The ones that are the most collectible, the ones that really buzz me, the ones that have great stories behind them, instead of just the nuts and bolts. You could say it’s not the hardware, it’s the history.

Is acquiring race bikes especially challenging?

Every race motorcycle, from the first day that it gets pulled out of the crate, becomes a modified motorcycle. The other thing about race bikes is that they’re crashed. The older the bike and the more races it’s been in, the more a fact of life that is. And as a consequence, don’t be disappointed if your old race bike has had this, that, and the other thing replaced. The best you can hope for are the major components: an original frame, an original motor case. Anything else that’s original is a bonus. I think that still makes that motorcycle legitimate. It’s not a Paul Bunyan’s ax proposition.

How important is originality?

Every collector ought to develop his own protocol about how he treats the things he acquires. You have to think of some across-the-board strategy, and this is ours: If we get a bike that is not restored, if it’s original, we maintain its originality. Number one, there’s no such thing as factory dirt, so we clean with a clear conscience. Second, when we fluff them up a little, we want them to present well, but we will not use anything that is not used with your fingers. In other words, we won’t put them on a buffing wheel. We put wax on the existing paint, but we won’t spray new paint. We clean the old chrome, even though it’s pitted, even though it’s not all there, instead of rechroming it. The only way we’ll go beyond that is if a part is missing and we don’t have any other choice.