Collectibles covers wide arena of topic, with some just a few dollars and others into tens of thousands of dollars or more. Much more! One area within the arena of collecting cars and autos that often gets overlooked is vintage motorcycles. A fresh move by industry leader Harley-Davidson, Inc. (HOG) may have just brought up all sorts of new excitement to new motorcycle buyers and older motorcycles alike. It could open up vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycles up to a whole new generation that has so far shunned it.

Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE: HOG) issued a press release on Monday that LiveWire will become the first publicly traded electric vehicle motorcycle company in the United States. LiveWire is Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle division. The division is being carved out and will be merged into special purpose acquisition company AEA-Bridges Impact Corp. (NYSE: IMPX).

According to the combined press release, the LiveWire/ABIC entity is expected to have pro forma enterprise value of approximately $1.77 billion. The combined company will trade under the “LVW” stock ticker upon completion. The news must be good for the companies because “HOG” shares were up more than 10% and “IMPX” shares (the ABIC SPAC) shares had traded up 5% on the news.

The net proceeds of this deal will be $545 million and is shown to fund LiveWire’s strategic plan. This includes accelerating its go-to-market model, invest in new product development, and enhance global manufacturing & distribution capabilities. While some of this may initially seem like a stock investor issue, the aspect that CollectorsDashboard is focused on is whether or not this will open up a new generation to collecting Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

One issue facing Harley-Davidson’s image is that it has been considered “old school” in a world that is migrating toward electric vehicles. Much of its core customer base in the last decade was also reaching the point in life that riding a motorcycle was just too dangerous.

Harley-Davidson had announced its own EV efforts in the past. This was discounted as a novelty initially. This new combination will make LiveWire potentially a much more independent EV-focused operation that can just go after a younger client base that may still want the open road and being safer for the environment.

Another key aspect to consider for the future of Harley-Davidson and other motorcycle makers is that Millennials and younger buyers of today were the first to basically not be addicted to car ownership. The rise of Uber and Lyft took away the need for urban and suburban car ownership for millions of people who would have been car-buyers in prior generations. Let’s just say that the trends weren’t looking great for gas-guzzling motorcycles where accidents at even 15 miles per hour can be fatal or life-changing. And besides that, have you ever tried to check text messages or send snaps riding a Harley down the road at 45 miles per hour?

As for collectibles and motorcycles, the most expensive Harley-Davidson motorcycle was “Captain America.” This was Peter Fonda’s character motorcycle from the 1969 movie “Easy Rider.” It was reported to have sold for $1.35 million, but that sale was several years ago.

Another top-priced example was the Harley Davidson Bucherer Blue Edition. The 2018 bike was modelled on the Harley Davidson Softail Slim S and was a partnership between Swiss jeweler and watchmaker Carl Bucherer and custom bike shop Bundnerbike. A report from Australia had listed it as A$2.4M — which is about $1.7 million in current exchange terms.

And for extreme collectibles, here are some of the Harley-Davidson motorcycles that have been sold by Heritage Auctions:

Arnold Schwarzenegger screen-used 1991 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy motorcycle from Terminator 2: Judgment Day — sold for $480,000.00 in June 2018.

Sylvester Stallone “Rocky Balboa Italian Stallion” Harley-Davidson motorcycle from Rocky III — sold for $312,500.00 in September 2019.

The age-reasoning issue is not exactly a new topic. CNBC had reported in 2019 that Harley-Davidson and the classic American motorcycle may fall victim to Millennials. And in 2019, Reuters had reported even then that Harley-Davidson was hunting for younger riders to fill its gap.

Harley-Davidson is a company that has been considered buyout bait in the past. Its stock peaked above $70 back in 2006/07 before the great recession. It then again peaked above $70 in 2014. The long-term stock chart below (from E*TRADE) versus the current price should offer some insight. The EV-merger news with a gain of more than 10% barely had the stock back above $40 per share. This should let you know it has some issues attracting customers like it used to.

It is very fair to expect that some will question whether a new generation of Moto-EV buyers will want to own old gas-guzzling classics as collectibles. Maybe they just have to be shown that they can make money off the buying and selling of them as collectibles. Or maybe they just have to be shown that the collectible aspect implies that there are more buyers in general. And hey, at least the company isn’t trying to launch a perfume again.

Whether this all translates into a younger generation of buyers looking at classic motorcycles is something that will have to play out in the years ahead.