Update***
Interestingly, this afternoon (lot F150) at the Friday Mecum motorcycle auction in Las Vegas, this "prototype" was bid up to $22,000 and didn't meet the reserve price. Under the Mecum Auctions "The Bid Goes on" rule, it's possible for the bidding to continue behind the scenes when a bike doesn't sell. Interested buyers can ask for the reserve and meet that price unless more than one bidder is interested. Then the bidding goes on in private. Mecum could also bring the bike back up on the block over the weekend for another round of bidding. I can't imagine that this bike would go unsold unless the current owner is asking an unreasonably high price.

 

thanks for updating us…I had forgotten about the auction. I have no idea what this should bring…I guess we won’t know as the bidding will move to private.

 

I believe that the Mecum website will show us what it sells for if it is sold. I'll check after the entire auction is over and update accordingly.

 

that would be awesome…thank you in advance. Appreciate you keeping us informed. I don’t know why….but this is fun! Thanks again….

 

Check the Mecum listing for this bike, I bumped into it Thursday reviewing all of their listings. A much better explanation than the original post (no offense I know you didn't write it). It really explains what it actual is/was not implying the MoCo built it.

That said $22k is reasonable just for it being a good looking flat side Shovel, with a good story maybe $30k, still not for me but the Mecum story is much, much better.

 

It looks like the bike remains unsold. As of this post, the high bid is listed at 22K and is under "The Bid Goes ON" rule. Any registered bidder could make the seller an offer at this point, but for all practical purposes the auction is over. We will never know how much this bike could bring unless it is entered in another auction in the future.

I have perused over the pictures and noticed subtle details like the path of the exhaust pipes going through the frame in front and through the lower center of the oil tank on the rear cylinder. The one off looking rear brake pedal and shifters are interesting to the trained eye... This bike is at the least very interesting and will sell to the right buyer at some point.

Hopefully we will see this bike in another auction soon.

 

Only to an Untrained EYE or some sucker.... Come on this bike is a conglomerate of parts.. Didn't the guy who first designed the softail frame present his idea in 1974??? Bullshit I say... But hey, there is a sucker born every day....

 

I beg to differ.... we just found out that no one will pay more than $22K for it....

Personally I think they should have taken that offer and run to the bank with it...

 

I was at the auction. I looked the bike over. i watched it go across the block.(and i have video) there was almost no interest in this bike. it struggled to get to $22k at an auction with bikes going for record prices. the prototype story did not win any bids. it was a clean bike, but there was very little interest in it.

 

Yeah, I saw that. And I watched the replay online and the announcer really flubbed the introduction. The auction was less than a minute long, and the bike was wheeled off the stage too soon IMHO. Anybody who didn't know the significance would have thought it was just another custom shovelhead. The bike is not for HD purists, that's for sure, but for people who like XP's and prototype's, it's the way to round out a collection on the cheap.