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Jay Leno's 9/11 Harley-Davidson Signed by Celebrities
"From his position of respected car and bike collector, Jay Leno decided the best way he can help at that time was to sell one of his most prized possessions. He chose a Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide, had it signed by a bunch of mostly Hollywood A-listers, and even advertised it on his Tonight Show.
He then placed the bike for sale on eBay in October 2001, and just a few days later sold it for $360,200. All the money was donated to the Twin Towers Fund. It became without a doubt the most expensive newer-generation Harley motorcycle sold.
From that moment, the bike was pretty much not heard from until this week, when it popped up on the lot of bikes scheduled to sell during the Mecum Indiana State Fairgrounds auction in Indianapolis in May.
The bike is in pretty much the same condition as it was nearly two decades ago, and obviously the one selling it hopes to fetch an impressive sum for it. The fact that the Harley still has the signatures of the celebrities who endorsed Lenos idea back then is sure to help.
There are a great deal of signatures on the bike, as reported by Mecum, including: Jay Leno himself, Tom Cruise, Sylvester Stallone, Samuel L. Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matt LeBlanc, Nicole Kidman, John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Cuba Gooding Jr., Salma Hayek, Pamela Anderson, Earvin Magic Johnson, Mira Sorvino, Michael Richards, Terry Bradshaw, David Spade, Martina McBride, Ed Harris, Leelee Sobieski and Rodney Dangerfield.
Other than the names featured on it, the bike is otherwise stock, and the 1,449 cc V-Twin engine has only 248 miles on it."
I can see how this would garner a huge amount of money for its original purpose...charity for the 9/11 fund. I am not sure if it will get anywhere near what was originally paid.
I an curious what the market will bring. I watched the show back when Cuba Jr signed it. Twenty years already. Seems like Johnny Carson was on last night sometimes.
Awesome. If we had video of the moment Leno asked Dangerfield to sign it, I bet it would be hilarious. I'm just imagining it in my head and that alone is pretty funny. Just the look on his face, I can't imagine what he would actually say.
If this post from the Cyril Huze blog is to be believed, he left behind two daughters, ages 21 and 18 at the time of his death. It sounds like his estate was a mess, loaded with debt, and they struggled to get things sorted, eventually reaching out to Cyril Huze blog in 2008 looking to unload the bike.
I don't know if the Davis family still owns the bike today, but this whole story is a sh*t show.
Then saddest part is that even with the celebrity provenance and all the autographs, that bike isn't going to fetch anywhere near $360k today. Odds are they will be lucky to get 10% of that.
Damn, that is a sad tale indeed. If the bike is still owned by the family, perhaps Jay will get wind of this and purchase it back for his collection. That would be a somewhat happy end to this story.
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Jay Leno's 9/11 Harley-Davidson Signed by Celebrities
