Each edition of Unique Cars Magazine our two wheel loving columnist Guy Allen shares a little bit of action from the world of Unique Bikes. Here’s a couple of recent sales results from Issue 512.
1983 Ducati 900 Hailwood
Sold – $38,000 – Donington Auctions
Hailwood replica Ducatis can be relied upon to provide solid results at auction and this low-mile example proved no exception.
It is now nearly 50 years since Mike Hailwood came out of retirement to win the 1978 TT Formula One race at the Isle of Man on an NCR Ducati 900 and it remains one of Ducati’s greatest race victories. Against the odds the then 38-year-old Hailwood won the race at an average speed of 174 km/h, with a fastest lap of 177km/h. After an absence of 11 years it had been, in his own words, “the easiest TT I can remember”.
The Ducati factory was so elated by this victory that, as they had done six years earlier after the Imola 200, they promised street Mike Hailwood Replicas. In typical Ducati fashion they took some time to appear, but they duly arrived later in 1979.
As as the Replica was proving to be exceedingly popular, it was slightly revamped for 1981, most notably with a two-piece fairing. The Replica was by far the most popular bevel-drive model in Ducati’s line-up of the early 1980s.
1988 Honda XC500B
Sold – $23,000 – Donington Auctions
This new-old-stock Honda CX500B exceeded expectations by a healthy margin and generated a huge amount of interest.
As with many Honda designs, the CX500 was not only different, it was a brilliant concept. The idea of a transverse V-twin wasn’t new, with Moto Guzzi using it for the past decade, but Honda looked at it in a fresh light, envisaging the CX500 as a smaller companion to the Gold Wing.
Automotive-like, the crankcase was cast with integral cylinders, and featured a single high camshaft driven by a Hy-Vo chain. Short pushrods operated the four valves per cylinder, and the cylinder heads were skewed to provide room for the rider.
The bore and stroke were 78 x 52mm, and primary drive was by straight-cut gears primary drive to the multi-plate clutch (acting as engine balancer) and five-speed gearbox. Carburation was by a pair of 35mm Keihin CV carburettors, and the output was 50 horsepower at 9000rpm.