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We’ve joined forces with the fantastic Moulsdale Foundation, and industry-leading Classic Bike Magazine, to bring an all-new feature to MCL26. ‘The Collection’ is a hand-picked selection of 12 incredible bikes, all coming to the NEC this November. 

Based on the outskirts of Glasgow, The Moulsdale Foundation is a charitable foundation that houses over 700 specialist motorcycles and cars, making it Scotland’s largest collection. Open to the public once a month in order to raise funds, and lesser known outside Scotland (until now!), The Foundation has given MCL exclusive access to some of it’s hugely eclectic engine-powered stable.

We caught up with Classic Bike Editor, Mike Armitage, who has the enviable job of selecting his top pick from this massive collection of historic metal and, in his words, he explains why he’s chosen these bikes to be at MCL26.

Moto Guzzi Le Mans 850 (Mark 1)

 

“The Moto Guzzi Le Mans 850 – what later became known as the Mark 1. It’s THE defining 1970s superbike. Fast, solid handling, but also reliable, the sort of bike you could put your tent on the back and romp down to the Bol d’Or and it’d just be absolutely perfect. This one has lived in a cocoon, basically, and has done 6 miles from new. It is showroom fresh, unrestored, completely as it left the factory, and just achingly beautiful.”

Suzuki RG500

“This is a two-stroke, mid-’80s, GP-inspired bike. There was the Honda NS400, which Honda built to echo their NSRs, and there was the Yamaha RD500 which, arguably, was perhaps a better bike than the Suzuki. But the Suzuki is the one that looked and felt like you were riding a GP bike. It was the poster bike for a generation, and Suzuki tweaked all the press bikes by blueprinting the engines, so when the press got hold of them, they did 150mph from a 500, which was just bonkers. Customer bikes did about 130mph.”

Bimota V Due

“This was the bike that was going to save Bimota, and was actually the bike that almost killed Bimota. There were problems with the injection, and later bikes were sold with a carb conversion, which pretty much fixed them, but by then the damage was done. But, this is, arguably, as close as anyone has ever got to a road-legal 500 two-stroke. An exquisite chassis, bespoke engine, and the example here has bare carbon bodywork, plus Jolly Moto expansion chamber pipes that get rid of the slightly odd-looking originals. It’s not registered, it’s never been run. It’s a late, fully sorted, mint bike and if I could get it in my rucksack, it would be coming home with me.”

Mondial Piega

“Mondial is a historic Italian manufacturer, who had loads of race success back in the day. The Piega was like their last roll of the dice. Built with a Honda SP-1 engine in a bespoke Italian chassis, with top-line Paioli suspension and Brembo brakes. It has exquisite bespoke machined rear sets and parts, and a carbon fibre swingarm. They barely sold any, and they’re super rare. It’s not as good dynamically as the Honda SP-1 that it was based on – it’s bigger, it’s heavier, but it’s a thing of beauty.”

Foggy Petronas FP1

“They’ve got two Foggy Petronas FP1 bikes here. One of them’s in the crate it was supplied in, with the original folder full of all the literature that came with the bike. I’ve picked the FP1 because of the legends – the stories of them not building enough to homologate it, and only having about half the quantity they should have had. That’s the legend. How true it is, I don’t know. But, the bike is a fabulous thing. It didn’t do what it was supposed to in racing, it wasn’t a road bike hit. But there’s nothing quite like it. If you walked to your local bike meet and there was a Fireblade, an R1 and a GSX-R750, plus the FP1, and someone said, “You can have the keys, which one are you going to, which one are you going to ride?” I’d ride the FP1. The three-cylinder engine, the under-seat pipe, the sense that this thing was something different. If it didn’t achieve, it doesn’t matter, it still is something different.”

Ducati Mike Hailwood Mille Replica

“This isn’t the official Ducati Hailwood replica – it’s one of 25 bikes built by Ducati Classic Limited, paying homage to Fabio Taglioni, the famous Ducati designer. It’s the later Ducati 900SS, and has only done 8km, so basically it’s never been used. It’s like a one-off special with Conti exhausts, transparent bevel drive covers and open carbs, and it’s just a thing of beauty.”

