COLLECTOR: ALAIN NIBARTS
A Frenchman with an appetite for Italian bikes, especially Aermacchis and Lintos
A Frenchman with an enviable accumulation of Italian lovelies
Alain Nibart’s collection of Aermacchi motorcycles built before and during Harleydavidson’s ownership of its Italian subsidiary, and their Linto cousins, is surely the finest anywhere in the world – including Italy. Yet the garage holding much of it could hardly appear more inconsequential, standing adjacent to the elegant four-story house built in 1928 in a suburb of Paris which Alain shares with his partner Sophie.
“We agreed to split the space inside here 50/50, so she has two floors, as do I – but the garage is all mine!” declares the genial 75-year-old retired graphic designer and exhibition stand builder. The garage’s pink doors hide a rich treasure trove of motorcycles and memorabilia. Beyond that humble entrance lies an array of Italian twowheelers from the 1945-75 post-war era, with Motom, Gilera, Italjet, Morini and Moto Guzzi models contrasting with the improbable Art Nouveau 1961 German-built 50cc Victoria 155 Hummel moped, which back then rejoiced in the nickname of the Tin Banana.
But they’re the supporting cast to the 40 or so Aermacchi headliners which Nibart has collected down the years, of which he says around 30 are in running order. That wouldn’t include the fire-damaged mid-’60s café racer with aftermarket full fairing and smashed-in headlamp that he’s slotted artistically into what remains of an Aermacchi Harley-davidson packing crate.
But the nearby Us-market Harley Sprint ERS flat tracker with a home-built rigid frame – aka an Aermacchi,
but with the Us-market magneto ignition – is ready to hit the dirt, same as the stock-framed CRS 250cc version on the floor below it, painted to look like a junior Harley KR.
Alongside these are numerous Aermacchi 250/350cc Ala d’oro ohv road racers from 1961-70, each with the same distinctive horizontal air-cooled cylinder as the CRS/ERS for optimum cooling, and a low centre of gravity. Nibart has both early four-speed models and later five-speeders which, despite their humble pushrod valve gear, constantly embarrassed more exotic overhead-cam racers at all levels of competition during that period.
“Their low build and sleek design were the Aermacchi attributes that appealed to me first,” says Alain. “In the early 1960s I had a Paloma 50cc cyclomoteur, which allowed me to explore the streets of the east of Paris where I grew up. I’d visit the café opposite the butcher’s shop run by Jean-pierre Beltoise’s father, to see Jean-pierre there. He was my early hero, and he raced an Aermacchi – in fact, he became French champion on one [Beltoise later drove for Matra and BRM in Formula One].
“I’d also visit Georges Monneret’s bike shop in the Place de la Bastille – he was the top Paris dealer for Aermacchis, and he’d have a line of them outside on the trottoir (pavement). I loved to run my hands along the fuel tanks; smooth and low thanks to the horizontal cylinder, which made it look so ready to race. But it would take another decade before I could afford to own one myself.”
In his 20s he began building a career running an art school and graphic design studio, being for a time more interested in cars than bikes. But in 1973 he finally bought his first Aermacchi, a year-old 250 Ala Verde.
“Gradually, as I acquired more different models, I had an ever-expanding address book of good contacts, especially in Italy. I know the road from Paris to Varese by heart! But I decided to focus only on four-strokes, except for the very earliest two-stroke models, so that made 1978 – when Harley sold the factory to the Castiglionis, who renamed it Cagiva – as the cut-off date for my collection.”
That distinctive ohv engine with the horizontal cylinder designed by Alfredo Bianchi made its debut in 1956 in the distinctive-looking but commercially unsuccessful Chimera, with its so very ’50s streamline styling. “I have eight such bikes altogether, but I’ve loaned the others out to friends,” says Alain.
One of these guards the stairs leading to his office at the top of the house, a temple to the art of the motorcycle with copious posters and prints lining the walls and ceiling that are inevitably heavy on Aermacchis, and a massive array of scale-model motorcycles of all types and nationalities, interspersed with the occasional photo of Brigitte Bardot and a huge library of magazines and books.
