Hi all! Decided to give up lurking here for a bit, and actually post something. A couple of months ago, a mate called me up and asked if I wanted to go to the preview day at Bonhams in Bicester for the sale of the Morbidelli collection. This was as a result of the closure of Giancarlo Morbidelli's motorcycle museum, and meant that there would be around 200 mainly small Italian bikes coming up for auction. Now, I am not in need of another bike, and I was only going to go with my mate to have a look, and perhaps dissuade him from parting with his hard earned in order to aquire some more old junk... There were rows of bikes in all sorts of conditions, from immaculate, to basket case, many were the sort of thing that I had never heard of before, let alone seen. There were plenty of the more common Italian makes, but I just like the sort of things that no one else has got. The viewing was on the Wednesday, then the auction lots were selling in an online feed on Saturday and Sunday. Well that didn't exactly go to plan, as he bought a 150 MV Agusta, and a 175 Gilera Extra Rossa and I ended up with this! So far it hasn't run yet, because I am storing it at his place (my garage is too full!), I also discovered that while it was cosmetically concourse, it had been restored, but had never been run. There was no oil in the forks or the engine, some of the wiring was missing from inside the headlamp shell, and there was no inner speedo cable, plus a list of quite a few odds and sods to get it ready for the road. Apologies for no bins in the background...
Hello, lovely machine. The wife and me where going to go to his museum back in 2016 at Pesaro but things didn't go to plan. It's a shame because it was meant to be a fantastic museum and Morbidelli would give you a personal tour, if i remember rightly it had some odd opening times as well.
Yup, I would have loved to see the museum too. I've never been to that part of Italy. My mate's Gilera looked to be in similar condition to my Mondial, but, after we added oil to the engine and the forks, and charged up the battery, it only started second kick! I wish that mine had been so simple, however, approaching something like this, with no workshop manual, and only your own eyeball to tell you what to do, its all a voyage of discovery. It has needed a pair of new tyres, as the old Pirellis were perished, the battery was dry, but after adding new acid, and a couple of Bat Aid tabs to each cell it held a charge. The oil filler had a dipstick, so at least I know that the oil level is OK. Wierdly the engine isn't a DOHC like it looks, but it has pushrods with enclosed hairpin valve springs. The crank case is one piece, not vertically or horizontally split in two like you might expect. The engine and gearbox are unit construction and gear driven, and the crank and gearbox shafts sit in bearings on the right side of the bike, in the crank case, but are retained in a bearing plate on the left, behind the separate flywheel. So all a bit of an odd configuration. Some spares are available from the Internazinale Registry F.B. Mondial which I have joined. I wonder if anyone else in the country has one?
Good question, someone on here might know somewhere, i'll have a rummage around on the net to see if there is anywhere else(got me interested now) and yes very interesting engine arrangement.
Parts are available here, and I have been trawling Italian Ebay, which has a few bits and pieces on it, http://registrointernazionale.fbmondial.com/ricambivari/ It would seem that there are a few different iterations of the Mondial basic design. In the late 40s and early 50s they were primarily a manufacturer of DOHC 125 and DOHC and SOHC racing machines which won them considerable success. The bottom ends are pretty similar except for the cam drive arrangements. There were 3 styles of 200cc bike, the sport, which had a whopping 7:1 compression ratio (compared to my 6:1) the normal, and the Extra Lusso. There was a normal Lusso too, but that was only a 125, with the same colours. The bike that I really wanted was the previous lot to mine, which was a 175cc Monoalbero racer, which had an estimate the same as my bike, but was bid on rather feverishly, and ended up over £20,000! I have some issues to overcome. The fuel tank cap is made from Bakelite, and has split, but repro ones are available from the register. I think that I will order a gasket set also, as you never know when you might be having a look inside the engine. I have bought a universal speedo inner repair kit, so hopefully that will have enough bits in it to make a working cable. One of the rear chain adjusters broke when I was taking the rear wheel out, but it seems to be soft soldered together, so I can re do that, and hopefully, with careful treatment will be OK. The ignition is by coil, and weirdly has a manual advance and retard. Max advance is 41°!! The mechanical voltage regulator lives in a small recess under the fuel tank. There is no stop light fitted, but that job is on the list too.
Hi there, I'm a newcomer to this forum and the reason I registered is because I have an identical FB Mondial 200 Sport Lusso that came from an Italian family near Brescia who bought it new in 1956 and I am the second owner as far as I can fathom... I'm the Marque Specialist for OEC and Blackburne in the dear old VMCC, and all my contact details are available there... Hope to hear more about these non-Ducatis even though this is a Ducati forum.... Haven't found the FB Mondial forum yet!!
It’s a brilliant story, and I get the feeling this is going to captivate me for a very long time. I just love this forum for what it throws up from time to time, with people who have passion and knowledge to share with us plebs!
There are a few of us about with 50's Italian lightweights. My mate has a 175 Mondial sport. I can confirm there definitely isn't a Mondial forum!
Well yes, it's a 1927 Model 2 sports 350cc sidevalve, the last year of flat tanks and the first year of wired-on tyres. Unlike the FB Mondial, it's a runner and a rider and although I've only had it a few weeks I've already done 120 miles on it and it's a nice thing. Nearly the best 70th birthday present I got (given to myself!!)
So what was the best present? - Just asking for a friend... PS. Very cool bike and 120 miles already. Nice one.
Well, this is a turn up for the books! Thanks for the heads up @Ducbird It looks like I might not be the only one with a 200cc Mondial in the country. Well done to @Marticelli for aquiring a Mondial. I've been collecting information and parts for mine since my first postings on this thread, but as yet, I still haven't had it on the road. There have been many problems to solve. I found that I had no compression, and examination of the valve gear showed me that there wasn't enough adjustment to be had from the rocker eccentrics. The head had to come off, the valves ground in, then aprox 1.5mm needed to be taken off the pushrods lengths. The cam was pitted, so had to be reground, then I've had to make some marks on the flywheel so that I could get the ignition timing right. Next up was the forks, which were completely worn out. The biggest expense so far was getting the forks refinished, and some bushes made. I'm currently working through the problems with the fits of the front brake components and the wheel spindle, and I still haven't got to the bottom of the problems with the speedo drive. The other news is that I have an entry for this year's Motogiro, which should have happened in May, but has now been postponed till October... I'm loving the look of Marticelli's unrestored bike, I think that I'm going to need a closer look to see what is and isn't original on mine!
@chewythekneeslider Myself and my mate Dave are booked on the re-arranged giro in October (if it happens). I'm on a 175MV Agusta, my mate is on a 175 Gilera. Done it twice before. feel free to pm if you want a chat. May see you there.
