Circuiti di Perugia e del Trasimeno, wonderful rarities on two wheels
About fifty vintage motorcycles, one more significant than the other in terms of history, met in Umbria (Central Italy) on June 11th and 12th to honor a tradition of the Club Auto e Moto d’Epoca Perugino: the Perugia and Trasimeno Circuits (Circuiti di Perugia e del Trasimeno). Born about ten years ago from the merger of the Trasimeno Circuit – a tour of the lake in 1909 – and the Perugia Circuit, which dates back to the 1920s, the event is reserved for motorcycles built by 1975.
Enthusiasts came from all over Central Italy with their splendid motorcycles to reconstruct the history of two wheels in an amazing traveling museum that moved between the small Umbrian town of Mugnano, known for its his murals, the Magione racetrack, where motorcyclists went wild in three laps in spite of medium and chronometers, and a visit to the Cams university museum center in Casalina. The Ducati dealer in Ellera di Corciano was chosen as the basis, which set up a review of important motorcycles from the past for the occasion.
The longest-lived model present at the double re-enactment was a 1928 Guzzi GT “Norge”, moreover preserved as original from top to bottom. The owner, from Rimini, found it in Spoleto. “It only had the license plate, later I was able to find the original booklet”, he said. The motorbike had been forgotten like several other participants: vehicles that at some point in their lives were put aside and dropped into oblivion or perhaps sold for a few pennies because they were deemed obsolete. This is also the case of the 1929 Moto Guzzi Sport 14 (500cc), found in a cellar in Robecco sul Naviglio, about thirty km west of Milan: before its current owner, from Cesenatico and a long-time Guzzi rider, it had had two more but then it was at rest for too long and the rust had taken possession of it. Therefore it has undergone a complete restoration.
Another splendid preserved motorbike was a Moto Guzzi Sport 15 from 1932, in addition to the irresistible 1956 Lambretta 150 D and its sidecar with a load-bearing structure in Durapid aluminum alloy. “I went up there for the first time as a child”, recalled the middle age owner, from Assisi. “It was my grandfather’s, who was without a leg. He worked as a shoemaker and took me as a passenger with the task of delivering the shoes arranged to customers from the sidecar and collecting the work to be done”.
Among the rarities, a splendid Aquila Invicta Super Sport (175cc, chassis made in Turin and English 4-valve radial overhead valve) brought by Luciana Veddovi, a Fossombrone enthusiast together with her husband, who was riding a 1936 Rudge 500. He got his first motorcycle, a 1940 Bianchi, as a christening gift when his son, now 36, was born. “But I’ve liked vintage motorcycles since I was a little girl,” she specified.
Luciana was not the only woman centaur of the event, which was also attended by Patrizia Baldoni, from Perugia, with a Matchless, the same bike with which she started 25 years ago together with her partner. He too drove an Englis motorbike, which is an Ariel, another respectable rarity. In addition to the prestige of certain pieces from the nineties, including a Harley Davidson WLA from the Second World War, the spirit of friendship and passion that was perceived among the crews contributed to making the occasion unforgettable. The were all lovers of vintage two wheels who easily organize themselves to enjoy their favorites in the name of the most crackling of entertainment even in winter, when there are no meetings on the agenda.
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