a stornello 160. came across it in a farm shed. is it worth

[dutchie]

a restoration. living in a land far far away, would i be able to source parts to get it going. will need kick start, gear and foot brake levers. air filter box cover for starters. will try to post some photos if i can. thanks guys. i have left it where i found it .....so far. jk

[guzzi_sean]

The Moto Giro guys have revived interest in old, small displacement, Italian motorcycles.  I doubt you could ever get your money back out of a full restoration, so I wouldn't do that if profit is the goal.

You could pull it out of the barn, get it running, and compete!  Or pull it out of the barn and sell it to someone that wants to participate.

[guzzi_sean]

OOPS, I just noticed you are in New Zealand.  I don't know if there are similar tiddler fanatics over there.

[TDF]

If the price is right, buy it.  If for no other reason than to put it somewhere where the birds can't get to it.

TDF

[dutchie]

right. a few beers might get it. worth a shot. any idea on parts. were they an off road bike or road.?

[troyhamilton]

my friend had one of those rode the poor thing without oil. may he rot in texas.

[TDF]

That's the on road version.  There was also a scrambler.  According to "The Moto Guzzi Story" there were about 58,000 or so Stornello's produced from 1960 to 1974.  The 160 being produced the last 6 or 7 years of that run.  When you look at straight production numbers the stornello line has one of highest production numbers of any Guzzi.  Where all of them ended up though I don't know.  They don't turn up real often here in the states.  But that one looks relatively complete.  Dig around in the barns that other side cover could be around there someplace.  I don't have any great leads for you on parts for it though, as I haven't had cause yet to look.  But where I anywhere near that one and if it was priced represenative of it's condition (in other words cheap), I'd have to own it.  It would look good in the shed next to the MDS, two Ducati singles, Gilera, Benelli, Garelli and all the little Jap's we've picked up over the years.  Can you tell we have a penchant for tiddlers?

[crc]

Hi Dutchie, itd be worth giving Pete a call at Moto Kiwi regarding parts, 093725312. I doubt he will have any parts but he should have no trouble getting them, or else try ebay. If you dont want it, or get it and want to move it on I could be interested in it. Is it in the north or south island?

[Guzzi-Leif]

Looks like a wonderful barn wonder!
And the Stornellos are excellent when in trim. I had the 125 version 1974-76 and that was my best kilometers on wheels!
Will be nice to follow your work with it - think that just a good wash will make wonders...

[dutchie]

ok thanks guys. will see now what it takes to get it...in the south island. south of chch.

[crc]

ok thanks guys. will see now what it takes to get it...in the south island. south of chch.

Hmmm, near me, Im definately interested if you dont want it. :BEER:

[guzzi160]

Wow! - you have just found the long lost 'twin' of my STornello 160 . The history of these bikes is as follows (extracted from a guy that still owns his - lives in Huntly North.Is)....8 were brought into NZ - 2 were sold, 1 broke a crank and was cannibilsed for spares. In 1978 5 bikes were haggled for $3000 folding from the peson who imported them. 2 red, 2 green and 1 blue bike.  The guy in Huntly, picked out a Green one (reckoned it was the best one) and then put from the blue bike the blue tank and sidecovers - so ended up with a blue bike...1 was exported to Australia. I have red one, you have one red one, I also had another one that was all in pieces (from memory I think it was blue) - so might have been 1 of the original 2 sold separately that was also blue...anyway that was done up and ended up being white (blue/red). Mine is going - sounds like an industrial sewing machine - they all do!  Was last registered in NZ back in '84 - I took it to Melbourne and then back- so was actually last registered in AUS. I was just searching on Stornello's as I have just dusted it off and got it going again - after it was parked up for a while. Here are some pictures of mine - jst taken from my cell phone - hence quality not that good. Would be great to hear back on your plans for the 'lost twin'. cheers

[eldoroddo]

Is this an earlier one or something completely different?

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/mcy/1887209112.html

[FGO]

there is a gent in Tarzana California that has been selling ~35 guzzi's, including this model, he is on ebay quite a bit and his bikes are road ready mostly.  I think that bike in good running condition is worth aproxx $3Kus +/_ $1000   I nearly bought a good runner for ~$2K Us before I lost my job, nice bikes and pretty reliable for what they are

[dogtucker]

hi,i've got a mint,original,nz  new stornello 160,its a 71 or 73?.its blue and i'm the 2nd owner.the bike has done low k's and  it runs well with a quiet engine.i'm thinking of selling it,has any body an idea of its value?chris.

