“
Pick up a Brough Superior
in a barn and you’ve got
yourself a winner...
BARN FINDS
I
am continually intrigued, fascinated (and
prone to pangs of jealousy) every time I
encounter an episode of that “How much
you want for that?” television show called
American Pickers.
I am also often in awe... in awe of how much
stuff is actually out there in the great landscape
of sheds, stores, garages and barns across
the US. Because, as it becomes very clear
night after night, week after week, that a lot of
people, an extraordinary number of people,
have been collecting... stuff.
All their lives. And they put it away. For no
reason in most cases, other than nostalgia or
‘family’ reasons. Or that they simply don’t want
to sell or give anything away. That is until the
‘picker’ duo come-a-calling.
The intriguing part, for a non-picker like me
who can’t really recognise a true collectible, is
what these guys target. They stumble through
great sheds stacked with some fascinating and
colourfully diverse old things and then decide
that a street sign, or some strange looking
70 KIWI RIDER
WORDS: Roger Moroney
PHOTO: Ben Wilkins
hand tool, is what it takes to spark them to
open their chequebooks. And if they come
across a restored pedal car originally built 60
years ago they aren’t too fussed... but if it was
still in a pre-restored battered and rusted state
they would be fussed.
I don’t get it... which is why I do not have any
collectible “stuff” lying about.
Mind you, I’ve got a postcard from the late
Barry Sheene and a cap Giacomo Agostini once
wore and signed. Neither are for sale, I should
add.
It’s when the picker pair start sniffing around
old motorcycles that raises my interest
because again, it is remarkable what is still
stored away out there. Out there in sheds far
from the beaten track. Possessed by old chaps
who knew they were “out there somewhere”,
but never really pursued the option of
restoring them. Grand old Indians, Harley-
Davidsons, Nortons, Brough Superiors and
Vincents... in various states of disrepair after
being kept in silence for many decades.
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