The vendor, an accomplished engineer, has owned this imported Motobi since 2004 and has carried out sympathetic work to the bike to bring it to a good reliable standard whilst retaining as much of its originality as possible, including the rare lafranconi silencers, so all the paintwork and brightwork is completely original and carries great patina. The vendor arranged the historic vehicle registration and has used the machine on many UK rallies and trips abroad. The engine starts readily on the kickstart and is very powerful, the gearbox is excellent and all running gear, including the brakes, work as expected. The bike is offered with a photocopied rider's manual and service manual and some marque related literature.
A machine for the parallel twin connoisseur who wants to be different and representing a wonderful opportunity to acquire one of these rare Italian thoroughbreds, the Motobi Tornado and Benelli Tornado share a common parentage and the Motobi version is rarely seen.
Benelli and Motobi are best remembered for their racing four cylinder machines and road going sixes, the factory based in Pesaro, Italy, exhibited its first 650cc twin at the Milan Show in 1967, although production did not begin in earnest until 1971.
The new Tornado model was expected to appeal to the lucrative US market due to the popularity of big parallel twins there, in reality the influx of high specification Japanese machines at lower cost meant that sales figures did not meet aspirations.
The engine has a 360-degree crankshaft and pushrod valve gear with horizontally split crankcases, unit construction design with helically geared primary drive and a 5 speed gearbox, original sales literature indicated a power delivery of 57HP and a top speed of 118mph.
Engineered to a higher standard than their British counterparts, the Motobi and Benelli twins were commensurately more expensive and relatively few were sold into the UK market.
