Most Expensive Motorcycles Ever Sold: 18 Verified Prices
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The most expensive motorcycle ever sold at auction is a 1915 Cyclone V-twin board-track racer, at $1,320,000, Mecum Las Vegas, 1 February 2025. Every trade report called it the first motorcycle to pass a million dollars at auction.
A louder number says otherwise. In October 2014 the “Captain America” chopper from Easy Rider was gaveled at $1.35 million at Profiles in History in Los Angeles, and CNBC ran the headline. That figure still sits at the top of several lists.
It should not. The sale never completed.
The chopper that was gaveled and never sold
The bike was consigned by Michael Eisenberg, a Los Angeles collector who had bought it earlier in 2014 from John Parham of J&P Cycles. It was sold as the crash bike from the film’s last scene, the only survivor of the stars-and-stripes panheads built by Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy.
Before the sale, a rival owner in Texas, Gordon Granger, said his bike was the real one. Both machines had been authenticated by Dan Haggerty, the actor who rebuilt the wreck, and Haggerty later admitted to signing false paperwork for Granger’s. Peter Fonda, whose letter was part of the auction documentation, told reporters, “There’s a big rat stinking someplace in this.”
Rider Magazine’s account is blunt: the controversy scuttled the sale after the gavel fell, so the bike was not actually sold at auction. Eisenberg later said the auction house found a buyer privately. No price has ever been reported.
The figure with fees is not settled either. The Vintagent puts the reported total at $1.65 million; other reports from the time say $1.7 million. Neither changed hands.
For completeness: Granger’s bike, the other claimant, had made $63,500 at a Dan Kruse auction in 1996 and sold again for $255,000 at Cord & Kruse in 2021.
So the press is right, on a narrow definition. The Cyclone is the first motorcycle to complete a public auction sale above $1 million.
If you want to see what the argument was about, the film is the place to start.
Eighteen verified results, ranked
Prices realised, including buyer’s premium, unless the row says otherwise. Sterling results are converted at the rate reported at the time of sale, not today’s.
| # | Motorcycle | Price | Premium | Sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1915 Cyclone V-twin board-track racer | $1,320,000 | In (10%) | Mecum Las Vegas, 1 Feb 2025, lot S106.2 |
| 2 | 1908 Harley-Davidson Strap Tank | $935,000 | In ($850,000 hammer) | Mecum Las Vegas, 28 Jan 2023 |
| 3 | 1951 Vincent Black Lightning, the Ehret bike | $929,000 | In | Bonhams Las Vegas, 25 Jan 2018 |
| 4 | 1938 Crocker V-twin | $880,000 | In (10%) | Mecum Las Vegas, 1 Feb 2025 |
| 5 | 1915 Cyclone board-track racer, ex-Steve McQueen | $852,500 | In ($775,000 hammer) | Mecum Las Vegas, Mar 2015 |
| 6 | 1936 Crocker Small Tank, unrestored | $825,000 | In | Mecum Monterey, 15 to 17 Aug 2019 |
| 7 | 1907 Harley-Davidson Strap Tank | $715,000 | In | Mecum Las Vegas, Mar 2015 |
| 7 | 1937 Crocker Small Tank, restored | $715,000 | In | Mecum Monterey, 15 to 17 Aug 2019 |
| 9 | 1939 Crocker Big Tank | $704,000 | In | Mecum Las Vegas, Jan 2019 |
| 10 | 1912 Henderson Four | $539,000 | In ($490,000 hammer) | Mecum Las Vegas, 27 Jan 2017 |
| 11 | 1938 Brough Superior BS4 | £331,900 (about $481,500) | Not stated | Bonhams Stafford, Apr 2016 |
| 12 | 1939 BMW RS255 Kompressor | $480,000 | Not stated | Bonhams Las Vegas, post-sale, 10 Jan 2013 |
| 13 | 1922 Brough Superior SS80, “Old Bill” | £291,200 ($469,359) | Not stated | H&H, IWM Duxford, 23 Oct 2012 |
| 14 | 1911 Flying Merkel board-track racer | $423,500 | In | Mecum Las Vegas, Mar 2015 |
| 15 | 1913 Henderson Four | $352,000 | In | Mecum Las Vegas, Feb 2025 |
| 16 | 2004 Honda RC174, George Beale replica | $330,000 | In | Mecum Las Vegas, Jan 2026 |
| 16 | 1938 Vincent-HRD Series A | $330,000 | In | Mecum Las Vegas, Jan 2023 |
| 18 | 1968 Honda CB750 prototype | $313,500 | In | Mecum Las Vegas, Jan 2026 |
The BMW is marked because it did not sell in the room. Bonhams reported it sold to a private American collector within hours of the auction closing.
Fourteen of the eighteen were sold in Las Vegas, at one of two annual winter sales. Fourteen were sold by Mecum, though not quite the same fourteen.
