a layout that created a long wheelbase and restricted cooling airflow to the rear.
Rotating the engine so that it sits crosswise in the frame seemed like a much better idea. With the crankshaft now in-line, the logical choice was to adopt an integral gearbox and shaft drive. This new mechanism was housed in a tubular frame equipped with a front fork with leaf spring suspension. Weighing in at 123kg, the R32 offered 8.5bhp, enabling it to reach a top speed of around 97km/h.
It was an immediate success. Some 1,500 left the Munich factory in 1924, and the R32 would continue in production, updated with an internally expanding front brake, until 1926, by which time 3,090 units had been reached.
Mars 956 cc Type MA 20 “White Mars” (Weiße Mars) (1925)
Auctioned for 95,450 euros.
According to the Buhner family, owner of the auctioned copy, the Mars was bought in 1985 from its second owner, since the first one kept it until 1979.
This genuine and original “White Mars” sports an enamel plate reading “Johann & Karl Müller Motor-Fahrzeuge Nürnberg-Doos Sigmund Strasse 17”, while there is another plate on the front fender reading “1928 Walhalla-Fahrt”.
Introduced in 1920, the company’s most famous model designed by engineer Claus Franzenburg, was powered by a 956cc horizontally opposed twin-cylinder side-valve engine built exclusively for Mars by Maybach.
Unusually, the “Blanco Marte” featured a box-section chassis, constructed of welded and riveted sheet steel instead of the usual tubular steel. Early examples used a two-speed double-chain transmission, although a conventional three-speed gearbox was later standardized and other colors were offered.
The high level of workmanship and perfect finish at Mars initially encouraged sales, but the economic recession of the mid-1920s forced a halt in production for a few years.
Wanderer 748 cc 5.4 PS Model H (1927)
Sold for 48,300 euros.
The result of a subsequent restoration, this sporty Wanderer V-Twin comes fully equipped with a Jaeger 120 km/h speedometer, Bosch headlights and horn, plus a sprung passenger seat.
The oldest of the four companies that merged in 1932 to form “Auto Union” (the others were Audi, DKW and Horch), Wanderer was already an established motorcycle manufacturer when it built its first car in 1911.
“Wanderer” was the brand name of Winkelhofer & Jaenicke, a bicycle manufacturing company founded in Chemnitz, Saxony, around 1885.
In 1924, this example mounted a new 748 cc V-twin with four-valve cylinder heads, following a design directly inspired by the Triumph Ricardo single-cylinder.
However, Wanderer’s V-Twin was prone to overheating, which led the brand to introduce a 708cc version with two valves per cylinder (some sources claim the first (eight-valve) version was 708cc and the latest 748 cc four-valve version). Both handmade models were expensive to produce; the more so since Wanderer used his own threads for the fixings.
In any case, this quartet of old Teutonic women were the most sought-after girls at the last motorcycle auction at Bonhams, a luxurious party to which few of us could be invited. Pity!