Morbid Curiosity: 1980 Morbidelli 125 VR

For Sale: 1980 Mordidelli 125 VR

Giancarlo Morbidelli is an iconic figure in motorcycle racing. Not to be confused with his son, Gianni Morbidelli (former Formula 1 driver), Giancarlo started his manufacturing concern building furniture and coach bodies for automobiles before turning to his passion: motorcycle racing. From the late 1960s through mid-1970s Morbidelli campaigned successful small-bore bikes, acquiring talent where he could (including Jorg Muller, who had designed the dominant Van Veen Kreidler machines such as this one).

In the late 1970s Morbidelli created a new factory to manufacture bikes. This time period is known as the Morbidelli-Benelli-Armi – or MBA – era, and it is during this time that customer bikes became available to accredited riders. It is from that era that this wonderful 125 VR was born and raced; it still looks quite aggressive today.

From the seller:
This is a bill of sale

This is my MBA (Morbidelli) 125 GP that I’ve owned since 1996.It was guaranteed to make 35hp, my bike was making 45hp on the dyno. The bike has an interesting history as it was previously raced in Japan. I bought this at Rick Cole auction in March 16, 1996. It was a Museum piece in Japan,that were all road racing machines. I have all of the sale info from the action (catalog, invoice, bill of sale, and more) I had Yoshinobu Kosakathe the owner of Garage Company prep the bike. I had raced it three times with American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association before they banned the bike. It was just too fast for anything on the track. On Hockenheim gearing this bike is said to be capable of 150mph! As you’re probably aware, in the hands of Pier Paulo Bianchi and some other notable riders these machines dominated the 125 GP class during the 70s and are superbly engineered, lightweight machines with many magnesium parts. If during the 70s, you wanted to ride one of these works bikes, then providing Morbidelli thought you were good enough (i.e. British Champion) they might let you buy one, it would cost you a cool £12,000 in the 70s if you weren’t a works rider. These machines very rarely surfaced for sale and no doubt I’ll regret selling. Please contact me on the numbers below if you need any other information.

I have an owner manual (Copy) new tank stickers. I am also selling the all spare parts that I have bought from around the world to keep it running. Piston, rings, needle bearings, cylinders, cylinder heads, crank, NOS clutch plates & used, hangers, jetting, NOS trans & shifting drum & forks, NOS tachometer, Gearing, NOS gasket O rings, NOS connecting rods, rotor valves and much more

I had bought all of Philippe DeLespinay parts and some of them where Factory Morbidelli. One set of cylinder, crank & Pistons are factory Morbidelli not MBA these are priceless.

Look at the photos carefully this is what goes with the bike. This will be the last time you will see one of these for sale for a long long time!

We do not see many Morbidelli models on RSBFS – and I expect this auction to go up in price very quickly. Morbidelli went on to some infamy with his 850cc V-8 motorcycle which was beautifully crafted, but it was deemed too expensive for production and ultimately is remembered as the most expensive motorcycle offered for sale according to Guinness (the record book, not the beer). That was in 2001. Today that record is held by tehe $185k MTT Turbine Superbike. Morbidelli has since created a massive museum to commemorate racing and his motorcycles; now that would be a cool vacation destination.

This auction is on right now and represents a fantastic way to get into vintage racing, vintage collectables AND a spare parts collection. The current bid is at a paltry $4,050 with reserve still in place. Check out this super-rare racer here, and let us know what you think. If it was priced right, would you give it a go?

MI