THE IBERIAN ITALIAN

Sometimes you find bikes because you are looking for them, and sometimes they find you. Thus it was at the VJMC’s autojumble at Popham Airfield. There it was, propped up against the vendor’s van. Initially I ignored it because I thought it was a two-stroke, there seemed to be too much missing and it was going to be too much money anyway. Returning later, the vendor had produced the mudguards and a large cardboard box of bits so it was worth a better look.

It said MV on the tank but MV didn’t make it. It was Spanish, made in 1960, a 150cc four-stroke called a ‘Stella’. The first bit was true enough and the rest slightly less so. The bike belonged to the vendor’s father who had owned it for a number of years and had clearly spent a lot of time and money, but he’d decided not to carry on. A deal was done, with the bike arriving a few days later. Then I could see exactly