Original BSA Triumph X-75 Hurricane fetches £27,000 at auction
The Triumph X-75 Hurricane 'works prototype' has been auctioned by H&H Classics to the National Motorcycle Museum, where the bike is now on display.
THE National Motorcycle Museum has announced that H&H Classics has auctioned to the museum the Triumph X-75 Hurricane ‘works prototype’.
Complete with a BSA Owners’ Club Dating Certificate to prove its authenticity, the Triumph Hurricane X-75 ‘works prototype’ was auctioned to the National Motorcycle Museum for £27,000.
Built in 1971, the motorcycle's design was the result of the vision of Craig Vetter, who had been commissioned by BSA to revolutionise its A75 model to make it more fitting for an American cruiser market.
The Hurricane X-75 had been in the care of John Simmonds since 1983, whose passing left the bike in search of a new home. As H&H Classics puts it, “what better home [for the X-75] than a museum dedicated to protecting the legacy of iconic motorcycles.”
James Hewing, museum director at the National Motorcycle Museum, said, “In our quest to source the best vehicles for our collection, it's important that we partner with an auction house that consistently offers high-quality lots and impeccable service. H&H Classics has an enviable and longstanding reputation in the industry, and our recent acquisition of the Hurricane X-75 through them is a testament to that. The dedication and expertise of their team is unparalleled."
The Hurricane X-75 is now of course available to be viewed at the National Motorcycle Museum, which will also host H&H’s next motorcycle auction on 15 November.
This article was originally published on 20 June 2023, and was updated on 24 August 2023 with the above text. The original article can be read below.
ICONIC models of classic British motorcycles are commanding high prices at the moment, and this prototype ‘Triumph’ BSA X75 Hurricane might be one of the most eye-catching we’ve seen in a while.
The bike you can see here is all the more interesting, given technically the X-75 Hurricane had a Triumph model when it eventually landed in dealerships, although that wasn’t the original plan for the bike. It came about when an American US BSA dealer asked fibreglass and fairing specialist Craig Vetter to modify the BSA Rocket 3 to make it more appealing to the cruiser-loving American rider. The result of this work was the actual bike you can see here, hence the BSA decals emblazoned on the machine’s fuel tank.
What happened next though would switch the pathway of the bike, and prototype X-75 landed in the UK for the first time, the doors at the BSA plant were rolled down and production was stopped.
The story goes that after some positive feedback from potential customers in the UK, Triumph's top brass eventually changed their opinion on the outlandish (for the time) looking model, and switched the branding on the bike to denote it as a Triumph model and set it into the US market - with only a handful coming to the UK officially. Not only did the X-75 help to grow the brand's reach across the pond, but Triumph (which was at this time effectively joined to the now defunct BSA brand) was also sitting on a pile of BSA parts that the X-75 would hoover up quite nicely.
Production didn’t last long though, and it’s thought only around 1,000 of the bikes were ever built, making it a fairly rare bike in its own right. This bike though, a 1:1 version of this already limited run of bikes, represents an exclusive chance to own a very interesting bike.
Original ‘Triumph’ BSA X-75 Hurricane prototype up for sale
This bike is being sold after being in the ownership of the late John Simmonds and it remains the only road-going BSA Vetter Rocket 3 known to exist.
Adding to the intrigue of this particular model, the Vetter-built prototype includes a number of elements that are not shared with the rest of the publicly available production run. The fuel tank, which really is the most striking feature of the model, is first and foremost not the same and features a different capacity and side panels to the rest of the bikes produced. It also has a slightly different geometry, with a steeper steering head angle found on the prototype machine. It also features a different headlight bracket and a different ‘seamless’ exhaust.
The bike is being offered with its original TKX 33M V5 and its current EBW172J V5C.
You can view the bike over on the H&H Classics website.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
