'71 Moto Guzzi Stornello 160 Scrambler finished - and for sale

I finally got around to finishing the Moto Guzzi Stornello special whose rebuild will be coming up in Issue 6 of the magazine, and it's for sale too.


This is single cylinder four stroke 1971 160cc Stornello had been brought in from Italy and was a seized and ugly ex village traffic warden bike. A year later, it's a fully road legal one-off Guzzi, and and ready to go - it's registered with a V5 in my name, with an age related plate (1971), has a new year's MOT certificate, and has historic vehicle tax (i.e. zero). It has an alloy black and white plate, not yet fitted when these pics were taken. This bike has been recommissioned and rebuilt as a special, based on the Guzzi Stornello Scrambler, which were also used with success in the ISDT. The decals were made especially for the bike, which I decided looked better in bare metal than police blue. It hasn't been restored and has patina dripping off it - if you want shiny and something to polish, please look elsewhere! The Stornello is a robust and simple bike, and fun to ride. I used one for riding round London some years back, and currently own another three Stornello Scramblers (I love 'em..)

I have a long list of parts replaced and work carried out (and all photographed and documented), but it's had: a top end rebuild, brand new piston and rings (took me a few months to find one in Italy), rebore, new seals, gaskets, new fuel taps, new knobbly tyres, new inner tubes, front brake shoes relined, forks checked and oil changed, all the rims checked, spokes loosened off, tightened, checked, new battery, wiring checked and repaired, new bulbs, new brake light switch, beautiful alloy one-off silencer made by Chris at Silverback Manufacturing, rare Stornello parts that I scoured for in Italy (exhaust pipe, Stornello competition headlamp guard, very rare and unrestored Stornello single police seat), and some one-off brackets and a bash plate. There are an indicated 39,000km (24,000 miles) on the clock which works, as does the rev counter, so that's an average 42 miles a year since it was built! I also have all the manuals on PDF you'd ever need, though they're in Italian.

Here's a YouTube video of it cold starting and running: Stornello 160 Scrambler

This bike and its rebuild will also be featured in the next issue of ITALIAN MOTOR magazine.

I've got loads of photos so if you want to know more, or any more details, please get in touch. No timewasters or tyrekickers please.

Looking for £2500. Email to: jabATitalianmotormagazine.com or contact me here at the blog.

'72 Maserati Indy America 4.7 coming up in Issue 6. Want to buy it?

Thanks to our clever contacts at Silverstone Auctions, we've scored an amazing Italian feature car for the upcoming Issue 6.

It's a 1972 Maserati Indy America, with 4.7 litres of smooth 8 cylinder power under the bonnet, decveloping 290bhp - plenty for cruising the autostradas of continental Europe in an era when fuel was cheap and grand touring in style was still an exciting way to travel.

This particuluar car has a fascinating history, and has recently had a full restoration, revealing some interesting secrets about its past. Read the full article coming up in Issue 6.

If in the meantime you're feeling flush, you can make a bid on the Mazza, whose owner now fancies a change, and has put it up for auction at the NEC Classic Motor Show sale this weekend. You can find all details about the auction from Silverstone Auctions on their website, or call them on 01926 691141

EICMA - best of show - Ducati 1200S - you like?

So the new Ducati 1200S has been voted by 10,000 EICMA show participants as being the 'most beautiful bike of the show', closely followed by the MV Agusta 800 Turismo Veloce. Seems like EICMA this year has served up few surprises or novelties - Moto Guzzi in particular have only really changed the paint schemes of their current modles - but what do you think of the Monster 1200S?

Beautiful best of show, or a monster?

Complete and utter mastery

If you don't play guitar you won't understand - sorry..

Officina Moto Italia

With the big bike fest that is EICMA about to begin, Italian manufacturers and PR companies have gone into overdrive with information overload about what's going on, who's doing what, and what you will find where. One press release stood out and that talks of the setting up of a loose conglomeration of independent motorcycle manufacturers that are based in Italy, and it calls itself 'Officina Moto Italiana'.
Small manufacturers are nothing new in Italy - if you look down a list of small workshops putting together motorcycles in the first two decades of the 20th century, you would find hundreds of names, now mostly now all gone.

So, best of luck to (left to right),  Sarti (CR&S Motorcycles), Giovanni Magni (Magni), Pattoni (Paton) and Chiaia (Zaeta), who probably very wisely see strength in numbers, so may their independence flourish!

The Gilera legacy

One place I always try and get to when I am back in Tuscany, Italy, is the Piaggio Museum at Pontdedera. Much as I enjoy wandering through the beautifully presented and very varied types of Vespa, and Piaggio trains planes and automobiles, it's the collection of historic Gileras that I like to head to. Squashed in slightly unceremoniously on an upper walkway above the rest of the museum, this collection is what was left in the Arcore factory when it was sadly shut by Piaggio in 1993 after 84 years of continuous motorcycle production. Gilera had a truly glorious history and racing success to match that of Norton or Moto Guzzi, so it's a shame to see its name used pretty much on just scooters nowadays, though of course the late and wonderful Simoncelli won the 2008 250 World Championship on a Gilera.

Highlight in the collection is the first motorcycle built by Giuseppe Gilera in 1909, the single cylinder 500cc VT 317, but there are many more, including the historic four cylinder Rondine, which set the pattern for the eventual all victorious Japanese race bikes.

Anyway, if you find yourself in the area (equidistant between Pisa and Florence), it should be a definite choice on the itinerary. More information here: http://www.museopiaggio.it

Making stuff

Sorry no post for ages, trying to get the magazine finished, earn a living and spending some time in the workshop to try and complete my Stornello Scrambler project I've been working on for a few months - an hour or two a week, that is..

Anyway, I've enjoyed making some bits and pieces that I needed but wouldn't be able to buy. Luckily there's a metal working company near where I keep the bikes so there's always plenty of scrap around. I needed brackets for the mudguard to raise it up in the forks, then a simple bash plate to stop the front of the motor getting wrecked by the rocks that the bike will probably never ride over - but it looks good and though in aluminium is pretty strong. It's like anything, the more time you spend on it, the better it'll be, but I'm happy for these bits to do the job and not be perfectly polished.