Here’s a winter project: this bellissimo barn find is a 1964 Gilera 124 Giubileo Extra and it can be found on eBay with no takers on the opening bid price of $945, but there are five days left on the auction so maybe someone will see this as a worthy restoration project. It’s located in ridiculously beautiful Brookings, Oregon, just a stone’s throw from the northern California border.
Gilera was founded in 1909 in Milan, Italy by Giuseppe Gilera. The company had 84 years of producing a wide range of interesting and stylish motorcycles before being bought out by Piaggio who closed their doors in 1993. They are incredibly beautiful, little jewel boxes when they’re restored and, as is often the case, they often times end up being displayed in homes and offices instead of being ridden.
The seller says that this bike was found in a barn, “the lady said Grampa Passed away and he has had it as long as she could remember.” Unfortunately, there is no title but hopefully you can get one by using a bill of sale in your state.
This is a 124 cc OHV single with around 7-9 hp. I can’t help thinking what a fun project it would be to restore this motorcycle. Here’s a YouTube video of a similar bike running, she sounds’a good, no? And, here’s a YouTube video of a restoration of a 1960 model. Bellissimo! The seller says that they haven’t tried to get it running but it does turn over, and there is even an extra engine that comes with it in case there are any parts that could be transferred over. I know that this isn’t a big, powerful road bike, but there is no question that it would draw a huge crowd at any cars and coffee or bike show. Would you restore this bike and ride it or just keep it on display in your office or living room? I’d ride it!
Make it safe and ride it as it is, it’s cool.
Woooo, it’s an “Extra”. Wonder what that means? Push it back in the barn for future generations to find ( and put back) Not going to find a lot of interest for this one. If it was clean, that would be a different story, but these were 1 step up from a moped ( sans the pedals) and parts, I’d think, would be hard to find ( although that Rick’s Restorations, or whatever it’s called now, seems to find everything for these things) Perhaps there’s piles of these somewhere in Italy, but not around here.
You identify it as a Giubileo, but I don’t see that anywhere in the add, just “Extra.” On the Bob Wright motorcycle restoration site (UK) they don’t show an “Extra” in the list of bikes for which they carry parts, but do show a Giubileo 124 with parts availability rated as “good.” If those parts would fit then there shouldn’t be much of a problem.
For some strange reason I like this bike. It would be a challenge to restore but you wouldn’t be very likely to find another one at a bike get-together. You might spend some time trying to convince someone that it comes from across the OTHER pond. The only Italian bikes that made an impression over here were makes like Ducati, Moto Guzzi, and of course, Vespa. I saw others like Gilera and Benelli but very uncommon.
One of the guys class of 63 in neighborhood bought a new Vespa 150, when he graduated. that thing was goofy looking with Bob being over 6ft tall. BUT…was fast off the line and carried two no problem. So another friend bought a Light green Vespa 50, same thing….ran the wheels off the Honda 50 Cubs etc. Later Bruce got rid of the 50 and put a Wards Riverside 125 on parents Wards charge card….about in 1965. Benelli if I remember right…..painted it all Navy Blue with Competition Orange tank! Couldn’t tell it was a Wards bike….had a ball with them…..extending our exploring to 20 miles away from MPLS! Wish I could be younger again to run something like this….after owning too many big block suzukis/Hondas/Kawasakis…..just can’t go below 1100 CC.
I picked up a 106 almost identical to this 125 in similar condition for $75.00. The bike is flimsy, the metal is soft, not all parts are available, and what are, are expensive.
To top it all the timing gear is plastic and has a tendency to shatter. Put is back in the barn or sell it for parts. Mine? its going on craigslist for what I bought it for I got better things and projects to do.
It’s beautiful. Clean it up and run it as-is. It would draw admirers every time it’s parked.