Tuesday 10 January 2012

Things that make you go "Hmmm..."


Spotted for sale on an Italian website - a DOHC "Bialbero" Bianchi 175 "As raced in the Motogiro." Hmmm....

The Giro was originally for production bikes, but being Italian this rule was quickly so twisted that for 1956 there were two classes - one for production bikes (macchine derivite della serie, aka formula 3) and sport/formula 2, a run-what-you-brung, as long as it doesn't have a fairing or more than 175cc.
The only time Bianchi featured in the F2 class results was the final Giro in 1957 when Franzosi came home 6th (though the Tonale had a great record in the F3 class), which may or may not have been a one-off DOHC racer: but all the film clips, photos and even Bianchi publicity material show the SOHC Tonale, including a Corsa version I'd assumed was the F2 entry. So what's this pic? The one-off DOHC 175 built by Lino Tonti in 1960? But wouldn't that make the bike even more valuable, and of course the Giro as a pure road-race was gone by 1960.
So it looks like a fake, and an example of how well equipped native-Italian "restorers" are...unless you know different?

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