When this rare Gilera sportbike here on eBay was sent in by Barn Finds reader Jim S., I had to dig a bit deeper to find out more about this oddball Italian. Blame the spectacularly early-90s bodywork and wheels or my love of fairings (or both), but this is a bike that has an interesting history and some trick engineering up its sleeve. It’s also a rarity to find stateside, so despite being sold without a title, it could be worth picking up as a project bike.

The Gilera is the sort of motorcycle that you would see as a concept and resign yourself to the fact that the manufacturer would never actually build something that cool. With its origins connected to Europe’s requirements that novice motorcycle owners be restricted to a smaller engine capacity, the CX125 gave entry-level riders the sportbike styling they craved with a displacement that kept police officers and the insurance  companies happy.

The Gilera featured a single-sided suspension on both ends, another motorcycle show feature that actually carried over into production. The only issue was that despite its striking bodywork, space-age wheels and unique engineering, the bike itself didn’t wow reviewers. It was still a pretty conventional 15 b.h.p. big-kid’s scooter underneath the aggressive styling, so sales were never huge. It’s too bad, since Gilera as a company actually had some street cred in the motorcycle racing world.

With only about 1,000 made, this is definitely a rare find. It looks comfortable, too, so despite its low power rating, it’s a welcome alternative to a scooter. While not necessarily a good judge of what makes one bike better than another, I could see using this Gilera as an in-town commuter that sure as heck beats riding around on a Vespa. The opening bid of $5,900 seems quite ambitious, so I’m not surprised there’s no activity at the moment.