Harley-Davidson built its last Knucklehead engine in 1947. Gooding Christie's early-consignment list for its first New York auction includes a "2008 Harley-Davidson EL Knuckehead," typo and all, and it comes from Billy Joel.It is one of more than 70 motorcycles from Joel's collection that Gooding Christie's will sell without reserve on Nov. 20 and 21 at the Javits Center, during the first Retromobile New York. The auction house announced the consignment in a Sept. 28 press release. Select bikes will be on display at Christie's Rockefeller Center from Oct. 8 to 12.A 2008 Knucklehead makes more sense once you read how Joel describes his own bikes. The website of 20th Century Cycles, the Oyster Bay, N.Y., shop that houses the collection, says he thinks vintage motorcycles look better and modern ones work better, so every bike in it has been reworked into a rideable machine "with a nod toward the past." The shop's gallery files this one as an "08 20th Century Knucklehead." Next to it is an "09 20th Century Panhead," which Gooding lists as a 2009 Thunderdome 1949 Panhead.Billy Joel with some of his motorcycles in 1981. Photo: Dan Weaks, courtesy of the Billy Joel Archives via Gooding Christie'sThree published estimatesThe release prices three bikes. Nothing else from the collection has a public estimate yet.1978 Triumph T140 Bonneville: $10,000 to $15,000. Custom-painted and given to Joel by Madison Square Garden for his 150th sold-out show there, with a matching helmet listing every show and year he played the Garden.1982 Ducati 900 Mike Hailwood Replica: $15,000 to $25,000. Ducati's tribute to the bike Hailwood rode to his 1978 Isle of Man comeback win.1975 Ducati 750 Sport: $25,000 to $35,000, described as restored.Gooding's sale page sets the buyer's premium at 12% on vehicle lots up to $250,000, so the Bonneville at its high estimate costs $16,800 before tax and transport. Madison Square Garden's own announcement put Joel's 150th lifetime show there on July 25, 2024, the night his residency ended. The Garden marked the occasion with a motorcycle that was already 46 years old.The 750 Sport is the lot most likely to be confused with something more expensive. Gooding sold a 1974 750 Super Sport for $190,400 at its Pebble Beach auction in August, part of a record Monterey week. The Super Sport used desmodromic valve gear, in which cams close the valves as well as open them, and Gooding's lot description says Ducati built 401. The Sport shares the bevel-drive 750 V-twin but closes its valves with springs. Joel's top estimate is less than a fifth of that Pebble Beach result.Joel with three of his Harley-Davidsons. Photo courtesy of the Billy Joel Archives via Gooding Christie'sWhat the listings leave outGooding's lot pages carry no descriptions yet. The auction house says the full catalogue arrives in late October. The early list also mixes Joel's motorcycles with cars from other consignors, including a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider and a 1925 Miller 122, and it doesn't mark which bikes came from Oyster Bay. Several motorcycles on it are recent: a 2021 Honda Super Cub, a 2018 Yamaha TW200 and a 2019 Royal Enfield Interceptor 650.The two sources don't always agree on model years. Joel's gallery files the Moto Guzzi Eldorado as a '73 and the Le Mans as a '78. Gooding lists a 1972 Eldorado and a 1977 Le Mans 1. The Deus Ex Machina-built Kawasaki W650 is a 2000 on the shop's site and a 1999 at Gooding.That matters more than usual here. Every bike in this collection has been changed "in one way or another," in the shop's words, and none of it has a reserve. On a Knucklehead titled in 2008 or a Guzzi with two candidate birth years, the frame and engine numbers and the year on the title are what a bidder is buying. Those are the first lines to read when the catalogue posts, and the first things to check in person at Christie's or the Javits preview.The shop's gallery also shows a Vincent Rapide, which doesn't appear in Gooding's early list. The site counts "75+" bikes, the release says "over 70," and neither says whether Joel is keeping any. The 20th Century Cycles site still lists weekend visiting hours at 101 Audrey Avenue.Why he is sellingThe release doesn't give a reason. On May 23, 2025, Joel canceled all of his scheduled concerts after a diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus, which his statement said had caused problems with hearing, vision and balance.Gooding says the consignor "intends" to use the proceeds to support The Joel Foundation, which he runs with his wife, Alexis, and which backs music education, health, humanitarian and environmental nonprofits. The release doesn't name an amount. Joel's own line in it is that he has always liked bikes built by people who cared about getting every detail right.The first chance to see any of them outside Oyster Bay is Oct. 8 at Rockefeller Center. The catalogue, with the frame numbers and the answers on those model years, is due in late October, and bidding opens at the Javits Center on Nov. 20. Would you bid on the Madison Square Garden Bonneville for its history, or on the 2008 Knucklehead built to look six decades older?Sources: Gooding Christie's press release (Sept. 28, 2026), Retromobile New York sale page and lot listings; 20th Century Cycles website; Madison Square Garden Entertainment; billyjoel.com statement of May 23, 2025.
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