[dutchie]

well darn, does not want to sell it and wants to collect some more shit on it, will need to look at other tactics. time waits for no man.

[Paul in NZ]

Well - I'm pretty sure I know the 'guy' in huntly....

Erm - nice wee bikes that go better than you would think from lookin at by all accounts.  But its only 'value' now is as a conversation piece and because its a Moto Guzzi.  Resist all temptation to believe that its some kind of superior european classic worth squillions that you can use with gay abandon all over the show.   Basically, that bikes going to need a LOT of love and attention to get it 'right' .....  Parts are gunna be a bugger too...

Having said that - I just LOVE small motorcycles.  We live in a small(ish) community and I just love hauling out the AC50 for a blat down to the shops or the pub on a sunny day.  Theres just no pressure on a tiddler, just fun fun fun.  It says something that I'm constantly looking for another little cheapie to use around the village and definately dont want another heavyweight.  I even want a mig welder so I can build a set of chambers (this is getting tragic).....

Nurse - wheres my pills dammit....   ;D

[ROBOTMAN]

Dgurovich (on this board)has  a website that has something to do with fixer-upper bikes.  He was looking for good pictures of "barn bikes" for the site not long ago.  The first pic in this thread might be just the thing.

[FredZeppelin]

I have 1 of the 160 Stornellos that were imported in New Zealand in the mid-70's.  As I recall there was only one shipment, and the bikes were submerged in a warehouse flood in Johnsonville before they were sold. I bought mine around 1980, the orignal owner was an ambulance driver who knew about the flood and stripped the engine before he ran it.  There were afeww failed big end bearings in the other bikes that were blamed on water in the crankcase from the flood.
There was also at least 1 Dingo in the shipment, last seen buzzing about Christchurch many moons ago.
There were also 2 125 Scramblers in that shipment - one went to Phil Doland in Perth, the other went into the side of a Big Red Bus. I have some bits off that on my bike.
There's another tidy red 160 running in Blenheim.
There was also a hacked about Stornello racing in the Greymouth street races way back.
All of this is from memory, so is not totally reliable.
Somewhere I have a photo of 3 Stornellos taken when the batch of 5 were bought in Huntly from a mower shop. I'll hunt it out if anyone is interested.   
Cheers
Fred

[motogman]

Here is one I picked up a few years ago and have started to undertake as a project...



It is pretty rough and missing a few bits.  Seems to be a cross between a road bike and a scrambler - I think it started life as a road bike with someone later adding scrambler front fender.

Time will tell if it ever makes it back on the road.

Another view

[Furbo]

Of Course its NOT WORTH IT!

But, what's that got to do with it?

[Motu]

I'll revive this thread as I have revived my Stornello.

Sad news, I recieved an email the other day, a nice blue Stornello 160 has been stolen in Auckland. Not nice to hear the day I got mine going.

[Motu]

Time to put a few things right, or not, about the Stornello's in New Zealand. Phill Doland was here bringing parts and help to put Leslie's Ducati 450 Desmo back together. He brought his Falcone over as it was the cheapest bike he had back then (100% deposit) and at one point toured the country. I guess he must've come across one of the 125 Scramblers in Christchurch, and found that some 160's had come to the North Island...so he set out to find them.  He found them in Frankton Hamilton, at that time in NZ old suburbs were made commercial, and people often ran businesses out of old kauri villas, and in the back rooms of this old villa he found the 160 Stornellos. I forget who he was, but he was selling used cars, Gnats and other junk.

So Phill came back with plans to get them, but we all had no money....so he used other peoples money. If you wanted one, you put money in the kitty...and we got $3000, some was mine, I don't think any was Phill's. Phill borrowed Scope Motorcycles trailer, I think he was working there at the time, which I towed behind my car, and he drove a ute borrowed from one of the investors, and we made the trip down to get them.  Only two had been sold, and one was stripped for spares....and another was in parts too, but complete.  Phill being an Aussie did all the talking, my wife (then girlfriend) and I just sat and watched a master at work.  We wanted all the bikes, but he only wanted to sell us 4, Phill pulled out the wad of 10's and 20's and waved it under his nose and said we had to go back up North (he implied Kaitia)....as we headed to the door he relented, and so we got the 5 for $3000.

