HomeMediaUpdate: Jerry Lee Lewis’ Harley hits $385k at auction

Update: Jerry Lee Lewis’ Harley hits $385k at auction

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The ’59 Harley owned by Jerry Lee Lewis was a star vehicle at the Florida auction | Dan Duckworth/Mecum
The ’59 Harley owned by Jerry Lee Lewis was a star vehicle at the Florida auction | Dan Duckworth/Mecum

Although the pristine 1959 Harley-Davidson FLH owned by rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis failed to achieve the forecast million-dollar mark Saturday at Mecum’s auction in Kissimmee, Florida, it did sell for a resounding $385,000, including auction fee.

The Harley has just over 2,000 miles on its odometer and until its sale was owned since new by Lewis, 79, who appeared with the motorcycle during the bidding. The celebrity provenance approximately tripled the inherent value of the desirable and highly original full-dress Harley.

Before the Florida sale, auction founder and chief Dana Mecum estimated that the motorcycle would cross into the seven-figure range, an extreme rarity for any two-wheeler.

“This could be the $1 million motorcycle,” Mecum said in a news release prior to the event.

The result for the Harley was the eighth-highest vehicle sale so far during the huge Kissimmee event, which boasted around 3,000 vehicles at auction.

The ’59 Harley FLH with its iconic Panhead V-twin engine was presented as a gift to Jerry Lee by Harley-Davidson, which gave a second one to another famous ‘50s rock star, Elvis Presley.

The highest known price ever achieved for a motorcycle happened in October when the “Captain America” Harley-Davidson chopper purportedly used in the movie Easy Rider was sold at auction for $1.35 million, even though its authenticity was in question.

Read the earlier story about Jerry Lee Lewis’ motorcycle at Million-dollar Harley? 

Bob Golfen
Bob Golfen
Bob Golfen is a longtime automotive writer and editor, focusing on new vehicles, collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle. He is the former automotive writer and editor for The Arizona Republic and SPEED.com, the website for the SPEED motorsports channel. He has written free-lance articles for a number of publications, including Autoweek, The New York Times and Barrett-Jackson auction catalogs. A collector car enthusiast with a wide range of knowledge about the old cars that we all love and desire, Bob enjoys tinkering with archaic machinery. His current obsession is a 1962 Porsche 356 Super coupe.

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