So what happens to all those old GP and WSB motorcycles when they’re pensioned off at the end of the year? Are they sold on to privateers, or donated to museums, or given to the guys who raced them as a reward for a job well done? Or are they – shock and horror – cut up, crushed and sold as scrap metal to prevent rivals from uncovering their secrets? The factories are remarkably unemotional, with little sense of history, and in past years were ruthless. MV Agusta reportedly buried their fabulous three and four-cylinder racebikes under their airfield’s runway and included many in the foundations of new buildings at their factory, and Honda apparently let favoured racers like Mike Hailwood and Jim Redman take their gorgeous four-cylinder GP bikes home to Africa to race in the off season each year, with the proviso that they be dumped in the Indian Ocean off Durban afterwards. Kork Ballington was given his world championship winning Kawasaki KR250 tandem-twin after winning his first championship in 1978 and a few years after he retired his ’82 square-four KR500 was also given to him. With only a handful of the bikes having been made their considerable value is very much dependent upon what a collector is willing to pay, and it’ll be interesting to see what offers come his way if he puts them up for auction in 2016. The bikes from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s that have survived are worth fortunes these days, particularly if they were successfully raced by the legends of the era. Franco Uncini’s 1981 World Championship Suzuki RG500 was on sale for R3m about seven years ago and Jim Redman’s 1960’s R164 Honda 250cc four-cylinder Grand Prix bike went on auction – unsuccessfully – with a reserve of around R5m a decade ago. Many of the survivors come with murky pasts, having disappeared from workshops and been secreted away from prying eyes for years before emerging decades later after the dust had settled. Perhaps that’s why we hear so little about the whereabouts of the 100 or so MotoGP bikes that reach the end of the road at the end of every season.
Superbike Planet ran a story in 2008 by Dean Adams under the heading Moto Mortality – Where do Old Racebikes go to die? He provides fascinating insight into the situation, mainly in the USA. You can read all about it HERE
by Gavin Foster.