Buying an investment grade MV Agusta 750 Sport from the 1970s is rather like buying a Ducati green frame. There are more fakes around than genuine machines and those that are left have usually been butchered. You can still buy a brand new engine and frame for these from several sources who have the castings and jigs. There are plenty of “genuine machines” built up from these parts and registered for the road on numbers that are not correct for such a new motorcycle. Many were raced, abused and destroyed. Finding an investment grade MV Agusta 750 Sport is highly challenging and becoming more and more difficult as the best ones get squirrelled into private collections. Specifications vary from one machine to the next, as they were often hand built to order, but there were plenty of consistencies. Quite a few 750 Sports turn out to be converted GTs or 600s and the original parts to convert it back have long gone so they’ve ruined two really collectible motorcycles. There are lots of restored machines posing as unrestored motorcycles, which adds to the confusion around these iconic classic motorcycles. With so much deception, smoke and mirrors, does it really matter and will anyone ever know the difference? Yes they will, and passing off a machine which is not correct will land owners with enormous solicitor bills.
Buying an investment grade MV Agusta 750 Sport
Buying an investment grade MV Agusta 750 Sport is not simple and requires excellent connections and costly due diligence. Clients who come to us for an investment grade example do so because it is usually much more cost effective than trying to navigate the market on their own and without the access to due diligence. They are also incredibly expensive to fix when things go wrong, or if difficult to find parts are missing. Restored examples can look great but require a full restoration again, because the work had been done poorly and original parts were discarded, instead of bearing the cost of restoring the original components, and replaced with poor replica parts. A shiny, pretty example is more often than not disguising the need for very costly rectification work, if it’s at all possible to rectify. Knowledge is required and every example needs to go through one of the very few workshops left in the world capable of setting these machines up. Basic servicing is straight forward, but valve services need to be done by someone who understands these machines. Restoration should not be undertaken by anyone who does not know these motorcycles intimately or disaster awaits. The best and most place to buy an investment grade MV Agusta 750 Sport is from The Motorcycle Broker, there are no real bargains left in the world as people understand their value.
MV Agusta 750 Sport due diligence
MV Agusta 750 Sport due diligence is a costly process, it takes me about three days of my work and costs me £1,200 for each machine I investigate. If this level of due diligence is not undertaken, then you have no idea what you’re buying. There far more machines which are either complete fakes or not investment grade than there are investment grade examples. The odds are seriously outside of your favour unless the machine is properly investigated at a forensic level. Beware of examples which are claimed to be unrestored, I have inspected eight such machines and only one turned out to be unrestored. The other seven were very good restorations which were later sold as unrestored examples. What is certain is that as these machines hit seven figures, as they surely will, they will be thoroughly investigated at the level we undertake for our clients now. It is becoming harder and harder to find investment grade examples as time goes on and easier and easier to find machines not worth buying. Once an investment grade example has been sourced, the bike will need at least a week in the workshop, if you’re lucky, setting it up correctly so it will be reliable and fun to ride.
Outstanding classic motorcycle investment
The MV Agusta 750 Sport is an outstanding investment if it is an investment grade example. Very few machines, apart from the green frame, Laverda 750 SFC, 1975 Ducati 900SS and 750SS will offer the returns that these MVs will deliver. They will reach the millions of pounds in value over the coming ten years. Just look back at our early blogs to see that all of our price predictions have proven to be highly conservative. There are only probably about one hundred and twenty investment grade MV Agusta 750 Sport available worldwide. There is so much money from classic cars pouring into this market because the bikes are so far behind the cars in value. We highlighted this trend back in in this article back in 2017. We picked up on it in 2014 in this article, again in 2019 we wrote about it here. It’s no coincidence, like any of the predictions we have made, because it’s about supply and demand and most classic motorcycles are not investment grade. As values increase, buyers will undertake far more due diligence than they are doing now and more lawyers will start to work in this lucrative area of the market. The cat is out of the bag now and there are some heavyweight investors looking at the incredible value these motorcycles offer. There are more and more financial institutions snapping up the value classic cars and classic motorcycles offer investors. Classic motorcycle values are only, at present, at about 1-4% of the value of the equivalent classic car. Investment grade examples are far rarer than investment grade examples of classic cars. Being so much rarer than the equivalent example of a classic car, the time is not far off that classic motorcycle values will rise to around 30-40% of the equivalent classic car. Motorcycles suffer, throughout their life, from more crash damage than cars went through. People swapped engines when they had a problem instead of rebuilding them, due to cost. These machines went through many decades when they had practically no value, so they were very badly, and cheaply repaired. There are very few workshops today, whatever so many of them claim, who can repair and set these machines up correctly.
