The Phil Morris Road Racing Museum is one of the world’s largest collections of motorcycle racing memorabilia in the world with pieces that were either signed, owned, or used by some of the most famous names in the world like Phil Read, Mike Hailwood, and Kenny Roberts.
On April 18, 2022, the Bonhams Auction House close 330 lots that went to new owners who will be able to enjoy a real piece of history however they want to.
This is not the first time in recent memory that an auction surrounding motorcycling memorabilia was conducted. In October 2021, the auction during that time focused on race bikes from the same Phil Morris collection, which saw whole motorcycles being sold, as well as some curious like a template for building a MotoGP bike’s tank. On the note of whole racebikes, however, it was also reported that the 1995 Yamaha YZF750 was put up for sale and sold for £35,650 GBP, which translates to about $45,000 USD based on current rates.
There are some great pieces in the collection such as a Bell helmet from 1978 that was signed by Kenny Roberts. At the auction, it sold for a total of £5,355 GBP which translates to about $6,760 USD.
If that’s a lot of money, just wait until you see the closing bid of the Dainese Helmet that was signed by Marco Simoncelli. This lot sold for a staggering £10,837 GBP, or about $13,680 USD.
There are more notable pieces, still, from the now-retired Valentino Rossi, from Cal Crutchlow. Other pieces, still from almost all the front runners of world and English racing championships within the last twenty to thirty years. Names like Santiago Herrero, Mike Hailwood, Phil Read, Luigi Taveri, and Bill Lomas to name a few. Heck, there is even an MV Agusta helmet signed by Giacomo Agostini himself, though, it looks to be a signed piece that never really saw the race track. While there are some high-priced items in the collection, others were “affordable” and costed about the same as a high-end racing helmet.
