1913 Sears Dreadnought Nine – $85,000 (Sold)

SELLER SAYS: Imported from the USA in May 2013, this bike is club-licensed. The engine is an 1157cc V-twin single-speed with an eclipse clutch and 9hp Spacke Deluxe engine and Musselman coaster brake. The Sears and Roebuck were catalogue bikes delivered COD to you by rail with no agents. They were $189 brand new. Contact Robert on 0418 xxx xxx SOLD to a reader in Sweden (Albany, Western Australia).

EDITOR TERLICK SAYS: This is one for the motorcycle collector who thought he’d seen and owned everything. I have a crystal-clear memory of the first time I saw this Sears Dreadnought of Bob’s, in his garage. The not-so-subtle colour scheme was one of the reasons it caught my eye, but a closer look and learning of the bike’s back-story made it all the more fascinating. As Bob notes in his comments, this was a catalogue bike. The Sears company of America sold every imaginable thing through its string of department stores (think Myer) and via a printed catalogue (think Amazon-in-print, circa 1910).

Many of its products carried the Sears brand name, including the Dreadnought which was built from high-quality off-the-shelf components sourced from various manufacturers (think Bimota). The 1157cc V-twin engine, for example, came from a company called Spacke. The same engine could be seen at the front-end of the Spacke Cycle Car of the same era, in which these new-fangled machines travelled roads alongside horses and carts. The Dreadnought was in production from 1912 to 1916. I couldn’t find any information on total production numbers, but Wikipedia reckons there were only about ten examples known to still exist in 2001, making this an incredibly rare motorcycle. I also went hunting for any recent sales. Not surprisingly, there weren’t many to be found — but I did find one here.

If you look closely at Bob’s bike you will see pushbike-style pedals. You pedal forwards to make it go, and pedal backwards to make it stop. Yes, this bike pre-dates kickstart levers, and rolled off the production line just a year after the sinking of the Titanic. What a find. FOOTNOTE: The name ‘Dreadnought’ comes from an English battleship which so redefined battleships that early ones are now referred to as either dreadnought-style or pre-dreadnought sty;le. The original steam-powered HMS Dreadnought was 160m long, carried 800 crew, and was good for 21 knots. In 1906! The HMS Dreadnought was sold for scrap in 1921, but Bob’s Sears Dreadnought is still with us.