1928 Windhoff

Bonhams’ high-profile auctions usually throw up some surprises. But few are as big as this one. Most vintage motorcycles worth more than $100,000 are pretty well known, but have you ever heard of the German brand Windhoff? Me neither. Yet this restored 1928 example, fresh from a private museum, is expected to sell for between $145,000 and $190,000.

Hans Windhoff’s company went out of business in 1933, a victim of Germany’s economic travails, and few of his creations survive.