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Forza Italia!
By Kent Taylor
We’ve all heard the adage, “It is more fun to ride a slow bike fast, than to ride a fast bike slow.” Dodging minivans while riding through the parking lot on a Ducati Panigale? Bend around the roundabout aboard a Honda Grom? Only one experience will make you truly feel like a MotoGP road racer!
In our March 4, 1981, issue, we tested a couple of 350 and 500cc street bikes from the small company Moto Morini. Though these machines couldn’t really be considered “slow,” they were still spotting several horsepower and a few cc’s to their competition of the day. Would the fun factor be able to override, so to speak, the gap in acceleration and top speed that the Italian bikes would be giving up to their competition?
Moto Morini had a very quiet presence in the U.S., even though the company had been in existence since 1937. Italian motorcycles are born with racing in their DNA, and Moto Morini raced with good success for several decades, winning several Italian championships along the way.
“Great fun for those not addicted to raw horsepower,” read the headline in the Cycle News feature, and with that slightly ominous caveat, the test began. Like many Italian motorized vehicles of that era, the Moto Morini made it clear that it wasn’t the least bit concerned with driver comfort. The 350 (cleverly labeled as “3½”) offered an arrogantly stiff saddle to its owner. Clutch pull seemed designed to separate athletes from mathletes, and the rest of the motorcycle was old school, right down to the inconvenient placement of the ignition key, which was directly below the fuel tank. Choke both carburetors before you punch the electric start, and the 3½ fires to life. The bike was slightly cold-blooded, and the testers found that the chokehold was necessary for a mile or two down the road. Lean into that clubman handlebar and “look for some turns. Any turns. The Morini loves ’em. All of ’em.”
“Turning,” wrote the CN staff, “is simply a matter of selecting a line and applying appropriate lean for the speed and sharpness of the corner. The bike tracks like it were on the proverbial rail; neither end shakes, skips or does anything rude. Firm suspension keeps the bike on an even keel, but it is not unduly harsh on the freeway.”
Italian motorcycle companies were adamant that their engine cylinders be as V-eed as Venice, so like Moto Guzzi and sort of like Ducati’s L-twin, the Moto Morini is a V-twin configuration, with the jugs tucked inside the frame. As the staff forewarned, the little powerplant isn’t going to wow its rider with sheer speed. Indeed, one works hard to keep the bike revving and in its sweet spot, with the end result being a good deal of vibration. “Three miles of spirited twisting,” wrote the staffers, “will have that left paw tingling noticeably.”
The motorcycle shifted well, and the brakes were strong. There was only one niggling problem reported by the crew. The neutral light came on frequently and without purpose, as the bike was properly in gear at the time. This apparently caused the editors to release the clutch at stoplights and suffer the ignominy of stalling the machine, likely while pretty California girls were watching and giggling. This continued until the Moto Morini’s excessive vibration caused the neutral light’s bulb to wiggle and fall out of the instrument cluster entirely and the absence of the misguided illumination henceforth allowed the staffers to pull away from stops without further fear of emasculation.
The Slater Brothers, distributors of the Moto Morini, supplied two machines to Cycle News. Along with the 3½, the staff had access to its big brother, the 500, a stunningly beautiful machine with a bright red paint job and gold mag wheels. The motorcycle attracted the attention of passersby, some of whom would stop, smile and say, “That’s nice! What is it?”
The 500 was even more determined to remind riders that it was built for serious scratching. Clip-on handlebars weren’t stock equipment for motorcycles in this era, but there they were, bolted righted on to the Moto Morini 500, along with Marzocchi suspension, front and rear, and Pirelli rubber on those gold wheels—racing components to be sure.
The crew said “canyons,” the 500 responded “bravo,” and the real fun began. “It’s easy to fling the 500 around,” they wrote. The engineering team had provided ample ground clearance while designing the bike, so there was never a fear of grinding the footpegs. That was a good thing, the staff noted, since “the pegs don’t fold.”
Obviously, the 500 was faster than its little brother, but Cycle News again pointed out that both machines were likely to be outgunned by the competition. A Yamaha RD400, Kawasaki KZ550 and the Honda CB750F were all mentioned as machines that were going to leave the Morini in the weeds, at least on the straightaways. But when that straight line bends, sweeps, zigs and zags—forza Italia!
Details, details: neither bike gave much thought to the possibility of roadside repairs, as the tool kits consisted of a handful of wrenches, a few of which didn’t even fit any of the nuts and bolts on either bike. The headlight and taillights were dim and dangerous. Fortunately, the Fiamm horn on the Moto Morini was nice and loud, so a rider would have the option to honk every few seconds to alert drivers of his presence in the dark shadows.
Good handling, unique and fun—more than enough to override the Moto Morini’s lack of brutish horsepower. Moto Morini disappeared for a few years, then returned to the mc scene, thanks to a marriage of Italian engineering and Chinese manufacturing. This year at the EICMA show in Milan, the company even displayed a new version of the 3½, complete with a new V-twin engine. Forza Italia! CN
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