I’ve been a Billy Joel fan for as long as I can remember, and I’m guessing if you are reading this blog, you are, too. I like everything about Billy Joel, and I especially like the fact that he is a fellow east coast guy and a motorcycle enthusiast.
Billy Joel is 77 years old now, and when you get on in years, things go south (don’t ask me how I know). He was diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) last year, a brain disorder where spinal fluid builds up in the brain. It usually occurs in older adults and it has no known cause. It’s incurable. Like a lot of things us older folks get, all the doctors can do is treat the symptoms, and the symptoms of this affliction are life altering.
As a result of the diagnosis, Billy Joel canceled all remaining concerts and he’s selling his motorcycle collection. His music is amazing; his successes even more so. Billy Joel has had 33 of his songs in the US Top 40. Just a few of his songs include It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me, Tell Her About It, We Didn’t Start the Fire, Piano Man, Uptown Girl, and Only the Good Die Young. There are many, many more. If you’re like me, when you read those titles you hear the music in your head.
Just a few of the motorcycles from the Billy Joel collection being auctioned (there are 70 in total) are shown below:
The motorcycles are all interesting, as Billy Joel’s taste in motorcycles is eclectic. The two-auction will take place on Friday, November 20, and Saturday, November 21, in New York. The bikes are being auctioned by Gooding Christie’s.
I have an interest in old or unusual motorcycles, to put it mildly. So it was strange that I never heard of Iconic Motorbikes out of Panorama City, California. My recent Buell Fever led me from online search to online search to Iconic’s website.
Rare, updated Norton still using the old bottom end. Norton has gone through some owners.An un-wrecked, oil-air cooled slabby GSXR.Yamaha Daytona 400. The last of the air-cooled RDs.Super condition Norton. The real deal before the owner shuffle began.MV grocery getters!A cannibalized CBX. Probably with a fortune as is.
It’s a good thing I didn’t find their site earlier or I’d be homeless, living in the streets surrounded by my collection of fantastic motorcycles. Iconic has a lot of cool bikes.
And for Buell’s, they got ’em. Plenty to choose from, and all at reasonable prices. The process works like this: you register to bid on the Iconic website and in no time you’re blowing money on cool motorcycles.
Even MV’s crates are beautiful. I wonder what swag is inside?
The site is set up for auto-bid: you put in your highest offer and Iconic bids for you as your chosen motorcycle’s price rises. This releases you from having to watch the bidding and gives you more time to pour concrete.
In my case all the Buells I bid on went over my budget. Don’t despair if you don’t get your dream bike: Iconic’s website has a section just for you called Buy It Now.
The odd rat-rod at Iconic’s Panorama City location.
Iconic’s Buy It Now section is full of bikes that didn’t make their reserve price on the auction side of the site. That’s where I found my VR1000-esque Buell. You can still make offers in Buy It Now, Iconic will contact the seller with your offer. Or, like me, you pay the asking price and the bike is yours. Most of the bikes in Buy It Now are not outrageously over-valued. There are a few kite-flyers, but you never know. Not all the motorcycles for sale are in Panorama City; some bikes are at other locations around the US.
Once the deal is made you pay Iconic for the bike and go pick it up (at Iconic or the owner’s location), and you’re done. It’s a pretty easy process. Iconic will also ship the motorcycle to wherever you want for an additional cost.
Wall to wall and two stories high. If you can’t find your dream bike in this lot you’re having a nightmare.
I liked Iconic for the huge selection and their extremely detailed reports on the condition of the motorcycles on auction. It’s like having a trusted friend go check on a bike for you like my buddy Deet did when I bought the RD350.
I wasn’t buying a piglet in a poke when I bought the Buell and I am using their list of recommended repairs as a check list while working on getting the ’95 Buell Thunderbolt back on the road.
Iconic’s huge location in a warehouse district of Panorama City, California, is a candyland of motorcycles. There are at least 300 motorcycles stuffed cheek-by-jowl and two floors up, all of them cool. Leave your wallet at home if you visit Iconic or you’ll leave with a bike you didn’t know you wanted.
I give the buying process at Iconic high marks. It’s almost too easy to blow money on motorcycles there, so use their site wisely, my brothers.
