In the 1970s and 1980s a man called George Martin was the number 1 custom motorcycle and motorcycle frame builder in Europe, the frame on this bike is one of Martin’s increasingly rare 70s-era frames (although it looks a hell of a lot like a Ducati) and the engine is an air-cooled Kawasaki Z1000.
This bike was built to honour Martin on the Discovery Channel TV show “Café Racer” by the team at Santiago Choppers, the bike was featured on BikeExif and a number of other motorcycle sites, becoming a celebrity in it’s own right.
On the 28th of January 2011 the bike was auctioned off by Mecum Auctions in Kissimmee, Florida for $35,000 USD in benefit of the charity Curing Kids Cancer. The philanthropist who purchased the motorcycle has now listed it on eBay, at 55 he feels the bike might be a little much for him and his wife is worried he’s going to put himself through a wall. Plus she wants a new car and anyone with a wife knows what that means.
The Buy It Now price is exactly half the auction amount at $17,500 USD and bidding is currently at $10,500.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
