The old motorcycle world is surely a friendly one, and one with a lot of interesting stories and pieces of information. We love that Motorcycle Classics is a place for it to all come together through the communal love of old bikes. Some of my favorite moments are when I get the chance to share info with a reader who hasn’t found an answer or an explanation of something no matter where they’ve looked.
It also works the other way around. You all provide me with a huge amount of support and resources when it comes to specific model information. I’ve had the chance to link up with marque experts from around the world, which gives me the ability to be sure in the accuracy of the information that goes in our stories.
Today, as readers, you have a chance to be a part of this community, sharing information and connection. For the past few years, we’ve included the Comprehensive Vintage Motorcycle Price Guide in our online bookstore. The guide is put together by the fine people at The Motorcycle and Model Railroad Museum Foundation and JM Hobby Supply, and right now they’re gearing up to produce the 2022-2023 guide, which will be released in December 2021.
The new guide will feature nearly 500 pages, and over 150,000 vintage motorcycle prices for more than 100 different marques. Over a dozen new marques will be included for this 2022-2023 edition, including Crocker, Dayton, Militor/Militaire, Salsbury and others.
The CVMPG was originally published with just a few dozen marques in 2004. Now, some 400 experts from around the world contribute actual sales data gathered from auctions, swap meets, online sales, private sales and dealer sales to help update the prices in the guide each year. “Due to the pandemic, we had to make the tough decision to not publish a 2021-2022 edition last December,” noted Jayson Matthews, one of the editors of the CVMPG. “We only use actual sales to create the guide. We want factual, accurate data. Last year, so many of our experts were in locations where they simply could not get out and gather data,” Matthews added. Thus, the tough decision was made to wait a year before releasing the next edition.
To that extent, the CVMPG staff goal is to continue to grow each subsequent edition by adding more marques to the book. This is where editors of the guide are asking for help from the readers of Motorcycle Classics. “We have incomplete data for more than 150 other motorcycle marques from the U.S., Europe and others,” Matthews noted. “Every sale data point we get for any of these marques is added to a list for future use. We would like to add some experts to our group who have knowledge of most or all of the models of these marques, and pricing information for them as well. Those who contribute get a free edition of the CVMPG for their own use each year.”
The CVMPG editors are looking for experts in the following motorcycle marques: Bianchi, Blixt, Calthorpe, Carabela, Comet, Cotton, Curtiss, Cyclone, Francis-Barnett, FN, Grindlay-Peerless, Heinkel, Horex, Humber, Levis, Marsh-Metz, Marusho, Minneapolis, Monark, Mondial, Motobecane, Motobi, New Imperial, OK, Pannonia, Peugeot, Powell, Puch, Raleigh, Rex, Rokon, Rudge, Rupp, Sparkbrook, Victoria, Wards and many others. “We have some, but not enough data to add these marques to the book in the next year or two,” Matthews said. “Once we get a near-complete list of models and can add accurate pricing for each marque, it is added to the guide.”
People who have knowledge of these models and are interested in being a part of the CVMPG pricing experts group are asked to contact Matthews or one of the staff at 920-857-9670, or at motorcycleandmodelrrmuseum@hotmail.com or jmhobbysupply@hotmail.com
Cheers,
