23 years old she was, with the doubled sided TLS drum front brake and a rather worn look. The guy reckoned it'd had a new timing belt and had been bored out to 370cc a few months previously. A lovely bellow out of the stainless steel 2-1 exhaust and it shot up the road much faster than my CB400N. £750 seemed fair enough.
Riding home, the front light flickered and the motor occasionally stuttered but make it back we did. There's always the thought that the prime bit of meat just acquired is going to blow up in your face. That took two days! What happened was that the timing belt broke at 9000 revs - I'd wondered what all the vibration was!
The valves managed to break up the pistons. It took three months to track down some used replacements - new stuff is available but only if you have a big bank balance. Apparently, there are different belts for different models, mix them up and the highly tuned, 42hp, V-twin motor breaks! There's no way to check this when buying - except revving the engine to 12000rpm, seeing if it breaks. This won't go down well with the owner, in all probability some kind of Morini fanatic.
The next 2300 miles were kind of fun. This is a lightweight motorcycle with a punchy (if vibratory) engine and a marvellously competent chassis that it's almost impossible to fall off! Make sure it has Pirelli tyres for grip and rear-sets for comfort. Although fast turning the engine was also able to slog out the torque and turn in some amazing fuel consumption numbers - 70mpg was dead easy, 90-95mpg not that difficult.
It has Heron cylinder heads - the combustion chamber in the pistons and the valves vertical. Works very well in such a small engine but eventually emission and noise controls neutered the engine - it's important to find one with a 2-1 matched with K and N's if you want to experience the motor at its best. Mine would pull 110mph, cruise at the ton if you could ignore the thrumming and didn't mind the headlamp bulbs exploding. 70-80mph cruising was much more relaxed, almost vibration free, though like most Italian steeds you're always aware of the motor working away.
Nor were consumables noticeable in the degree with which they wore out even if I had to keep an eagle eye on the engine's oil level. I was pretty pleased with the machine until the engine seized, sending the back wheel into a heavy slide. Pulling in the clutch didn't work and I only got out alive because of the brilliant chassis stability and light mass. I thought the cam belt had snapped again, but, no, this time the gearbox had broken up!
No idea about the real mileage, could have gone around the clock a couple of times. I'd revved the balls off it, as well, because it was so much fun. The engine may well have been reliable when newish. I'm now pondering fitting a Jap single into the chassis. Italian handling with Oriental reliability seems like the best of both worlds.
Adam Simpson