Mike Wolfe’s story is one bound together with arcane tales of the hunt—a quest to locate and rescue some of the most legendary and long-forgotten relics of yesteryear, uncovering motorcycles and bicycles hidden in fields, cellars and rafters that were unknowingly designated as time capsules, their archaic badges and worn rubber waiting to be uncovered and itching to see the light of day—and potentially pavement—once again. Some of these motorcycles, such as the Harley-Davidsons and Indians, are legends among the antique and vintage motorcycle-collector community, existing as hallowed machines that give a reason for the hunt and an excuse for Wolfe to feed his obsession with the lost and obscure.
What has evolved from one curious young child roaming the back alleys of Bettendorf, Iowa, into a massive collection of some of the world’s rarest and most highly sought-after motorcycles, has now turned into a once-in-a-lifetime offering christened The As Found Collection, an assemblage containing more than 70 two-wheeled icons, all from Mike Wolfe’s private collection and, for the very first time, prepared to impress a new set of owners as they cross the auction block in Las Vegas at Mecum’s 32nd annual Vintage & Antique Motorcycle Auction.
Unlike many who absorbed their motorcycling interests from outside influences such as a family member or a nearby whirring race track, creator and star of the TV show “American Pickers” Mike Wolfe said his own attraction to the hobby was born strictly out of curiosity and the possession of an unquenched thirst for the hidden jewels that await. Raised in Bettendorf, Iowa, Wolfe found the path to his future fate at just four years old while strolling down alleyways—a habit that provided a glimpse into a backroads type of world of endless picking possibilities and a place where his eye for relics first magnified the potential that abandoned items presented.
The young Wolfe fell in love with tossed “junk” one day while walking to school, stumbling upon an old bicycle someone had carelessly abandoned. “I saw older kids riding by the house, but my family could never afford one, and then I found that bike. It was an adult bike,” Wolfe laughed. “I could barely even get on the thing, but I fell in love with it. It expanded my world. I couldn’t believe someone would throw it out,” Wolfe said, reminiscing on a moment that would define the very future of his picking explorations. While the intrigued child was caught like a shoelace on a shift lever for the self-propelled transportation, he’d find every reason to continue combing through dumpsters in search of the next big discovery. “Once, I found a huge box of STP stickers. Stickers are like money when you’re a kid—you’d trade them for this or that. At the time, I had no idea what STP was. I just knew that the big box was gold.”