I checked tham all out, and decided one of the green ones looked in best nick, so swapped over the blue tank and side panels to the green bike.  It didn't take much to get them all up and running. I still have the price tag from mine - $1050.  The green one in bits was sent to a friend of Phill's in Melbourne. I think Roy still has his red one, I presume he's one of the posters, and I came across the other red one in later years...I saw a girl on it and chased her home! Came across her a few years later and she still had it. It appears she will be the poster Guzzi160.

I don't know about being in a flooded warehouse, I saw no water damage, and heard of no big end failures. What happened to one of the 2 sold was the taper sheared off the end of the crank, and one bike was stripped for the crank (I saw the crank). It happened to mine too, stopped one night, pulled the cover off and the flywheel fell out with a bit of crank on it. Bit of a problem and no one wanted to know about it, but one engine shop said they could do it, sight unseen.  They split the crank, bored out the mainshaft, made a new one and pressed it in, cost me $150.  So I've been inside my engine, looked all good in there.I don't know about Phill having a Scrambler, when we stayed with him in Melbourne in 1980 he didn't have one, but I saw the 160 he sent over. I have since lost contact with him, and nearly everyone else at the time.

I used mine for 10 years, apart from the time off getting the crank rebuilt, and took it to Waiheke Island when we lived there. It was a great bike for the place, but stopped using it when I got even more suitable bikes, last rego on the plate is 1988, I did have it on hold, but is dead now.  It didn't fair well with the neglect and salt air. I've dragged it around with me, selling all our other bikes, but always making an excuse, or just not admitting it was there.

I have since come across the importer, we were communicating about Stornellos this morning on the Kiwibiker website. He doesn't remember a hell of a lot, but has sales dockets with all chassis numbers, so it's possible to find out where they all went I suppose.

So - I decided I needed to get my Stornello going again, last run at the turn of the century.   I didn't look after the tank well, I put something in it I must've thought was a good idea, but wasn't. I had to put a tank liner in. Otherwise it's just been a pull apart and put back together, I can't afford a restore, can't even afford tyres at this stage. So got it running and took it for a spin a few days ago, all nearly good. I don't have an instrument panel yet as I broke that in a highside in 1985, and am making one out of a stainless sheet. I rode it for years without, so that's ok with me. This will be my back road bike, lots of twisty back roads here, and lots of gravel too.  I have 3.25 K70's on it, a good gravel road tyre.  I did gear it down because it had trouble pulling top gear 2 up, but have gone back to stock now.  Dunno about the tyres - I did some flattrack and like my big front tyres in gravel, maybe I'll drop to 3.00 on the front and 3.25 on the rear....I really despise small front tyres.

I'm the guy from Huntly it appears....only been here 10 years.

[Muzz]

Nice looking wee bike Motu. ;-T ;-T

[sign216]

Well, since we're talking about small bikes, here's the "basement find" Gilera I bought.  I've been slowly fixing it up.

[Cam3512]

Here's my '67 Scrambler.  All original paint.  Took off the original tires date coded 1967, and replaced with some new ones so I can run it in the Moto Giro.  Had 380 miles when I bought it.

[jhrodd]

Well, since we're talking about small bikes, here's the "basement find" Gilera I bought.  I've been slowly fixing it up

Nice to see another Gilera. I have a '64 Sei Giorni  it still has the decals on the alloy rims.

[jas67]

Here's my '67 Scrambler.  All original paint.  Took off the original tires date coded 1967, and replaced with some new ones so I can run it in the Moto Giro.  Had 380 miles when I bought it.

 :drool

Beautiful!   And what a find too!    380  miles and original paint!    Why can't I find 'em that nice!

[Motu]

Took the Stornello for a ride last week, and came home on this.



Broke the chain on a gravel road. The chain may  be  45 years old, but it has only done about 15,000km.  I was lucky to catch the ride, I parked at the quarry gate and he came out as I was carrying the chain....he went 200 metres down the road and stopped - he'd just called in to say he was onto his next job, and it had been cancelled. Took me into town.

I made some instrument pods, first prototype, but this will probably be it forever.





I've got a new fuel tap too...

[spmcg]

Hi Motu, I've recently picked up a white Stornello 160 off trademe from a guy in Papakura. White wasn't one of the colours mentioned in your list so I wonder where this came from. The guy I got it from claimed to have it from new, its only done 14k kms though.