Buddy Stubbs has legendary status when it comes to motorcycles in Phoenix, Arizona, and the 1963 winner of the Daytona 100 and long-time Harley-Davidson dealer has consigned 30 machines from his personal collection to Mecum Auctions’ inaugural Phoenix sale.
The sale is scheduled for March 14-17 at State Farm Stadium in northwest suburban Glendale, not far from Stubbs’ Historical Motorcycle Museum on Cave Creek Road in Phoenix.
Stubbs, who was born in 1939, grew up in downstate Illinois, where his father had a motorcycle dealership and where Buddy became a Harley-Davidson mechanic. Stubbs’ father raced in hill climb events and Buddy followed suit, though in track events.
Buddy’s racing took him to the West Coast, where he did stunt riding for Hollywood. He won the prestigious Daytona race in 1963 and three years later opened the first Harley-Davidson franchise in the Valley of the Sun (that dealership later expanded to provide three locations for sales and service).
His museum includes more than 130 motorcycles from nearly 40 different manufacturers.
The motorcycles he’s consigned to the Mecum sale range in age from an unrestored, 98,500-mile 1915 Excelsior Twin Cylinder with a Goulding side car to a never-ridden 2007 Harley-Davidson Sportster XL50, No. 30 of 2,000 produced that model year. Stubbs bought the ’15 Excelsior in New Zealand from the original owner, who had imported it from Ignaz Schwinn in Chicago.
The consignment also includes a 2002 Gurney Alligator, the eighth of the 36 produced by Dan Gurney. Powered by a Honda 708cc single-overhead-cam engine, the 140 mph bike has been ridden fewer than 850 miles since new.
Among others are a 1934 Brought Superior Model 1150 restored by Bob Shanz, former editor of Cycle magazine, a 1970 Indian Enfield Floyd Clymer Twin 750 built by Clymer in 1970 not long before his death at age 74, and a 1949 Norton International Clubman restored by famed Hollywood stunt rider Bud Ekins and ridden daily by Von Dutch when he worked in Ekins shop.
To see all of the Stubbs consignment, visit the Mecum website.
Read more about Mecum’s Phoenix auction:
- • What Bob wants at inaugural Mecum Arizona auction
- • Ford or Chevy? Mecum Phoenix consignments have both covered
- • Bill Burke’s Bonneville Streamliner heading to Mecum Phoenix
- • Unique 1932 Duesenberg Model J headlines Mecum’s Arizona sale
- • Mecum expands Phoenix auction again, expecting 1,250 cars
