Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ ~ ..... m a: ~ :x: ~ c c ~ c Ln 00 O'l > '" m ~ ...... 0 :x: a, ~ 0 ...... >-...... ~ ~ The motorcycles varied widely in vintage and condition. but had one thing in comon: they were expensive. By David b. Mallet Dear Editor, if it's true you want a story on the McQueen auction, the wri ting pool .must be emptier of waters than usual. You · k h h M Q . t h In ,per aps t e e ueen story wIll be a . n Ice tame pie ce from th e Redondo Freelancer's Beach h ead? Well the story isn't . h' exact I y wit out co ntroversy . ~ven if. it were a pi ece of stra igh t Journalism, h ow. m any of yo ur readers care about vintage motorcycles? At least a few of yo ur readers are preadol~scent~ who gorge th em selves.on stero ids with th e ho pe of becoming another. J ohnny O'Mara. In point of fact, the " newest" motorcycle so ld a t th e auction was a 1974 Yamaha 360 DT-IA enduro bike, and I' m willi ng to bet a dozen stale Winche ll's glazed doughnuts that over 50%of your readers have n ever seen a 1974 DT-I. I've got to adm it I suspected th e story would be dull. and th at my ass ig n me nt wa s ~ th inl y-di sguised a ttemp t by th e edl~or of Th~t Other Mo torcycl e M~g!izme to get rid of m e over Tha~ksglvmg Weekend. As for th e os tensible story , old motorcycles of ten have as much readin g appeal as tot , espe~lally ~hen t.he owner of the vmtage bikes, him bein g dead, ca n tell n o tal es? Su rely, even yo u 8 un~ers.tand th~ impossibility o f live• ~~t~?~!~~r.n.a~ I.s~ t~!~~~~.i~~t;:;,~e.~~ , of ant iq ue motorcycles and a decedent. Still , ! kn ew there h ad to be a good story somewher~, ~ven !f it mean.t I would have to ficti ona lize fac ts, Iig u res a nd co n versa tio ns . Before setting o u t for Las Vegas, I put myself in reporter's a ttac k mod e and pl anned out the methodology. I immersed myself in every Steve McQueen vide o I co u ld find. I spe nt several days locked in a conferen ce ro om, co n ten t to ch arge th e vid eo renta l fees to th e company expense acco u nt, sa tisfied with th e kn owl edge th at watching McQueen roar around German co u n trys id eon a Triumph was better th an me working on a rubber rainsuit product evaluation. ' Cloaked in the conferen ce room I got the impression from McQuee~'s films that h e was a man wh o had genuinely liked m otorcycles for a long time. McQueen performed most o f th e h eated-up Mu stang driving sce n es in Bullit t , and though h e didn 't know much then abo ut doubleclutching (as a n ex- trucker I h ave a n ear for the se things), McQueen ma naged to p itchat least four hubca ps du ring high-speed sq ueals aro un d San Francisco stree t co rn ers. H e'd learned to double-clu tch by Le Man s, but th is was anothe r Car Movie. The • •• 0 ••• _ •• •• •••• , • • •• • • • • • • • __ • • • • • • • ' co re McQueen m ovie is Th e G reat Escap e, Stevie im priso ned an d bouncing a ball agai ns t th e wall of his cell _ America, freedom, baseball an d all th at . A pi ty it wasn't McQueen who m ade th e notorious m otorcycle jump, since it m ig h t be th e motorcycle movie seq ue nce of all tim e. But even tho ugh McQueen 's fri end, fell ow co llector an d m ovi e stu n tman, Bud Ekins, m ade th e j u mp, yo u a n d I know McQueen would h ave done it himself if it h adn 't been for some Hollywood studio pimps worrying a bo u t Steve damaging th e co rps of the ir investment. Besid es, rumors a bo un d that McQueen did make th e jump offca mera, a nd at th e very least he did much of th e riding. One source has it th at because the German stuntmen rode too slowly, McQueen an d Ekins donned German uniforms and chased th emselves in the movie. You can see the portrait beginning to emerge before I thrummed toward Las Vega s. Steve McQueen was more than just a cell u loid sissy who needed a stunt-double to do anything more dangerous than turn on an ignition switch . I a lso di sco vered that an in cogn ito McQueen had ridden th e El sinore Grand Prix a few times, fin ish ing respectably well . All o f these im ages began to flesh o u t the McQueen legend as a devo ted mot orcycl ist off- and on -screen , wh ere h e stood as a co un terpoin t to th e loo tan d-p illage motorcycle flicks o f th e 60s a nd other-world James Bondtype st u n ts o f th e 70s and 80s. I'd fou nd the pop-to p o f a potential sto ry, and to get •into the mood I '''! • • • . 0 • ••••• •••• 0 walked a rou nd for day s emulating McQueen 's cool, blue-eyed st are, squinting until my eyeballs hurt. I left for Vegas with the in kling that I could write a sen sible mazazine articl e about a man I never knew who owned m ot orcycles I knew nothing a bo u t, and who wouldn 't even be attending h is own auction. It was difficult to remind myself th at the clos est I'd come to Steve McQueen was on acco un t of my halfblind ex-wife, who for ced me to sit in th e front row to watch th e Th omas Crown Affair on a 60-foot screen . Putterin g to La s Vega s aboard a Harl ey Softa il , I felt McQueen 's co m p an iona ble presen ce. And as I rode the Harley through the ch illed Moj ave air . .. (wha t Ireally thought a bo u t was th e di vine pl easure of h aving a company credit ca rd a nd keys to someone el se' s motorcycle) . . . I recalle d th ings I'd learned about MeQueen apart from his H ollywood image. Before saddling up for Las Vegas, I'd called Bud Ekins (who himself owns m ore th an 100 vintage m otorcycles, the collection reputed to be oneof the world's finest ou tside a museum) a nd asked him about the ac to r. I'd sele cted what I surmised to be one of th e rarest and m ost unusual o f McQueen's collection - a 1922 New Imperial - and quest ioned Ek ins a bo u t it. So sure was I of the ch oice, I convinced th e editor of th at oth er motorcycle m agazine to underwrite a' photographer for an adv ance trip to Vegas for sn apsho ts no other magazine would have gotten. It had been easy to justify th e $1,000 it cost for the photos: It wasn 't m y money. "Hell ," Ek ins said , " He didn 't care about th e Imperial. He bought it o ver th e telephone and never rode it." You ca n see th e crisis. How was I to explain this first twist and turn of the story to th e editor? There are few things worse than presenting an editor with a $1,000 photograph that will nev er be printed. But I peppered Ekins with questions, hoping I could at least establish McQueen as the premier vintage motorcycle af icionado in the world. Or the United States. At that point, di saster loo m ing, I'd even have settled for knowing McQueen h ad th e best collection in Southern Cal ifornia. But Ekins informed me that McQueen had been collecting vintage bikes only for four years. This was hardly enou gh time to become a recognized a u th or ity, even in this fled gl in g field . Surel y, I asked, th ere was at lea st o ne m ot orcycl e in the collection McQueen liked? "Yep, " Ek ins to ld (Contin ued from page 17) J 0 . _ • • • •• • • • • • • • " • • • 0.0 • • •

• Cover