Cool Bike with airplane engine
Part airplane, all functional art, four-only: the JRL LUCKY7. This bike sold for roughly one third of replacement cost.
JRL Cycles Lucky 7
This is a Lucky 7 by JRL Cycles Lucky 7, one of only four bikes (one prototype, three production units) built using an Australian-made 2800cc Rotec radial airplane 7-cylinder engine.
The engine produces 110 horsepower @ 2,450 rpm, and when they were made, they retailed new for $110,000. Hence, when this bike hammered for $38,500, we knew someone had a bargain beyond belief.
Two-strokes getting recognition
Two-stroke motorcycles have rarely been regarded as collectible, with most of the two-strokes that have achieved high prices at auction having had exceptional provenance, and most commonly that provenance included Steve McQueen, who loved two-strokes because of their performance and owned a lot of them over the years. In the top 1000 motorcycles sold at auction, there are still only a handful of two-strokes in the mix. Thanks to the emergence and strength of classic racing, two-stroke racers are now very much in vogue again at auction, and the most valuable sold in Vegas was a 1974 Yamaha TZ750 that fetched $60,500, followed by a Honda RS250R factory racer two-stroke twin that fetched $49,500. The RS250R had placed fifth in the Daytona 250cc race in the hands of Bubba Shobert in 1988 and was presented in “as raced” condition.
