1954 Moto Parilla 150 Sport

[CafeRacer]

So I bought this at auction this weekend in Vegas. I love it. But I know next to nothing about it.

I have contact information from the previous owner. Bike appears to be in good shape. Tires are new. The oil leaking out of it is new. The paint looks good behind the decals that face the wrong direction.



It's currently parked in my dining room where she'll sit until one day I do the MotoGiro on her.

Anyone wanna fill in some information?

[PistonPants]

Wow that's a beautiful bike! Congrats on that find!

Piston

[stainlesscycle]

that's gotta be a michael harper smith bike - the new rims give it away (he must have a ton of rims - every bike i've seen him sell gets 'em).... i've got one of his - they are usually well sorted, with no cosmetics done aside from wheels. i'm assuming he transports (or did transport) containers of cars, and fills the blank spaces with bikes...

[joe cool]

Very nice Stainless!

[CafeRacer]

Originally Posted by stainlesscycle

that's gotta be a michael harper smith bike - the new rims give it away (he must have a ton of rims - every bike i've seen him sell gets 'em).... i've got one of his - they are usually well sorted, with no cosmetics done aside from wheels. i'm assuming he transports (or did transport) containers of cars, and fills the blank spaces with bikes...

Hilarious. Yes, it's from Michael's collection. We exchanged emails and he filled in some history of the bike.

[stainlesscycle]

Originally Posted by CafeRacer

Hilarious. Yes, it's from Michael's collection. We exchanged emails and he filled in some history of the bike.

so he does have history on your bike? i think the history on mine was: "rebuilt wheels and exhaust. rode it around a bit." :)


i have one of his, i think my brother has 3 - they are all runners, with no issues. he has excellent taste - always brought over the neatest little bikes... the patina on most of his bikes is very nice. or is yours a repaint?

[CafeRacer]

Originally Posted by stainlesscycle

so he does have history on your bike? i think the history on mine was: "rebuilt wheels and exhaust. rode it around a bit." :)


i have one of his, i think my brother has 3 - they are all runners, with no issues. he has excellent taste - always brought over the neatest little bikes... the patina on most of his bikes is very nice. or is yours a repaint?

Decals on the tank are facing the wrong way so it's clearly a repaint.

Michael bought it from a collector in Torino Italy about 10 years ago. He's kept it on display since then. When he decided to thin the herd a little, this bike went to auction. Apparently this model was never imported into the US and there are very few of them.

Michael is local and I'm hoping I'll get an invitation over to see his collection.

[bulldogdisco]

Hi,
I've got one of these in original condition, mine's a 1954 also, I bought mine at Europe's biggest bikejumble at Imola I've had it for about four years and it's ran fine although I haven't done many miles due to having plenty other stuff, mine leaks as oil a bit as well but I like going out on it, it makes a lovely sound, one thing that I'm not keen on is the kickstart position when I kick it over (usually on it's center stand), my foot hits the gear lever and pops it into gear. I've always wanted a Moto Parilla since I had a video on them about 20yrs ago which I've lost. In Italy Moto Parilla's are well regarded and are up there along with MV Agusta and Ducati, the four strokes however are the expensive ones. Moto Parilla also make a scooter the "levriere" it also has the two stroke 150 fitted and it looks very much like a Zundapp Bella. Here in the UK vehicles made before 1960 are exempt from the MOT test (ministry of transport) so that's good news for me and easier to keep my bike on the road. Here's a link to my photostream.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4374858...7625450255707/