Puting the dustbin out

This is the latest instalment in Jack Silverman's fabulous Ducati desmo 125 Grand Prix racer, coming together under the watchful eye of Hugo at Vintage Italian Restoration's


That fairing was hand-beaten by Evan Wilcox as detailed in Benzina #2, and it'll be a sad day when it's painted; but you've got to love the tin of red racepaint propping the bike up. You're going to need a big brush, Hugo...

And it's Armistice day - 92 years since the end of a war to end all wars

Shameless Sham

Ah, more seventies sexism, this time courtesy of Italian helmet maestros  AGV. Their full face helmets were £45, (more than a Bell although they were only available in black or white) and half as much again as the Griffin fibreglass job most went for.

But if price was no object the Bell usually got the nod over the AGV, and it was Barry Sheene's helmet of choice. Once he started to get known he struck a sponsorship deal with King helmets, and wore...a Bell with badly applied King stickers; in period pics and videos you can clearly see the King stickers have been applied in a hurry. Ironically a Sheene replica King cost more than a Bell, and they still gets chased on eBay by Sheene fans, who perhaps don't know everything about their hero.

For 1979 Sheene struck a deal to wear AGVs, and the pro paint jobs make deciding if he actually stuck with Bell more tricky. But dig out a pic of Sheene in an AGV and consider the bottom photo here - in the ones I've seen, Barry's "AGV" visor doesn't have the finger tab at the bottom, and his helmet lacks the AGV's kick-up at the back to clear the neck; seen next to Kenny Roberts (in a Bell) their helmets look remarkably similar...

Magic Numbers

Here we go again - another Ducati on eBay with matching frame and engine numbers. Guess what - Ducati numbers never match; stuff gets pulled in as it's needed, and until very recently what the books told you (eg, bevel 900SS forks were painted black) isn't necessarily so. John Fallon of Made in Italy Motorcycles tells the story of turning up at the factory to collect a I-will-if-you-will pair of 900SS with a mate, to see one with polished forks and one with crinkle-finish black. Hey, you-a-like our quality control?

So how come you see old Dukes with matching numbers? And why don't the DVLA squeal? The bike is probably a personal import or a rebuild that someone wanted to register for the road. This means getting a declaration from someone recognised by the DVLA as a marque expert, who'll certify the age and model of the bike in question, In this case someone who missed something as basic as frame and engine numbers matching...

So can you trust anything else on the V5? Like who owns the bike...

Targa Florio - it's all about cars...isn't it?

As every damn fool and his dog knows, road racing in Italy was banned in June 1957, after a Spanish playboy slammed his works Ferrari into the spectators' arena during the Miglia Mille; the Milano-Tarnto was just a few weeks away, but the Italian Government rushed through a decree that stopped it in its tracks, as reported in Benzina #1


Except the Sicilians don't consider themselves part of Italy, so their great road race carried on regardless. Like the TT  the fabulous Targa Florio even retained its world championship status until the seventies, racing works Fezzas, Alfa 33's on crumbling mountain roads. But once stripped of its status as a world class event, it soon petered out and last ran in 1977. Since then it's been a rally or a recreation. But so what?

Well, how about Porsche naming their "Targa" tops after the event? To cope with racing in Sicilian heat, teams would chop roofs off cabins, leaving rear buttresses/windows intact to maintain bodyshell strength. Then Porsche trademarked "Targa" and now guard it jealously - the reason our tee shirts omit "Targa" from the design, and use 1978 because there was no real race that year.

There's an excellent piece on driving the Targa Florio's route in December's Motorsport, and it's fantastic to see it given the treatment it deserves (even if as an occasional freelancer I pitched the identical idea to them over a year ago...). If this whet's your appetite, you can get a video of the 1965 event.

And I know - what's this got to do with bikes? Well, references to bikes in the event occasionally do crop up - everyone says it must be a mistake, but I've got a couple of sources who think there's a grain of truth in the rumours. We'll see...

Sexy, single - and expensive

Yes, it's a genuine Ducati Supermono (these days worth around sixty grand) and yes, it had been ridden to this meeting, and just parked up. So of course you've got to love it - people get so precious about their "investment" in a bike, forgetting it was designed and built to be ridden. Ducati were apparently so impressed with the quality of the conversion from pure-racer to pukka-roadster that there was even brief talk of doing a kit. But if you have a Supermono and want to ride it on the road, I'm sure I can track the owner down. Don't have a Supermono? There is (of course) one for sale with Made in Italy Motorcycles

New for old

I've known about these for a while - a brand new Darmah and Six Day 125, finally up for sale and inviting silly offers here; so should you?


Well, in fairness they're described as zero-miles, and not new which makes a big difference. It would (I fear)be a brave man who'd start the Darmah especially - the bearings are likely to have flats, and seals will be drier than Sicily in August. At the moment I'm busy researching oil for Classic Bike Guide and many will tell you it should still have had an annual oil change, and the engine turned over regularly. Unless you want it for a museum, bearing in mind Ducati already have a NOS Darmah tucked away.

But if you want to ride it, then what's it worth? Well, a decent recommisioning (new bearings, seals and such) could easily add up to a £6k engine overhaul, and at the moment a really nice Darmah (with say sub-10k on the clock) might fetch six grand. About what this would be worth if you rode it for a year.

Collectors only, then. Same goes for the Six Day - rare as they come, with fewer than 1,500 made. Sadly that was because the bike wasn't competitive in Six Day trials, and even most collectors get sniffy about Ducati strokers.

So if I had any money, I'd hang onto it. But then Ducati UK will soon have a shiny new foyer at Silverstone to fill, so who knows?

World's cheapest Ducati?

More post Halloween spookiness - I mention the stationery Ducati diesel engines, and one pops up on eBay UK - siezed, and with a £65 buy-it-now, but it's still the cheapest Ducati I've ever seen for sale...