3BB3
4. October 2009:
What!!! - What's this?? - A new Morini?
When I got my first Morini I was convinced that I only would want to have
that one and no more. As I then gradually became a member of the
"international Morini community" I noticed that it is more a rule
than exceptions that Morinisti have more than one Morini in their
possesions. I would only shake my head - "you can only ride one bike at
a time anyway", was my disapproving thought.
Last summer a german Morinisti, Stefan
Bigalke, said to me after he just had bought a 250 2C, that he "hadn't
bought a Morini in a long time". With my conviction in mind, you may be
able to picture how absurd this statement sounded to me.
At that time I persistantly claimed that I never would want to own more than one motorcycle.
Well......... now I suddenly see myself being "one of those" - in
an almost unnoticable transition I found myself fantasizing about how
my next Morini would look like. My next Morini...!? I, who really found
it to be an excessive luxury to have more than one!
Initially I fantasized about having an original Morini as a supplement to my first Morini ;o)
Then
The Tragedy
took place and the realization of an original Morini was set into life. I
could keep the damaged bike which is waiting to be rivived.
What I now want to do isn't a revival (not yet, I dare to write), but a completely different project.
This
summer I attended the italian meeting. Again I was faced with Morinisti
who showed of thier extensive collections of Morinis.
Attending was
also Mario Perfetti who makes unbeliveable beautiful custom and racing bikes.
This year he had made a very nice racing bike that I
immediately fell in love with. Looking at it I at once began building
something similar in my head.
Perfettis beutiful machine
At the german meeting three weeks later I had a conversation with some of the guys
from "Stammtisch Hamburg". I mentioned that I knew of a danish
Morinisti who had a Dart enginge with extremely low mileage that he
might wanted to sell me. The immediate response was that I HAD to buy
it. Anything else would almost be a sinn.
Especially Thomas Walter
spend a lot of time convincing me that this was the right thing to do.
So, here's a thank you, Thomas, for the inspiring conversation.
Back
home from my vacation a puzzle started to reveal its picture in my mind:
wouldn't it be cool to build a "new" Morini? - An engine that almost
hadn't been running in a totally restored setup and with a design
according to my ideas!
Because of the insurance company compensating
me fairly well, the gap between thinking and acting was very small.
I started to ask around if someone had an inexpensive Morini for sale
that I could use as basis. And suddenly out of nowhere, as it often
is, I was offered one. A danish Morinisti, at that time unknown to me,
asked me if he could put his up for sale on my homepage. The
asking price was within my range, so I didn't waste a lot of time pondering,
and in a matter of days the deal was made and the bike in my garage.
With the new one in the house I had to convince Kresten Korsbæk to
sell his Dart engine to me. Luckily he is a very nice person. I got the
engine, and even for a very favourable price.
With the most important parts at hand I'm ready to start building -
almost! Everything has gone so fast, I have hardly had time to draw the
sketches I usually make for these kinds of projects. A project name is
found, though, as you can see in the headline. Of course there's
something hidden behind that. In time I will reveal more, but for now I
don't want to reveal to much ;o)
That much I will say: The Morini is
going to be light, will have a fairing, have racing-looks, and my
primary source of inspiration is the Rebello from the 50ies:
Moto Morini Rebello – the most succesful road racer from the Moto Morini company
As you can see, I'm turning into a Morinisti "like the others" - I
recall a quote that I read a long time ago and I at that time didn't
really understand. Not because it isn't in my native tongue, but
because, as I have tried to describe, it seemed absurd to me. It
is beginning to make more and more sense, though ;o)
The quote was written by Paul Compton, a british Morinisti, and can be found on his homepage:
"Morinis
are an obsession. You will either only ever own one, or you'll never
own just one."