In Monterey, Last Call for a Landmark Bar\'s Former Tenants

By NICK CZAP

SAN FRANCISCO - The origins of the restaurant proprietor are shrouded in myth.

In one telling, while serving in the French Foreign Legion, Henry Africa, born Norman Hobday, had a vision to open a bar and grill in San Francisco with motorcycles hanging from the ceiling.

In a version with fewer evocations of Lawrence of Arabia, a restaurateur and antiques enthusiast bought an Indian motorcycle that he placed on display at his bar. The move generated sufficient enthusiasm among patrons that the proprietor went on a bit of a buying spree.

Indisputable is the variety represented in the collection, consigned by Bonhams after Mr. Hobday, the former owner of Eddie Rickenbacker's, the restaurant in this city's SoMa district named after the World War I flying ace, died last year. The collection will be auctioned at the Quail Lodge in Monterey on Aug. 16, during the collector-car festivities organized around the Pebble Beach Co ncours d'Élégance.

On this menu, the 30 machines that previously hung from the rafters and balanced on beams at the landmark watering hole are offered à la carte.

According to Nick Smith, the head of the auction house's motorcycle division, the collection reflects the varied taste of an enthusiast rather than an expert and includes diverse specimens like a 1902 Peugeot motorbicycle, a 1917 Harley-Davidson Model F and a 1952 Moto Guzzi Falcone.

The technicians in Bonhams' detailing shop had their work cut out for them. Decades of exposure to the atmosphere of Eddie Rickenbacker's cocooned the bikes in layers of grease, dust and tobacco tar, Mr. Smith said, beneath which they were protectively pickled.

Asked in a telephone interview whether he had an affinity for a particular model, Mr. Smith said he had his eye on a bathtub-style 1959 Triumph, an effort on the part of the British marque to build a motorcycle that resembled a scooter. But for the col lector looking for value in a motorcycle “as old as the hills and delicate and beautiful as early machines are,” Mr. Smith suggested a 1919 Triumph Model H that he expected to sell for about $10,000 to $12,000. “It couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, but it's a lovely thing to putter about on,” he said.