1956 Moto Parilla 250cc DOHC

Italian motorcycle maufacturer Moto Parilla (1946-63) built 4 250cc DOHC racers for the Milano-Taranto race in Italy. Of the 4, this is the only survivor. 45 years later, Motorcycle collector PJ Johnson managed to get this bike running to 1956 specs through hundreds of hours of trial and error. There is no shop manual for the DOHC motor, so you can imagine just how hard it is to get this 53 year old factory racer up and running. I paid $80 for a hour of track time with this beast. As you can hear, I started off in 2nd gear not wanting to guess where 1st was. I ran 6 laps around the track and was glad not to drop a rather expensive and rare factory works bike with the owner watching.

The bike has lots of power, but you really had to work hard to get it around the track. I had a death grip on the bars and really had not much time looking at the scenery because the line would change and I didn't want to be a part of the tumbleweeds. Total fun!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Moto Parilla
• motorcycles
• Italian motorcycles
• Ducati
• Mondial
• moto guzzi

[micheldregni]

PJ: Congrats! A nice noise and a glorious bike. MD

[camlac1]

Nice ceackle from the exhaust.. sounds about as loud as is possible. Probably wouldn't be legal any more in NZ

[Nogitaman]

PJ was saying "You break it, you can't buy me another cos there aren't any more..."