Hey, Jude! You Might Want to Hear This: Late John Lennon’s 1969 Honda ‘Monkey-Trail’ Z50A Up For Auction
The late Beatles singer, John Lennon, was not only musically inclined but he also has an appreciation for motorcycles and their convenience. He owned a 1969 Honda ‘Monkey-Trail’ Z50A that was used for the sole purpose of getting around his Tittenhurst Park estate in Ascot, Berkshire where he lived after the English rock band disbanded.
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John Lennon in February 1970 with his eldest son Julian as pillion, riding the Honda Z50A around their lavish country estate. (H&H Classics)
Lennon’s Monkey Bike will be up for auction at H&H Classics' National Motorcycle Museum Motorcycle Auction in Solihull on March 4. Before it got to this point, though, it was passed on from one rich man to another. The Beatles it to Henry Graham of Motor Cycle City, a motorcycle shop in Farnborough in 1971.
Then it was bought by John Harrington, a yachtsman from Weymouth Dorset, for a measly £250, less than its true value of being owned by a super star. Congruent in past behaviors of the affluent society, Harrington used the by-then dismal Monkey to get around his foreign ports, not believing it was owned by one of the most popular men in the world then, alongside his band mates.
Soon enough, he conducted his own research and proved that the Honda did in fact, originally belonged to John Lennon. He received an offer of £90,000 at the authenticity reports came out but rejected it because “like a fine wine it becomes more valuable with time”, as quoted by The Times. Harrington went on to keep the bike for 47 years, the last six of which was spent exhibiting it at events and shows.
The “largely unrestored and original” motorcycle with a “huge investment potential” has no starting price as of yet. It is yet “in running order with matching frame and engine numbers”.
Mark Bryan, Head of Sales for H&H Classics, said that they were “thrilled to be entrusted with the marketing and sale” of the Lennon’s Monkey bike, “given its extraordinary provenance.”
Lennon was not the only one who has auctioned off his once-owned vehicle, however. Sir Ringo Starr, 77, sent his own similar Honda 160Z Monkey Bike to go under the hammer in 2008 and was sold for £36,000. Even FourFiveSeconds singer Sir Paul McCartney, 75, was paid £1,345,500 by an anonymous bidder for his 1964 Aston Martin DB5.