Motorcycle man Billy Joel to sell off more than 70 bikes at retro auction in November at the Javits Center

Whether you want a Harley or a Ducati, a motorcycle from the Piano Man’s collection just may be the bike you’re looking for. 

After years of traversing Long Island, even riding his motorcycle in the rain, Billy Joel is auctioning off more than 70 classic motorcycles from his storied collection through Gooding Christie’s, the automotive division of Christie’s Auction House in Manhattan.

"I've always been drawn to bikes built by people who cared about getting every detail right," Joel said in a statement to Newsday. "I've loved building this collection. Now it's someone else's turn to hit the road."

The bike collection will go up for sale at the inaugural Retromobile New York Auctions, Nov. 19-22, at the Javits Center. Several bikes will be on display, Oct. 8-12, at Christie’s showroom at Rockefeller Center.

The bikes are valued from about $10,000 to $35,000. Joel plans to donate proceeds from the sale to his charity, The Joel Foundation, through which Joel and his wife, Alexis, raise money for music education and humanitarian causes.

Joel, 77, is selling the majority of his collection once featured at his former Oyster Bay motorcycle shop, 20th Century Cycles, until it closed last year. He is selling his motorcycles following the sale of his Centre Island estate, MiddleSea, in February for nearly $29 million.

Joel also announced a break from performing as he recovers from a brain disorder, normal pressure hydrocephalus. He recently announced he had surgery to place a shunt in his brain to improve function and balance.

Following his health diagnosis last year, he said he planned to close the shop and auction his collection. Many of his bikes were placed in storage in Florida, where he had recently moved while maintaining properties in East Hampton and Sag Harbor.

While Joel amassed his collection, he became almost as synonymous on a motorcycle as he was at a piano. He is keeping some of his favorite bikes in the collection, said Angus Dykman, a specialist at Gooding and Co.

'He liked bikes'

"He was not some trophy hunter collector trying to find the rarest bikes in a collection. He was really a rider at heart and kept the bikes he used," Dykman said. "The central unifying theme of the collection is that he liked bikes that looked old but worked like new."

The bikes being sold include a 1978 Triumph T-140 Bonneville, given to Joel by Madison Square Garden in honor of his record 150th sold-out show. The bike comes with a matching helmet listing every show and year he performed at the Garden.

Other bikes being auctioned are a 1975 Ducati 750 Sport and a 1982 Ducati Mike Hailwood 900, in honor of the motorcycle racer who won the 1978 Isle of Man TT Formula 1 race.

Joel kept and displayed many of the bikes at his Oyster Bay storefront on Audrey Avenue, which he opened in 2010 to share his hobby with other motorcycle enthusiasts.

"He was more of a working man’s musician and a blue-collar guy," Dykman said. "He wanted to share them and loved to ride and have people around to show the bikes."

One of Joel’s prized bikes also has been part of an exhibition running through Oct. 26 at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook.

Joel lent his orange 1981 Harley-Davidson FLH Heritage Edition, which he named "Peas and Carrots," as a central piece of the exhibition, said the museum’s creative director Kevin O’Callaghan.

"So many people met him at some point on Long Island and half the time he was on a motorcycle," O’Callaghan said. "He’s a Long Island guy and riding on motorcycle, taking in the sights of the North Shore are what he’s about. He’s not the type to be shut in a car. He’s a Long Island guy through and through."