Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

experiences of m y motorcycling life. It was a lso a well -deserved recognition of Be a le a nd Morbidelli's magnifice nt handiwork . As Be a le wrote in his let ter to me accompa ny ing wha t was an inevitably stee p bill with lots of ze ros, "T his project ha s proved to be ve ry satisfying , in that a nother four-cyli nder p iece of Italia n exotica is now up a nd running for e nt hus iasts to enjoy." Am e n to that. Now I wanted to ride it on a race tra ck. For th at, it seemed appropriate to head s outh to th e c o untry wh e re 'O ld Elbows ' blooded Honda 's nose in h is debu t GP aboard this very bike ba ck on May 3 , 1964 . While the Mon tjuich Park stre et ci rcu it, on which th e Span ish GP wa s he ld th at yea r, was a c a s u a lty of t he run- up to t he '92 Ba rc elona O lympi cs , its modern-day purpo se -bu ilt su ccess or, th e Ca talu nya GP ci rc uit a t Mon tm e lo, pro vided a m ore tha n suit a ble ve nue to fill in the final frames of the dream that came true , by actua lly rid ing the Benelli in someth ing approach ing anger. Starting th e Benell i on th e gr id mu st ha ve be en c h ild's p la y: notch bottom ge ar on the o ne -up riq ht- foot change - a nd pu sh . The eng ine fires after a couple of steps , a nd irnrnediately after it does so , you clutch it, pump the throttle like mad , a nd the wall of sound from th e fo ur t h in gauge megaphon es te lls you yo u ' re lit up and ready to go . In spite of th e IAbove) The author and, in th is case, owne r - Alan Cathcart - puts the bike th ro ugh its paces in Spa in. (Rig ht) This exquisite little m oto rcycle was the ba sis for the 250cc Be ne lll that e ventually won the 250 cc Wo rld Ch a mpionship in 19 69 - the last 250cc title won by a four-s troke. find hardware like the Mercury magneto whi ch had been rem oved from my bike before it went Stateside, on the grounds that it still had a valid function in the factory 's o ngoi ng GP effort. With the help of Morb idelli , the owner of more than one four-cylinder Be nelli racer, and whos e pr ivate workshop has long had the capability to manufacture the host of one -off components needed to put back into running order the dazzling array of b ikes on display in his private museum in Pesaro , Be a le turn ed the halfcomplete co llec tion o f p arts I d elive re d to him in hop e more t han ex pe c ta tio n back in 1994 into a glo ri· o us recreation of Ita lia n mechanical artistry. When in th e sp r ing of ' 9 7 I answered Beal e 's summons to ' come a nd he ar what it so unds like,' I wa s lite ra lly stunn ed at both th e qua lity and qua nt ity of the wo rk he 'd inve sted in making th e past live a gai n - a s were t he ju dg e s at Lon do n 's p rest igi ou s Lo u is Vuitton Conc ours in J une that year, wh ic h m a rked the Bene lli's public debut in rebuilt form. Pus h- sta rting it into action while wearing a black tie a nd dinner ja cket rather than a set of race leathers, and watch ing the wall of s o u n d from th e four o pe n m e g a p ho nes wa sh o ve r th e faces o f th e a sse m b le d hi gh socie ty t h ro ng , in ord er to r id e it alo ng t h e sw ish Hurlingham Clu b 's drive way in front of hundreds of guests in ba ll gowns and tu xedo s, pa st fleet s of vint a g e Ro lls -Roy c e s and cla s si c Fer ra ris co m peting for the ca r awa rds , up to the pr es en tation da is to co llect th e magnific ent Charles Jarrett Trophy for the be st moto rcycle on dis pla y in the world 's premi er a utomotiv e bea uty cont es t, was one of the m ore surreal cue. e s mall -diameter flywheels, the e ng ine pic ks up cleanly from ju st o ve r 5000 rp m on t he trad emark wh ite -faced Veg lia ta cho. wh ich c uriously, how ev e r, h as a co u nter-clock wise s weep . There 's a bsolut el y no vibration from the beautifully ba lanc ed engine - only waves of sound , and then more, as n e _ S • ..JULY 5 , 2000 39

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