Bonhams’ Las Vegas Motorcycle Auction: Featuring Mondial and Mann’s Matchless and BSA

Reader Contribution by Press Release
Published on December 16, 2014
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With the news of the Herb Harris British Collection coming to Las Vegas capturing headlines around the world, not to mention motorcycles from Peter Fonda and the Estate of Dennis Hopper, anticipation for Bonham’s auction in January is building quickly.

Now the world’s leading auctioneers of motorcycles is pleased to announce the addition of some very important racing motorcycles campaigned by some of the greatest names in the sport.

Considered without a doubt one of the finest racers of all time, Mike “The Bike” Hailwood is legend. In 1959, under his father’s Ecurie Sportive team, Hailwood competed in the British Championships on an ex-works Mondial. Clinching second place in the Ulster GP put him in fifth place in the World Championships and helped him earn the British Championship — a title he won easily. Now his race-winning 1957 FB Mondial 250 Bialbero Grand Prix Racer — that was later under the stewardship of Reg Dearden and featured in Classic Bike — will be offered on the open market for the first time in decades. With incredible provenance, history and rarity, this genuine, matching numbers and fully functional masterpiece is in a league all its own.

From Dick Mann, one of the most versatile racers to ever throw a leg over a motorcycle — winning on a national level in motocross, flat track and road racing — are two of his former motorcycles: the AMA Championship-winning 1962 Matchless G50 Road Racer and 1965 BSA Gold Star Flat Track Racer. The Grand Slam-winning, two-times Grand National Champion won 8 of his 24 national victories aboard a Matchless, and this G50 — a very desirable machine in its own right — is the one that helped carry him to his first National Championship. The BSA is a highly specialized and tuned bike that Mann personally customized for his flat track races, and both motorcycles come with signed letters of authenticity from the American champ himself.

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