Ducati 851SP

“This is an early Ducati 851, a 1987 model, but it wasn’t registered until ’89, but it’s an early Ducati 851SP, which makes it a sportily desirable one. It is a glorious thing with only 217km on the clock. This model is numbered, and it’s number 96 of the SPs that Ducati made. This is the bike that reinstalled Ducati as a force in Superbike racing. So at the first World Superbike races in 1988, it was between the Honda RC30 and the Ducati 851. It’s the bike that restated Ducati’s ambition, and basically put them on the road to racing dominance that they’re on currently. It has very advanced engine management plus the trellis frame, water-cooled engine, four-valve heads, it was a bike that set the blueprint for Ducati sports bikes right through the 916 and the Panigales right up to the last 1299s. It’s lovely. It’s elegant with simple lines, simple colours. It’s got an elegance that’s lacking on modern motorcycles.”

Ducati 916 Foggy Replica

“Built by Moto Cinelli, who were the Ducati UK importers at the time, the Ducati 916 Foggy Replica is a full-on Foggy rep, with fancy pipes, fancy paint, the full-bling model, and built as a Foggy rep because he was winning everything in World Superbikes at that time.”

Honda MBX80

“A Honda MBX80 might seem an odd choice because it’s not an iconic small bike. But this was an early 1980s moped. Honda made an MBX50, which had Comstar wheels like the big Hondas, a liquid-cooled engine and Pro-Link monoshock rear suspension, plus a disc brake with twin-pot sliding caliper, and a little headlight fairing. It was like having superbike bling on a 50cc. For the booming European markets, Honda made an 80cc version and a few came to the UK. I haven’t seen an MBX80 for 40 years and this is the best bit, in a museum that’s full of super low-mileage bikes, this little MBX80 has done 61,948 miles, which is ace. It is a proper trip down memory lane and demonstrates how the rapid development that swept through motorcycling in the ’80s filtered right down to the little tiddlers. Cracking thing.”

Kawasaki AR50

“For a generation of riders through the ’80s and into the mid-’90s, when you were 16, if you wanted to go fast, you had a Kawasaki AR50. Why? Because you could put an 80cc engine in it to get the six-speed bottom end and then you could get a 93cc big-bore kit and your parents didn’t know that you got a bike that did 70mph. I’ve picked this one particularly because it’s got the GPZ styling from the early ’80s, which Kawasaki used to make their little bike look like a big bike. It is a late model with fabulously gaudy 1990s graphics on it, a clash of eras, and brilliant for it. For idiots like me, there’s someone who would pay thousands of pounds for that just to smoke around at 32mph.”

Kawasaki GPZ750 Turbo

“From the late ’70s, through the ’80s, all the big manufacturers tried to be the ones who made forced induction work. So there was a Suzuki Turbo, there was a Honda Turbo, and there was a Kawasaki Turbo, and the GPZ is the one that worked best. With a fuel-injected engine, turbocharger that actually worked, the iconic GPZ styling so you look like Tom Cruise racing a fighter plane, along with some brilliant Battle Star Galactica style LED lights and a boost gauge above the tacho, it’s as 1980s as you can possibly get. And it’s chuffing brilliant!”

Suzuki GT750

“The GT750 was the first liquid-cooled multi-cylinder Japanese motorcycle, and while the Kawasakis were all about performance, with their big 750s and the smaller 350s and 500s, all of them were triples and all hairy devices. Whereas the Suzuki is something different. Yes, it’s a two-stroke, but the red line’s 7,000rpm. It’s all about torque and comfort. It’s a big, practical, use every day two-stroke unlike anything else. It also looks great, with the entirely polished engine and metallic blue paint. It’s a glorious slice of 1970s excess that actually is a really, really practical classic motorbike.”

Want to find out more about each of the bikes?

Mike will be exploring each bike in greater detail in Classic Bike, and you can see the bikes up close and personal at MCL26. If you do want to find out more about the finer points of these twelve awesome machines, plus loads more exciting features about bikes from days gone by, why not subscribe and never miss an issue? Visit https://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/classic-bike-magazine for the latest Classic Bike subscription deals.

Pictures shot by the brilliant Chippy Wood.