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Sir Jimmy Savile's bicycle collection up for auction in Leeds later this month

Bicycles belonging to late DJ and one-time pro cyclist go under the hammer

A collection of bicycles belonging to the late DJ, TV personality and charity fundraiser Sir Jimmy Savile, who was also briefly a professional cyclist riding the first edition of the Tour of Britain, is to go under the hammer at an auction in his home city of Leeds on 30 July.

Details of the bicycles put up for sale by the estate of Sir Jimmy, who died last October, have been posted in an online catologue by auctioneers Dreweatts.

Among the lots on sale are an Oscar Egg bike bought by Sir Jimmy to replace the original on which he rode the 1951 Tour of Britain, according to the ctalogue description. Included with that bike are the original race numbers that he wore during that event, with the lot attracting the highest estimate of £400 to £600.

Other bikes on sale included two Viking racing bicycles, each estimated to fetch between £200 and £300.

The auction comes at the end of a month which also sees the inaugural edition of the Sir Jimmy Savile Cycle Challenge which is based in Scarborough, the town where he is buried, and further information on that event, which takes place on Saturday 14 July, can be found here. Entries close this Friday 6 July.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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17 comments

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Low Speed Wobble | 11 years ago
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I bet these bikes no longer seem like such a bargain to whoever bought them. Monster.

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farrell | 11 years ago
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Jimmy Saville was also responsible for one of the most bizarre photographs in existence.

It is a photo of Jimmy Saville smoking a cigar in front of a 'No-Smoking' sign whilst Frank Bruno shakes hands with what looks like a poor mans Macho Man Randy Savage but is in fact the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00740/SNN2501Asutcliffe_74091...

Nuts.

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Kirky | 11 years ago
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The Oscar Egg? Lot 41.....

We resprayed and rebuilt that for Sir Jim when I worked at Bob Jackson Cycles.

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robert_obrien | 11 years ago
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He also invented time travel 'Now then now then now then' very quickly with the yodelling noise announcing his reappearance in the present.

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robert_obrien | 11 years ago
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Is there a Jim'll Fixie?

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OldRidgeback | 11 years ago
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That titanium framed Raleigh is on for a song. It has to be said that the inability of the auction company to spell so many names correctly (Charlton, Dalian), get basic wheel sizes wrong and put such low starting prices on what are clearly decent bikes with provenance does rather bring into question the level of professionalism involved.

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pedalpowerDC | 11 years ago
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As for things being undervalued, I'm not sure how much value Sir Jimmy's name adds to a POS Falcon MTB that would otherwise be worth about £30, but I can't imagine 10x.

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pedalpowerDC | 11 years ago
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Okay. Those auction house idiots get a failing grade for even being able to read the words printed on the bikes, parts, or tape measures, with which they apparently measured the wheels.

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WolfieSmith | 11 years ago
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Some lovely bikes there. Wish I had some spare cash. The prices should go much higher. I imagine Sir Paul Smith eyeing a couple. The purple Ti bike would look good in his Floral St office.

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jimc101 | 11 years ago
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The auctions listing look like really bad ebay ones, most way under valued, esp the Dahian(sp).

Dahon's should go close to retail, yet the MTB isn't much more than a BSO, yet still valued the same as the road bikes.

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cat1commuter | 11 years ago
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Still can't get my head around Jimmy Savile being a pro cyclist.

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farrell replied to cat1commuter | 11 years ago
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cat1commuter wrote:

Still can't get my head around Jimmy Savile being a pro cyclist.

That's nothing, he also invented DJing by being the first person to stick two turntables together so he could mix between two records, effectively he created 12" versions of songs.

The phrase Je mais s'avile is French for "I will fix it".

(One of these isnt true)

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Sadly Biggins replied to farrell | 11 years ago
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farrell wrote:

The phrase Je mais s'avile is French for "I will fix it".

I thought it was French for "now then, now then, what have we here?"

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jackh | 11 years ago
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These bikes seem pretty cheap, no?

To my relatively untrained eye I would say they are worth far more than the 200-300 guide price.

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harman_mogul | 11 years ago
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What caught my eye was the 12-volume first edition of Anthony Powell's "A Dance to the Music of Time"...estimated sale price nearly as much the entire collection of bikes! But it is not from Sir Jimmy's estate.

Cheaper by far, surely, to read it on a Kindle.

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brakesmadly | 11 years ago
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Whoever wrote those Lot descriptions wants shooting:
Gant = Giant,Delotion = Peloton, Campagnola = Campagnolo, Vettageland = Vetta gel, Charlton = Carlton, and apparently they all have 26" wheels.

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Some Fella | 11 years ago
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Some nice jerseys in there too.

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