MV Agusta 750 Sport and Colombo link
There is an MV Agusta 750 Sport and Colombo link. The engine in these machines is basically a 1957 Grand Prix racing motor, which is why it has gear driven camshafts. It is very like a scaled down version of the Alfa Romeo 8C engine cut in half and air cooled. Colombo, who designed Ferrari’s V12 engines throughout the 1950s and 60s, including the GTO motor, was involved with the cylinder head development of the Gilera 500 four cylinder. The MV is so close to the Gilera Grand prix motor as to be a copy with increased capacity. Very few classic motorcycles have this pedigree and provenance, as well as being raced by Phil Read, Mike Hailwood, Agostini and many, many other legends. The MV also looks like a work of art, even standing still it looks like it’s about to lurch forward at high speed. These machines would not look out of place next to a Picasso, or any other artist that captures beauty with skill and simplicity. Although manufacturers are building extremely high-cost motorcycles in small numbers, there will never be a time when such machines are built again. The same is true of Ducati’s bevel drive series of machines, never again will we witness such stunning engineering. There’s a brutal rawness, purpose, grace and elegance in these classic motorcycles that will never be repeated again. Now really is the time to pick up an investment grade example while they can be bought at these values. When you sit astride an MV and start the motor, you know you’re on something extremely special. The sound from the engine is unique and heads always turn when they’re fired up. Whenever you park an MV, crowds gather, point and stare as the colourful petrol tank catches their attention and then the complete package just draws them in.
MV Agusta 750 Sport is the 1930s Alfa Romeo 8C of classic motorcycles
The MV Agusta 750 Sport is the 1930s Alfa Romeo 8C of classic motorcycles and the last 8C to sell went for around US$19,000,000 as you can see here. When the MV Agusta 750 Sport goes to even 20% of the value of these cars, owners stand to enjoy a very healthy tax free (in the UK) profit from these machines. At the end of 2022 one requiring a full frame off restoration sold for £98,000 at H and H auctions here. The machine was so corroded that every single nut, bolt and component required completely restoring. The engine “required re-commissioning”, so it wasn’t running, and quite probably a full rebuild. If the machine really had 2,222 miles then it had surely been raced judging by the state of it. The corrosion all over the motorcycle was so bad that it had definitely lived outside in the UK for many years. There was no due diligence at all with the machine and the usual auction terms and conditions apply…sold as seen on site with no come back whatsoever. Buying at auction is a risky business, unless you want to believe what you hope you’re seeing. This is not to criticise H and H or any other auction house, they sell a lot of classic motorcycles. My personal opinion is that auctions are not the best places to buy investment grade classic motorcycles which is why I don’t buy there for clients. Some people have got bargains in the past, but if a machine is investment grade, why sell it at auction when there’s plenty of buyers paying strong money through brokers? You pay your money and you take your chances, just bear in mind that there are no bargains left in this market, you have to pay market rate for the best.
Buying an investment grade MV Agusta 750 sport with confidence
Buying an investment grade MV Agusta 750 sport with confidence is not as straight forward as most people believe. You can take your chances, I know of some beautiful looking examples at great prices, but I would never buy any of them for my customers. We are classic motorcycle investment brokers and we only work with investment grade examples of all machines. We do not move as much metal as possible irrespective of its state, no matter how good it appears, as you can see in this article. These machines always need a lot of work to set them up and then they’re inexpensive to maintain once that is done. They need a lot of due diligence and those all-important original parts need to be present. You won’t find the information about these machines to acquire them in investment grade condition through books or the internet. Investment grade examples come from the right connections and a lot of experience. We have been working with these machines since the mid 1990s and have connections to serious collectors throughout the world. We also have trustworthy buyers all over the world who inspection via video link under our instruction. We have repaired these machines when owners have gone to everyone they know and given up and we are passionate about them. If you want to buy an MV Agusta 750 Sport from the 1970s, and to be sure it’s an investment grade example, call The Motorcycle Broker.
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