10 Rare Motorcycles Everyone Wants

Today it is almost impossible to get your hands on one of these awesome bikes, we just wish they’d built more of them!

The classic motorcycle market is booming right now, with even mundane and run-of-the-mill models commanding high prices either at auction or in private sales. As the rarity increases, so does the price, but that doesn’t stop us wanting to have them in our garage, even if such an outcome will forever remain a dream.

While the rarest motorcycles come from the early years of the 20th century, there are a few surprising models from as late as the 1980s that, despite being produced in large numbers, now only exist in tiny numbers. In addition, there are some motorcycles from the 21st century that have been produced in tiny numbers, so they also qualify for inclusion in this list.

Related: 10 Great Classic Bikes Everyone Forgot About

Manufactured in 1916, that is about all that is known (or guessed) about the Traub, of which only one is known to exist out of who-knows-how-many built. It was discovered in 1968 behind a wall in a Chicago, where it had lain undiscovered for 50 years, and passed through various owners before finding a home at the Wheels Through Time museum in North Carolina. No-one knows who created the Traub, why it was built or even where it was built! Was it, as the name suggests, of German origin or was it a German immigrant who built it in America? The majority of parts, including the engine, are unique to the Traub and, with no documentation and no period photographs, it is unlikely we’ll ever know the full story.

Crocker held a position in American motorcycling between the wars that mirrored that of Brough Superior in the same period. Albert Crocker started by building speedway motorcycles and branched out into road motorcycles in 1936, with his first V-Twin engined model. They were hand built and were powered by a 1000cc, Hemi head V-Twin, producing around 60 horsepower, at a time when rival Harley-Davidson and Indian V-Twins could manage only 40 horsepower at best. Generally manufactured to order, in the six years between 1936 and 1942, only 100 Crocker V-Twins are known to have been built, with a reported 68 surviving to this day. When they come up for auction, they sell for huge money, one selling for $704,000.

For George Brough, nothing but the very best was good enough and, like Crocker, largely built his motorcycles to order, with input from the customer so that no two were ever completely alike. In production for only 17 years, only 3,000 Brough Superiors were ever built and a tiny fraction of those were top-of-the-range SS100 models, so called because each one was guaranteed to achieve 100mph: after each one had been built, it was tested to see if it could achieve that speed and, if it couldn’t, then it was stripped down and built again until it would. Widely considered as the Holy Grail of collectible motorcycles, if you find one of these forgotten in a barn, keep very quiet about it until you’ve concluded the sale.

Related: The New Brough Superior Raises The Bar For Exotic Motorcycles

Phil Vincent was a motorcycle manufacturer in the mold of George Brough, in that nothing was ever deemed ‘good enough’ and his motorcycles contained many innovative ideas. If the 998cc V-Twin-engined Black Shadow model wasn’t fast enough for you, then you could order a Black Lightning model, supplied in racing trim with magnesium alloy components, racing tires on alloy rims, rear-set foot controls, a solo seat, and aluminium mudguards. This reduced the Black Lightning's weight to 380 pounds and increased the top speed to a claimed 150mph. Only 31 Black Lightnings were ever built and one holds the record for most expensive motorcycle ever sold at auction, at $929,000, set in 2018.

Back in the 1960s, Friedel Münch produced the fastest, most powerful, most expensive bike of its time in the Münch Mammut (Mammoth), powered by an NSU four-cylinder car engine mounted transversely in a sturdy motorcycle chassis. In 1969, it cost $3,995, when a BMW R69S sold for $1,695. Less than 500 machines were produced. In 2000, the Münch Mammut 2000 appeared, with a turbocharged 1,998cc Cosworth four-cylinder engine again mounted transversely. With 260 horsepower and 217 foot pounds of torque, the acceleration, according to the brochure, was ‘sufficient.’ A production run of 250 was planned but, in the end, only 15 left the factory.

Any racing motorcycle is always going to be rare and desirable, but some are more of both than others. In the 1960s, Japanese involvement in Grand Prix racing was increasing enormously, and the gloves were off in the pursuit of glory, the sky seemingly the limit in terms of innovation and cost. Race fans knew they were witnessing the realms of fantasy when Honda unveiled its new contender, complete with a six-cylinder, 250cc engine that revved to an incredible 18,000rpm, with an exhaust note (well, six exhaust notes…!) to match. No-one knows how many examples Honda built - and certainly none were ever raced by anyone other than the official Honda race team - but it can’t be more than a handful and, if you are lucky enough to find one for sale, don’t expect much change from a couple of million dollars.

If you think that motorcycle design and construction has reached a bit of a blank wall, then motorcycles such as the Confederate Hellcat X132 should give you cause for hope. Designed by Pierre Terblanche, who designed the Ducati 999, among others, the hellcat was hand built, powered by a 2,163cc V-Twin engine and was dripping in carbon fiber, keeping the weight down to just 500 pounds. In production between 2012 and 2017, the Hellcat X132 sold for around $50,000 when new and will still command that price today. 65 examples were built, and they don’t often appear for sale today.

The quintessential British racing motorcycle that was still winning races in privateer hands in the late 1960s, despite having being introduced in 1947. Before the advent of the Italian multi-cylinder racing motorcycles, the Norton Manx proved very hard to beat and still had its days in the sun in Grand Prix racing even after the Italians had shown the way and after Norton had officially withdrawn from competition in 1954. The models Norton sold to the public were very little different to the works-prepared examples, giving talented amateurs an unprecedented opportunity to show their skill against the established stars of the day, which included Geoff Duke and John Surtees. Around 1,100 are known to have been built and there is today a healthy market for replica examples.

Related: The Norton Commando 961 Is Back In 2023 And Better Than Ever

Brave but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to create a brand-new British motorcycle manufacturer by Lord Alexander Hesketh, he of the eponymous racing team that gave a young James Hunt his start in Formula One and brought aristocratic fun to the pit lane. The Hesketh V1000 was powered by an in-house-developed V-Twin engine, which Motor Cycle News described as having “a classic simplicity, delivering a modest 86 bhp at just 6500 rpm. [Customers should] understand it’s a hand built, relatively sedate, classic British motorcycle.” Conceived as a luxury sports machine that could save the British motorcycle industry, the Hesketh V1000 was plagued by unresolved engine problems and only 149 were built.

Hang on, why is a motorcycle from the 1980s on this list? Not only that, but it’s a Honda, and they aren’t known for being manufactured in small numbers. There are exceptions, however. The CX500 Turbo was built to cash in on the period obsession with turbocharging and to give the pedestrian CX500, with its transverse V-Twin engine, a performance boost. The problem was, the CX500 was one of the dullest motorcycles ever built by Honda and many were simply run into the ground and scrapped as they had little or no value. The CX500 Turbo did little to enhance this reputation and remained in production for one year - 1982 - only. The CX650 Turbo arrived in 1983 and also lasted only one year. Less than 50 of the CX500 Turbo model are licensed for use in the UK and America combined. Some would say that even that is too many…!

Harry has been writing and talking about motorcycles for 15 years, although he's been riding them for 45 years! After a long career in music, he turned his hand to writing and television work, concentrating on his passion for all things petrol-powered. Harry has written for all major publications in South Africa, both print and digital and produced and presented his own TV show called, imaginatively, The Bike Show, for seven years. He held the position of editor of South Africa's largest circulation motorcycling magazine before devoting his time to freelance writing on motoring and motorcycling. Born and raised in England, he has lived in South Africa with his family since 2002. Harry has owned examples of Triumph, Norton, BSA, MV Agusta, Honda, BMW, Ducati, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki and Moto Morini motorcycles. He regrets selling all of them.