Italian Elegance: 2003 Mondial Piega
Here is a little something to liven the week up. If my lottery numbers ever come through this would be the bike that would be at the top of my list to purchase. Quite simply it is an elegant motorcycle. It has it all: history, top shelf components and exclusivity. Hell, I’m sold on just the classic Mondial logo.
FB Mondial was another of these Italian marques that was winning world championships in the 40’s and 50’s but couldn’t translate that success into a successful business model. Some of the information I found claimed Mondial was much more of a boutique brand with all its’ production bikes being hand made. An interesting part of their history involved Honda. Apparently Soichiro Honda himself approached Mondial about purchasing their 125cc race bikes to help the infant Honda company get up to speed. Mondial agreed and the two companies took two dramatically different paths from there.
Fast forward decades and the Mondial name was back and they needed an engine for their new superbike. Who do they call? Not Honda! An article I read said the Mondial was originally supposed to come with a TL1000 but the deal fell through. Mondial then came to an agreement with Honda and Honda repaid the debt and let an outside company use its’ big bore engines for the first (and I think only) time. The bike is fitted with a SP1 engine.
A beefy carbon fiber swing arm. Well kind of. There is an aluminum shell inside. If you’d like some more info on the Piega, this is a nice read. Too bad they couldn’t keep the doors open, it sounds like a really nice bike.
Quite a unique looking frame. Here is an excellent thread with some great pictures with the bodywork off: simply stunning. It looks like they keep the SP1’s split radiator set up. The body work is all carbon fiber as you would expect on a bike like this. By the way, this is a 0 mile bike.
I guess I’m getting used to the newer Star Trek looking gauges, this looks a little dated and clunky. It looks like the Peiga was originally offered in the $30,000 range. The seller is asking roughly $26,500 (17,000 British Pounds) for this example. I know there isn’t much of a chance I could ever afford one of these but I will certainly continue to dream.
If you do have the means, make the purchase here.
Ian
Made In Italy (the seller) have an entire website full of drool-worthy exotica; http://www.madeinitalymotorcycles.com/Stock%20List%20.htm . If you’re ever in their neck of the woods (which also happens to be mine), they’re well worth a visit. The owner and staff are lovely people. On a recent visit they were more than happy for me to browse, even though I’d made clear I didn’t have the means to buy anything. We chatted for quite a while, and they even made me coffee. I’ve never had the pleasure of doing business with them, but based on my experience I’d have no hesitation in doing so.
Is eBay the only place that sells bikes?
Nice, they have a second Piega in race trim.
I’ve been lucky enough to inspect one of these up close, and can say the build quality is absolutely stunning- top notch. Bimota level for sure, but different. It’s so well made in fact, that it’s clear that they must have lost money on them at the number of them sold.