Classic Style Australia
If you’ve been reading JUST BIKES for a number of years, you’re certain to be familiar with Classic Style Australia.
Founded and run by the affable Jon Munn, Classic Style Australia started small back in 1996, but it’s safe to say now that the business is BIG. Don’t believe us? Call into the warehouse at 34 Peninsula Blvd, Seaford and you’re sure to be impressed!
Buyer, Seller, Collector
Like most businesses, Classic Style Australia started from humble beginnings, but Jon’s passion for motorcycles and motorcycling of all flavours has been the key to the business’s growth and success.
While buying and selling is his business, Jon’s a collector, too. And when we say ‘collector’, we mean it in bold capital letters! Even the most jaded motorcycle enthusiast is certain to be blown away by the collection of 400 + motorcycles in the Seaford warehouse.
A huge range of rare and collectible bikes is for sale, too; from both the pre- and post-WWII era. The bikes range from immaculate show-winners to projects ready for restoration and everything in between, so there’s something in stock to suit just about every enthusiast’s taste and budget.
While bikes from around the globe come and go through the warehouse, Jon confesses an affinity for illustrious brands from the UK: BSA, Norton and Triumph are particular favourites.
Jon makes regular trips overseas to purchase and source fresh stock, so the floor display is always changing, too. At any given time, the warehouse could resemble a museum of motorcycling history, with rare finds such as a Rudge (discontinued 1946) or Vincent (discontinued 1955) hidden away.
Various oddities and forgotten marques from motorcycling history can be found on the showroom floor, too, but sometimes, the truly quirky stuff remains in Jon’s possession – Sinclair C5, anyone?
Jon’s customer base doesn’t end at our shores, either. With his thick accent and English charm, Jon has fans all over the world, including multiple Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who will call in to the two-wheel nirvana at Classic Style Australia when he isn’t flying around the Albert Park circuit.
Jon tells us that Vettel recently had his eye on a stunning ’65 BSA Lightning Clubman that was a concours winner at last year’s Motorclassica, but Jon remains adamant he won’t part with it – not even for an F1 champ!
Jon the Racer
A read through Jon’s background and you realise that a career in buying and selling bikes has been a natural progression.
Back in the UK in the 1970s, Jon was living life in the fast lane, racing in the British Superbike Championship; an ultra-competitive series back then, just as it is now. Jon won his first BSB championship in 1978, then backed up to reclaim the title in 1980.
That same year, Jon also added quarter-mile competition to his racing repertoire. Proving to be just as adept in a straight line as he was at going around corners (including a best quarter mile of 8.02 seconds) Jon scored the UK’s ‘Motorcycle Drag Racer of the Year’ award for 1980.
With a racing history as long and accomplished as his, its little wonder Jon stayed in the industry – doing what he knows and loves: “I’ve got the best job in the world, my business is my hobby.”
Travelling Man
With a love of motorcycles comes the love of motorcycle travel. For the past nine years, Jon has made an annual pilgrimage to the USA – not to Sturgis, Daytona, or the usual “known” motorcycling hotspots – but instead to San Francisco, where he enjoys a more laid back and less hectic ride meeting at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club; a group that can trace its origins back to 1904.
Each US summer, Jon joins approximately 120 others on a 1,000 mile road trip through California that takes in the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, the orchards and redwoods of the Napa Valley, and the awe-inspiring natural beauty of Yosemite National Park.
Despite doing the ride several times now, Jon says he never gets tired if it and recommends it as a ‘bucket list’ item for any true motorcycle travel enthusiast.
“The views are amazing,” Jon explains. “The winding roads though the mountains are simply breathtaking, but they’re not for the faint of heart - some roads are so narrow that you can see over the edge… and the drops are huge! But it’s an incredible ride.”
Call in to Classic
While a trip through California may be some time away for many of us, a visit to the Classic Style Australia warehouse is much easier to achieve.
You will also find Jon at the Motorclassica event in Melbourne each October, where he enters – and usually wins! – the concours competition with one of the beautiful machines from his collection.
If you’re in the hunt for a classic motorcycle, be it rare or common, ride-ready or ripe for restoration, Jon is the man – or should that be the ‘Munn’? - to talk to!
Call Classic Style Australia on (03) 9773 5500, email: [email protected] or go to: <a href="www.classicstyle.com.au">www.classicstyle.com.au</a>