How the record climbed
The title of “most expensive motorcycle at auction” has changed hands five times since 2012, each time in a press release, and the step sizes are uneven.
- October 2012: Old Bill, £291,200 ($469,359), at H&H. George Brough’s own sprint bike, built in 1922, and claimed at the time as the most valuable classic motorcycle sold at auction. It beat its £270,000 high estimate by 7.8 percent.
- January 2013: the BMW Kompressor, $480,000, edging past it three months later, though by private treaty after the hammer.
- March 2015: the ex-McQueen Cyclone, $852,500, at the E.J. Cole collection sale. Cycle World described it as “a $842,000 OHC V-twin engine housed in a $10,000 Indian chassis.”
- January 2018: the Vincent Black Lightning, $929,000.
- January 2023: the 1908 Strap Tank, $935,000. A record by $6,000, or 0.65 percent.
- February 2025: the Hirsch Cyclone, $1,320,000.
Over twelve years and four months the record multiplied by about 2.8. Most of that came in two jumps, 2015 and 2025, and both were Cyclones.
Are they the same machine? I could not establish that. The McQueen bike was yellow and had been with E.J. Cole since McQueen’s motorcycles were dispersed in 1984; the 2025 bike came from the Urban S. Hirsch III Collection after restoration by Stephen Wright. No report I found links the two, so the table treats them as separate.
Ten percent on top
The buyer’s premium is the commission the house adds to the winning bid. At Mecum it is 10 percent on motorcycles, and British Dealer News stated plainly that the 2025 figures include it.
That makes the Cyclone’s hammer about $1,200,000.
The cleanest proof is the Strap Tank: $850,000 when the gavel fell, $935,000 after fees, in Bike EXIF’s report of the sale. The 2015 Cyclone shows the same gap: Ultimate Motorcycling reported $775,000, Rider Magazine $852,500, and Cycle World rounded to “$852,000”. All three describe one sale. Every 2026 Mecum figure in the table also divides exactly by 1.1, which is what a premium-inclusive price looks like.
Bonhams is the other house in the table. Just Bikes reported the Vincent’s $929,000 as including buyer’s premium.
On hammer alone, the 2023 record does not survive scrutiny. The Strap Tank’s $850,000 hammer would only beat the Vincent if the Vincent’s hammer was lower, and Bonhams has not published the Vincent’s hammer in any source I could find. The $6,000 margin is a margin between two different fee structures.
What the top of the table is made of
Board-track racers. Two Cyclones and a Flying Merkel. These were stripped machines built for wooden velodromes in the 1910s. The Cyclone was the first American motorcycle with an overhead camshaft. Mecum’s lot description estimated 14 Cyclones survive, five of them in racing configuration, and the record bike was sold for display purposes only, not cleared for road use. The most expensive motorcycle in the world cannot legally be ridden on a public road.
Crockers. Four of the top nine. Al Crocker’s Los Angeles firm built V-twins from 1936 for only a few years. The 1936 Small Tank that made $825,000 at Monterey in 2019 was reported as the only unrestored Crocker left, with more than 27,000 miles on it. A restored 1937 Small Tank sold at the same auction for $715,000. Originality beat a restoration by $110,000 in the same room on the same weekend.
Early Harleys. The 1908 Strap Tank takes its name from the nickel-plated bands that hold the tanks to the frame. David Uihlein found it in 1941 and kept it 66 years. Its tank, wheels, belt pulley, seat cover and muffler sleeve are original.
One racer with a documented speed. The Vincent, frame 7305, was built to order for Tony McAlpine and shipped to Australia. In 1953 Jack Ehret rode it to an Australian record of 141.5mph. Vincent built about 30 Black Lightnings. The buyer, per Cycle News, was the Australian collector Peter Bender, so the bike went home.
A barn in Cornwall. The BS4 Brough came from eight bikes found in 2015 in the collection of the late Frank Vague, the “Broughs of Bodmin Moor”. Reports differ on its year: pre-sale coverage described the star lot as a 1932 BS4, while the results reports say 1938. I have used the results figure, and flag the conflict.
Private sales, kept off the table
Several motorcycles are reported to have changed hands privately for a million dollars or more. None has a published sale record, so none is ranked above. The Vintagent lists them, and I am reporting its list, not confirming it.
- 1970 Ivan Mauger gold speedway bike: NZ$1.8 million (about $1,260,700) to the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand, August 2017.
- 1947 Vincent “Bathing Suit” bike: about $1.1 million, 2011, to a Hong Kong-based banker.
- 1912 Henderson Four: $1 million privately, after its $539,000 auction result in 2017. If true, the buyer at auction nearly doubled their money.
- Crocker “1X”: a rumoured $1 million. The Vintagent’s own sourcing is “Those Who Know”.
