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February 26, 2005
The Rare and the Cruddy
Two auctions on eBay caught my attention today. The first is for a Morini Excalibur, a cruiser bike made by Morini when the factory was on its last legs. The other was for a Cagiva Alazzura, made around the same time by Cagiva, soon after the Castiglioni Brothers (Cagiva = CAstiglioni GIanfranco VArese) bought Ducati. Both of these bikes were marketing flops in the States, and I remember dealers (Monroe Motors in San Francisco and Herdan in Pennsylvania being stuck with these models for years. Both owners were willing to sell their remaining stock at a deep discount.
Italian cruiser bikes were popular in Italy, but the American market viewed Italian bikes with suspicion, and so what the market responded to (and to a large extent still responds to, is Italian sport-bikes. The Alazzurra had the misfortune of being essentially a Ducati Pantah without the name recognition. At the time, the Ducati name was the best thing Ducati had going for it. The 851 had yet to come out, and the Ducati factory had not produced a new line in years.
Now these two bikes are being hailed as "rarities" in their respective auctions. Of course they are rarities: Dealers sent them back to the factory or distributor if they could. The market was right; these are not the best examples of anything and are therefore not worth collecting. Silver Pigeons are certainly rare, but there is a reason: they were lousy scooters. If the desirability of a bike is based solely on its rarity, motorcycles might as well be coins.
A third bike which qualifies for deserved obscurity is the Ducati 500 parallel twin. Every once in a while someone will try to fob one off upon someone who does not know any better. I once saw a room full of brand new 500 GTL engines in the storeroom at Gia.Ca.Moto in Bologna. The parts stash may come in handy: some components bolt on to the Morini 500.
Another example of a beautiful bike that should have worked well is the Benelli 650 Tornado. We once met the owner of one in Ljubljiana; when we asked him if it ran he shook his head, to which Maurizio responded "Alora, cerchiamo ancorra uno che funzione!" (Well, we are still looking for one that runs!). Even our Slovenian friend understood.
Posted by Underblog at February 26, 2005 6:30 PM
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Comments
You're right. They're not worth collecting. They're worth riding.
Posted by: Me at December 6, 2005 5:51 PM