The Scene

THE SCENE

IVAN J. WAGAR

TWO OF MY really big weaknesses are pasta and motorcycles. And nowhere in the world can a person find more imagination and creative genius in construction and execution of either than in Italy. The dozens of ways to prepare simple spaghetti is nothing compared to the Italian engineer's delight of breaking tradition when he has a clean sheet of paper on which to design an engine.

So it was with great excitement and anticipation that my wife and I descended from the airplane at Milan to begin our two weeks in wonderful Italy. Taking a wife on trips, as I’m sure many readers will agree, can be a problem. What the weather will be like and what clothes to take are monumental and most critical matters. Us guy types pack some riding gear, a suit, socks, underwear and shirts, and we have the thing handled, but not women. When I pointed this out to our trip arranger before leaving he came on with, “Don’t worry, they have beautiful umbrellas in Italy. They have beautiful coats in Italy. They have beautiful shoes in Italy.” All true, and they all cost money, even in Italy.

I only mention the wife bit because there are certain advantages in taking a friend (if your wife is a friend) on a trip to a country like Italy. At times you are compelled out of conscience to take a break from the rigors of work to look at the country. Although I visited Italy three years before, I never saw the absolute beauty of the country until this trip. When traveling alone I tend to spend all of my time on business. This trip I found you can do both.

For instance, last time I didn’t see the Colosseum. This trip my wife reminded me that some dude in Long Beach, Calif., has offered a million dollars to repair the ancient structure because of damage caused by air pollution and traffic vibration. So we went to see the Colosseum. Like most areas of ruins in Rome, the Colosseum is overrun with cats, hundreds of them—almost everywhere you look—fat, lazy cats (obviously well-fed by the tourists).

To find the real beauty of Northern Italy it is necessary to tour the lake district. Within sight of the Swiss border, and almost within yodeling distance of the magnificent Alps, Lakes Maggiore and Como nestle peacefully away from the smog and din of modern, industrial Italy. It is in this sort of peaceful setting that we find the small village of Mandello Del Lario, where one person out of every five is employed at Moto Guzzi, a firm that has won countless road race championship events.

Casually strolling through the small streets I spotted several Guzzis of quite ancient vintage. One model in particular was a 1948 500cc Single. My less enthusiastic host reminded me that these machines were built to last a minimum of 25 years. Aermacchi, now wholly owned by AMF/HarleyDavidson, also is located far from the mainstream of modern industry on Lake Varese, world famous as the shoe capital of Italy.

I don’t mean to imply that all of the industrial areas are not beautiful; a few are, but it is not surprising that the genius that has spawned the most unique (and fast) sports and racing machines of all time came from such inspiring surroundings.

It also is not surprising that two forms of two-wheeled vehicular travel are popular in Italy, yet rarely seen here: scooters and mopeds. Young and old people, male and female, plying their way through the dense traffic of cities such as Rome and Florence on silent, clean, extremely efficient scooters is quite an amazing sight. The moped craze is due to the fact that girls over the age of 14 in Italy take advantage of the special license and registration exemption for mopeds.

I saw virtually thousands of young girls, sometimes two on a bike, weave their way to school and shopping. Somewhere along the way of motorcycling in this country we passed up the scooter and moped, as we demanded bigger, faster, more exotic machines. It’s unfortunate, they look like great fun.

Another craze, as Italy swings back to two wheels, is the 50cc motocrosstype machine. Again, by the thousands, the male youth population has gone berserk for ISDT and MX bikes. The in-thing for any male youngster is a classy Fifty. By the hundreds these zappy little creatures zing through the traffic, usually helmeted (no helmet laws in Italy), dressed in Barbour-type jackets, and lending the feeling that you are in the middle of International Six Days competition, but in miniature.

Getting down to the business aspects of the trip, it is quite surprising that the Italian manufacturers are so bitter about the number of Japanese machines in Italy. Analyzing the problem in steps, though, a person is able to come up with at least some understanding. Like Japan, Italy has been a utility-type market for the history of motorcycling in that country. The motorcycles for domestic consumption were, for the most part, quite mundane by our standards, but designed for everyday transportation and reliability. The few fancy models from the factories were for export to the “luxury” market in the U.S. and a few other well-to-do outlets.

Like Japan, Italy also has fairly rigid import restrictions on motorcycles, and went along without threat from foreign intrusion for several decades. Japan woke up to the change in the domestic economy, and the fact that many of the populace did not want to “graduate” to four wheels after Honda introduced the 750 Four. Honda’s original sales projections for the home market were 50 machines per month, but the actual demand was for five times that many units. Thus it was with the Italian manufacturers. Busy filling the needs of the utility market, and with an import restriction on machines under a weight minimum that prohibited most machines under 500cc, the industry did not notice the Japanese invasion until it was almost too late. Another reason for distributors of Japanese brands claiming a large piece of the Italian market was that while the factories struggled under the pressure of the very strikes that provided the money for the people to buy the Japanese “luxury” machines, there was no time or work force to switch to what the public wanted.

Now, and this is probably very fortunate for us, Italy is recovering with a vengeance. National pride in the fact that Italy has been a world leader in motorcycles for 60 years is causing some people, even the workers, to tighten their belts and get back down to the job at hand. Certainly Alejandro DeTomaso has thrown down the gauntlet with his spectacular introduction of the Benelli Six. A couple of other firms have introduced new sporty models, but for some reason they are slow in reaching this country. DeTomaso, if nothing else, is going to spark up the luxury/ exotic motorcycle trend from Italy. Let’s hope that the factories and their U.S. distributors really want their share of the million motorcycles that will be sold here this year.