Why I Think the Cyclone Record Is Softer Than It Looks
I’d argue the $1,320,000 is a real number and a fragile record.
Real, because it settled. After the Captain America mess that is no small thing.
Fragile, because of what produced it. Eight of the top ten lots at Mecum Las Vegas 2025 came out of a single collection, the Hirsch bikes. The Crocker sold minutes after the Cyclone, for $880,000. That is one consignor’s best machines landing in one room in one week, and two bidders with deep pockets wanting the same board-tracker. Take one of them out and the “first million-dollar motorcycle” is an $800,000 motorcycle.
The 2026 sale is the tell. A year later, at the same Las Vegas sale, the top lot made $330,000. The total was still over $20 million, so the money did not leave. It spread out.
My read is that motorcycles have no reliable seven-figure market yet, only a seven-figure event. Car collectors see a Ferrari 250 GTO at Bonhams for $38,115,000 in 2014 and assume bikes are a cheap version of the same thing. They are not. The deepest pool of motorcycle money is still American, still pre-war, and still concentrated in a handful of collections that come up for sale when someone dies or retires.
The Japanese entries interest me more than the record. A 1968 CB750 prototype at $313,500 is a factory test bike from within living memory, sold to people who remember the showroom. That is where the next generation of prices comes from, and it is the only part of the table that is not about the years before 1940.
The Captain America chopper is the cautionary note. It would have been the record for a decade, and it fell apart on paperwork. A motorcycle that needs a film to justify its price needs a provenance that can survive a phone call to the actor.
The film-prop side of that story belongs to the most expensive movie props, and the car records that motorcycles get measured against are on the most expensive cars page. Every category in this series is collected on the most expensive things ever sold hub.
🏆 Top Takeaways to Success
- 1
The 1915 Cyclone at $1,320,000 is the first completed public auction sale of a motorcycle above $1 million. The Captain America chopper reached $1.35m on the hammer in 2014, but the buyer pulled out once its authenticity was challenged.
- 2
Every Mecum figure here includes a 10% buyer's premium. The 1908 Strap Tank hammered at $850,000 and is quoted at $935,000.
- 3
The auction record nearly tripled in twelve years, from Old Bill's £291,200 ($469,359) in October 2012 to $1,320,000 in February 2025.
- 4
Four of the ten most expensive motorcycles in the table are Crockers, V-twins built in small numbers in Los Angeles from 1936.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most expensive motorcycle ever sold at auction?+
A 1915 Cyclone V-twin board-track racer sold for $1,320,000 at Mecum Las Vegas on 1 February 2025. That price includes a 10% buyer's premium, so the hammer was about $1.2 million. It came from the Urban S. Hirsch III Collection and was restored by Stephen Wright.
Did the Easy Rider Captain America bike sell for $1.35 million?+
No sale completed at that price. The chopper was gaveled at $1.35 million at Profiles in History in October 2014, then the buyer backed out after Peter Fonda and others questioned whether it was one of the bikes used in the film. The owner, Michael Eisenberg, later said the auction house found a private buyer, at a price that has never been reported.
What is the most expensive Harley-Davidson ever sold?+
A 1908 Harley-Davidson Strap Tank at $935,000, Mecum Las Vegas, January 2023. The hammer was $850,000 and Mecum's premium took it to $935,000. Its tank, wheels, belt pulley, seat cover and muffler sleeve are original, and fewer than a dozen 1908 Strap Tanks are believed to survive.
Do motorcycle auction prices include the buyer's premium?+
Most published figures do, but not all, and the difference is large enough to reorder a ranking. Mecum's quoted prices include a 10% premium. The Vincent Black Lightning's $929,000 at Bonhams in 2018 was reported as including premium. Some older trade reports quote the hammer alone, which is why the 2015 Cyclone appears as both $775,000 and $852,500.
What is the most expensive Japanese motorcycle sold at auction?+
Mecum describes a 1968 Honda CB750 prototype, sold for $313,500 in Las Vegas in January 2026, as the most valuable Japanese motorcycle sold at auction. A 2004 Honda RC174 replica outsold it at the same auction, at $330,000, but a replica built in 2004 is a different kind of object.
Sources
- Record £1m for a Cyclone, prices include 10% premium (British Dealer News)
- Million dollar babies: every motorcycle reported above $1m (The Vintagent, February 2025)
- Easy Rider: will the real Captain America please stand up (Rider Magazine)
- Million dollar Harley: the Strap Tank that set a record for Mecum (Bike EXIF)
- Ehret Vincent sells for $1.1 million, including buyer's premium (Just Bikes)
- Las Vegas blowout: the E.J. Cole collection at Mecum, 2015 (Cycle World)
- Mecum Auctions, Monterey, August 15 to 17, 2019 (Rick Carey)
- Bonhams Las Vegas motorcycle auction results, January 2013 (Roadracing World)
