Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127740
-VINTAGE.: Paton 500 Bicilindrica Racer Test take the checkered flag first, especially in front of his Italian home crowd! A constant flow of advice helped Maurice in preparing the bike for me to race, a difficult task because there were no spares for what was a small-volume, hand-built thoroughbred GP racer: A mere ten Paton 500 Bicilindrica racers were built, and mine is the only one taking part in international Historic racing. With some success, too, especially after the International Historic Racing Organization was founded in 1986 to stage Historic races at World Championship GP races and other major events. IHRO's first event - the 1986 French GP at Paul Ricard - was also my greatest disappointment with the Paton. ( found myself locked in a titanic battle for victory with the leading stars of Historic racing today, including two former World champions, exSuzuki works rider Hugh Anderson (Matchless G50) and John Surtees (Norton Manx), as well as American Dave Roper (Matchless G50). In the (Below) The short 1280mm wt.&lbase of the Paton makes the bike a bit of a hBndful at times, but It Is nonetheless a fast, capable machine and Is atlll raced today. By Alan Cathcart Photos by Phil Masters love affair with Italian bikes draws as much from the way they are evolved as from the innovation of their design and excellence of their engineering. Unlike in Germany, or Japan, or even in Britain, engineering is considered an art form, even by the most comercially minded companies. Who else but an Italian company could prod uce a car like the Lamborghini Diablo, or an espresso machine like a Gaggia or Faema, or an aircraft like the Aer Macchi Schneider Trophy seaplane, or a motorcycle like a Ducati "otto valvole" - or a Paton? I was only dimly aware of Mr. Pattoni's existence when my friend Maurice Ogier acquired the ex-Fred Stevens Hannah Paton 500 more than a decade ago. I knew Pattoni was the epitome of the poor man working out of a garage in the back streets of Milan, racing against the rich and powerful MY team of Count Agusta - and even, in true fairytale fashion, beating them. But it wasn't till I happened to visit him almost by chance that ( found that the fairy story was true. Here was a man who had literally devoted his whole life to his hobby - with an enthusiasm and dedication that was so con'tagious, his only son, Roberto, joined in partnership with him to build a new 500cc V-four, two-stroke contender with which to undertake the ultimate quixotic challenge: competing against the might of Honda and Yamaha with a bike he'd designed and built himself, on his dirt-floor garage. More to the point, perhaps, Pattoni was only inter- ested in looking ahead, not like so many men approaching the sunset of thli!ir years, backward. He was more interested in developing his new Vfour two-stroke than in recalling fond memories of the four-stroke twins he first built almost two decades ago. Still, after I aquired. the Stevens Paton from Maurice and restored it for use in Historic racing, no one was prouder of the bike's performance than Pattoni. The first time I won the prestigious Italian Historic GP at Misano on the bike, beating the then-undisputed master of European Historic racing, Walter Zeller, on his wocks BMW Rennsport, Pattoni almost burst with pride to see his green bike once again first race, I finished second to Roper after a tussle with Surtees, whose Norton steered better than the shortwheelbase Paton. The Paton, however, accelerated better than the Manx, thanks partly to the six-speed gearbox fitted. But in the second race, held right after the 500cc French GP, I took the lead and was set for a fairytale win