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IT’S 2-STROKE WEEK!
Featuring a different two-stroke street bike each day.

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Yes, Virginia, there are custom, one-of-a-kind motorcycles. At the end of each month, I will diverge from our focus on mass-produced, obtainable bikes to feature one such creation as our Custom Of The Month.

At the IVMC’s vintage bike show in Caldwell, Idaho one year (probably ’92), one of the organizers had this “authentic” Moto Bulloni on display. He had complete records of its history, and even a letter from a guy in Italy, detailing how his dad was the one who built these bikes in the late ’50s. The handwritten Italian copy of the letter, complete with old black-and-white snapshots, plus a typed English translation, is all in the frame in front of the bike.

Well, I took a close look at it, and the closer I looked, the newer—and more Asian—the motor seemed to be. I finally cornered the guy and asked what the real story was. He ‘fessed up that he’d found himself at one point with a Suzuki RM80 motor, a cannibalized ’60s Benelli 50 chassis (like the inset photo), some spare time, and a really skilled but gullible bike painter friend he liked to play practical jokes on. He complemented me on figuring out the ruse. He said that a lot of very pious vintage ‘experts’ had walked past it nodding in approval and commenting on his rare find.

He said the bike actually had plenty of ‘go.’ He also said that he almost never started it up, because of the noise from the ‘period’ open megaphone. I think his words were, ‘It’s loud, and I mean DAMN loud!’ I remember thinking at the time that it was a shame that the bike didn’t have a muffler and lights so it would be more useful—I mean, as useful as a ’60s moped frame with a mini-motocross engine could be.