1960's Gilera's

Has anyone here have any experiance of smaller Italian singles of the 50's
and 60's? I have an opportunity to acquire a mid 60's Gilera 125 of a sporty
nature. It is compete and original however finding out details such as
original specification, sources for spares value etc is problematical

Is such a machine worth looking at?

/d

 

Ovenpaa was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

They are very much worth looking at. Gilera - in contrast to what they
are now - used to be the top quality manufacturer in Italy. Possibly
rivalled by MV Agusta only, if that.

AFAIK there are a couple of books available about Gilera - probably by
Mick Walker if you want English, certainly a couple of Italian ones as
well - so you should be able to establish what the original specs are.

Spares for classic Gileras are fairly easily available from Bob
Wright, who AFAIK has been supplying Gilera spares for a longer than
most of us have been alive. Have a google for this, you should find
the link to his website.

The 125s aren't worth that much money even in good condition (same
goes for MVs incidentally) but are usually well-built as they (and the
350s) provided the majority of Italian motorcycle sales back in the
50s/60s/70s...

 

Is such a machine worth looking at?

Yes, it looks like Bob Wright is the man in the UK for spares.

The machine in question is Sei Giorni Speciale (Six Day Special) this was
the 'luxury' 125 of the time with alloy rims,updated engine internals and a
4 speed box. I think it could be quite good fun, and a leader for the g/f to
get on the road as well, it is an import (without papers) so it is in quite
nice condition having not been exposed to the UK weather for the last 40
years.

Are there any dealers of imports such as this in the UK? I have found a few
places that bring in machines of the 70's from California, but so far have
blanked on Italian importers

/d

 

Ovenpaa was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

A Sei Giorni Speciale is *not* luxury model but a trail type bike. Yes,
they usually have uprated engines. ISDT (International Six-Days
Trials) was a big thing in the sixties and most manufacturers whose
machines took part did offer replicas to the paying public, working on
the assumption that anything that would survive trekking six days
through mud, up and down the sides of mountains should be good enough
to go to work on. The ones I'm aware of are hugely sought after
compared to their bread-and-butter cousins (the Morini Regolarita -
which is based on the Corsaro - is worth about 2.5 times as much as a
normal Corsaro in similar nick) but spares tend to be trickier to find
due to the low numbers these bikes were made in.

In all honesty I'd buy the g/f a CG125 or similar - ISDT replicas are
rare with a capital 'R' and you're probably looking at several year's
holiday spent wandering over Italian swap meets if you break
something.

Trust me, I know a little bit about spares for rare Italian
machinery...

There are a couple, the ones I've dealt with are North Leicester
Motorcycles but there are a couple of other ones about. Check the back
of Classic Bike or similar.

 

Orchard Street Weston-super-Mare - or at least he was there when I
bought my spares from him in the 1970s.

He also sold Cossacks back then, SOBs even when new!


Regards,

Simonm.

 

Velocità massima: Scorchio!

 

SpamTrapSeeSig was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

I think he's still in Weston-super-Mare.

He. Reminds me of an ad in (I think) CBG, which went something like
this:

"Cossack, fully restored a year ago. Doesn't run."

 

<General announcement>

I'm after an outfit. Ural, Jawa or MZ. Or anything else if it's cheap
enough. Doesn't necessarily need to be a runner but NRs need to be SE/SW.

 

sweller was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Don't you think a folly like this would benefit from its own thread?

That said, got any MZ in reasonable condition for sale atm?

 

He had a black outfit (Ural 650 IIRC, but can't remember the chair,
'cept it was a bit primitive) in the window for ages, must've been
years. It got progressively moved further towards the back of the shop
(which wasn't very big in any case). I'm sure the handlebar rubbers had
perished the last time I saw it there.

It had a light switch very similar to the Gilera 50 I had, a little
round pod, with an off/main/dip switch coming out of the side and a
horn button on the top.

I assume the horn made the same farty noise...

Regards,

Simonm.
(I know I ought to like them because of the flat twin ancestry, but...)

 

Probably.

On MZs yes, no and maybe.

The Supa 5 [1] has just failed. It's the 'pool' engine that's started
blowing by one of the crankcase seals. I'll be looking at rebuilding its
original engine [2] and cleaning the bike a bit, rebuild the forks and
the like. It's a very tidy and original machine. I may be selling it in
the near(ish) future.

I have another Supa 5 [3], again another with its engine in boxes and
I've robbed some bits off it, but I'm toying with the idea of creating
some form of gestalt ETZ 300/Supa 5/Sidecar entity

The Trophy [4] has had its gearbox sorted but the engine is still sitting
on the bench. Awaiting my renewed enthusiasm.

The one I'm considering selling ATM is the Frankfurt MZ [5].
I'm in two minds though. It only costs 15 to tax, 15 to MOT, insurance
is zero, practically runs on fresh air and is reliable (proven too!)

It's a room, or lack of it, thing...


[1] http://www.sweller.co.uk/sob/images/xeu-620.jpg
[2] seized mains, no oil.
[3] http://www.sweller.co.uk/sob/images/mz_ts.jpg
[4] http://www.sweller.co.uk/sob/images/trophy_small.jpg
[5] http://www.sweller.co.uk/sob/images/frankrun/fr-red-ts.jpg

 

What a fine looking machine. It's lovely the way the lines of the tank
run into the headlight cowling.

Heh.

 

Ovenpaa was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Yebbut, that's a spec sheet for at least three different models
including the 'cooking' model of the Guibileo series.

The pic on there is the basic get-to-work bike...

My Italian isn't that good but _any_ reference I could find to 'Sei
Giorni' and Gilera suggests ISDT replica.

Got a pic of the bike you're looking at? Stick it on some webspace and
post the URL here.

A slightly more extensive google on google.it found some UK auction
results for a Sei Giorni Special. Went for 344 quid...