John Lennon's 1969 Honda Monkey Bike To Be Auctioned

A Honda Monkey bike used by John Lennon is expected to fetch more than 30,000 GBP (over Rs. 25 lakh), when it goes to auction in March. The 1969 Honda Z50A K1 'Short Tail' was owned by Lennon from 1969 to 1971, when he used it as a runaround in his country house in Surrey, England. The bike was sold by Lennon in 1971 to Henry Graham, the same year the Beatle moved to New York. Graham in turn sold the bike to its current owner John Harington the same year. Over the past 47 years, Harington had displayed the bike at various events and shows.

An unddated photograph of John Lennon riding the bike

The Honda Z50A was the second generation of Honda's Z50 series of mini bikes. The bike was powered by a 49 cc, air-cooled, four-stroke, overhead cam engine with a three-speed, semi-automatic transmission. The Z50A was renamed the Z50J in 1973 and remained on the market in Europe and Japan till 1999.

Lennon's Monkey Bike will be offered by H&H Classics at the March 4 National Motorcycle Museum Motorcycle Auction. The bike is reported to be largely unrestored and in original running condition with a mileage of just 1,460 miles (2360 km) on the odo. This is not the first of John Lennon's bike to come up for auction. In 2008, a Honda 160Z bike, which was later owned by Ringo Starr, sold at auction for 30,000 GBP (over Rs. 25 lakh), far more than its estimated auction price of 8,000 GBP (over Rs. 6.5 lakh).