Lakeside lovelies

Tucked away in Mandello Del Lario, near the Moto Guzzi factory and by the shores of Lake Como, is a cache of fabulous Italian lightweights.

- ANDY WESTLAKE

Italian motorcycles carrying the namesMVAgusta, Moto Guzzi and Bianchi are ones well known to most of us, but when was the last time you saw a lightweight sporting the moniker of Olympia Borgi, Paglianti, or Umberto Dei? If you are like me, the answer is probably never, but examples of all of these – plus several more unknowns – can be found secreted away in a workshop in Mondello Del Lario. For lots of enthusiasts, Mandello means the home of Moto Guzzi but, in a side street just off the banks of Lake Como, lies a fascinating collection of lightweights belonging to Tarcisio Pirelli and his two sons, Giorgio and Marco.

A couple of summers back, I was walking through the streets of this quiet Italian town when, through an open door, I happened to see an early two-stroke V and a rare 250cc Bianchi Stelvio peeping out under a tarpaulin. Ever inquisitive, I got into conversation with a chap working on an old Alfa Romeo who turned out to be Giorgio Pirelli, who, along with his younger brother, Marco, had inherited their father’s passion for restoring rare and unusual Italian motorcycles. The workshop – the first in Mandello – was founded by Tarcisio Pirelli in 1958 and to remind everyone of this, there’s a hammer mounted on the wall with the date inscribed under it. Originally, work was based on restoring cars, but in 1980 they started working on two-wheelers and, not surprisingly, many of these were on Moto Guzzis, the factory being just a half-mile down the road.