Harley-Davidson X8E by Steve McQueen
Harley-Davidson X8E by Steve McQueen

Video: Harley-Davidson X8E by Steve McQueen

Video: Harley-Davidson X8E by Steve McQueen
Video: Ex-Steve McQueen Harley-Davidson X8E | Custom Moto 2024, March
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Connoisseurs say that "luxury" vehicles are becoming a haven for capital investments. Something like if suddenly the people who have a lot of money (that there are) had decided stop investing in stocks and things like that to dedicate to buy tangible things that they can then resell without depending on the variations of a market that no one is able to control.

If you are one of these, next Thursday you can participate in the auction that Bonhams is going to do and bid for this Harley-Davidson X8E from 1912 that belonged to Steve McQueen. The final price is expected to be around 100,000 to 120,000 euros. Things about the marine getting his hands on her.

The technical characteristics of this bike, compared to some current ones, are nothing to write home about. its 989cc F-Head twin it was capable of giving 8 hp, which allowed it to reach a whopping 105 km / h. Taking into account that it barely has a few springs in the front fork for suspension and that the roads of a hundred years ago were not exactly smooth, it gives us an idea of how much fun it was to drive a motorcycle of these in its time.

Let's do a quick calculation on the original price of the Harley-Davidson X8E that It cost $ 285 at the time, which currently would be $ 6,600, or what is the same about 5,500 euros. If we take into account that the average annual salary at the time was $ 60, and we convert it to today, it does not equal about $ 1,400. All this allows us to affirm that the price of this Harley-Davidson was just over four and a half times the average annual salary of a person. Which does not seem to leave them within the reach of many.

In 102 years, its value has risen from 4.5 to 10 times the average annual salary. It must also be borne in mind that this Harley-Davidson was the late 1912 model, with a clutch that allowed the rear wheel drive to be disengaged and was operated by a lever located on the left side of the tank. It was still two years before Harley-Davidsons used a rudimentary two-speed gearbox and another year before the three-speed gearbox designed by William S. Harley arrived.

Chain or leather belt final drive was also offered as an option. The seat was mounted on springs to improve driver comfort, and in many of the ones that were sold the light still came from a carbide lamp instead of an electric light bulb.

All this, one hundred and two years later, and after passing through the hands of Steve McQueen, a Hollywood myth, which seems that he did not spend much time on it, makes it a very desirable piece for collectors. The pity is that a motorcycle like this will surely take a lot of years without even starting, much less rolling. With what its main objective when it was designed has been completely lost.

Of course, in a hundred years it has managed to cost between ten and twelve times the salary of a person (mileurista for more details) from the four and a half times that it cost in origin. It seems that we are improving.

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