The most famous of Alain’s Aermacchi GP racers, with the Bianchi-designed engine, sits in his garage below, complete with an incongruous-looking pair of massive Marchal headlamps on the nose of the fairing. It’s the unique Aermacchi endurance racer which maverick
‘SADLY, MY AWARENESS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF LINO TONTI CAME ABOUT TOO LATE TO EVER MEET HIM’
French importer Pierre Borie entered at the last minute for the 1969 Bol d’or held over the full 6.4km banked Montlhéry circuit, which marked the revival of the famous 24-hour endurance race after a nine-year lapse.
The successful global competition debut of the racewinning four-cylinder Honda CB750 meant that the almost incredible performance of the 350cc Aermacchi single, ridden by reigning French 500cc champion Jeanclaude Costeux and Maurice Martine, has been all but overlooked. They finished in sixth place overall and fourth in the 500cc class, behind a trio of Kawasaki H1 two-stroke triples – but ahead of fleets of 750cc Norton, Triumph, BMW and Moto Guzzi twins in the 55-bike field.
“Borie had been the French importer for Aermacchi ever since the company began making motorcycles,” says Alain. “So, since he sold a lot of bikes in France, he had good relations with the factory. Costeux had won the French 500cc title the year before on an Aermacchi, but was invited to ride a Yamaha in the revived Bol d’or.
“To prevent him doing that, Borie had to furnish him with an Aermacchi to ride, so he asked the factory for one, and they sent him a Us-spec 350 ERS. However, this blew the engine in the first laps of pre-race testing, so it went back to Italy and was replaced by a curious prototype with a dry clutch and Motobi-type ‘cactus’ cylinder head, but no headlights. This arrived very late – which is why ‘No 88 Aermacchi’ wasn’t in the printed programme; another reason why its achievement is often overlooked.
“This bike had total-loss 6V ignition like an Ala d’oro racer, so they rigged up an alternator from a Citroën 2CV car to power the twin headlights, which Borie had sourced from Marchal. There were no instruments, not even a revcounter – Aermacchi said they wanted them to rev it as hard as they liked, to see how long it would last before the engine broke! But it didn’t break, so they came home in sixth place, most improbably.”
The Aermacchi might even have beaten the second Honda 750 four of Laprie/frémin which finished fifth, 10 laps ahead of the Italian single, if not for Pierre Borie’s insistence that the bike should pit at 5am on Sunday morning (running in a secure fifth place), so the team could enjoy a bowl of French onion soup for breakfast together!
“It seemingly never crossed his mind that the second rider should keep racing,” says Alain with a Gallic shrug. “But the bike ran fast and completely reliably to the finish, after which the engine was sent back to the factory, and Monsieur Borie installed a street motor in it, repainted it black and sold it as a road bike. I came across it almost by accident at an autojumble and bought it – but it took me 10 years to restore it. I wanted to make sure it was totally original.
I bought some parts from Borie, sourced others from Italy, and eventually obtained the correct engine – so here it is, a little known, romantic slice of Aermacchi racing history.” The Nibart collection also includes a fine selection of early Aermacchi models, from the moment in 1951 when Italy’s leading manufacturer of fighter aircraft during WWII, banned from building any planes in the post-war era, diversified into motorcycles. To do so, they hired
Pesaro-based engineer Lino Tonti, a qualified aviation engineer who’d worked for Benelli before and during the war, before teaming up post-war with his friend Massimo Pasolini, father of famous racer Renzo, to adapt military transport jettisoned post-conflict for civilian use.
In 1947 Tonti designed a prototype Linto (as in LINO Tonti) dohc single for Pasolini to race with some success on the street circuits of the Adriatic Coast. But next, spurred by the success of the then-new Vespa, in 1950 Tonti created a futuristic-looking big-wheel scooter, the Linto Cigno 125 two-stroke, as a direct competitor to the best-selling four-stroke Moto Guzzi Galletto.
“My awareness of the importance of Lino Tonti to the Aermacchi story came about too late to ever meet him before he passed away in 2002,” says Alain. “To begin with, I was only interested in four-stroke Aermacchis, but after I’d acquired quite a few, I decided I ought to try to assemble a complete collection of such bikes from the earliest times, which obviously included the early twostrokes. Lino Tonti was an inherent part of that, so I started researching him and soon realised that he’s completely underestimated even by otherwise knowledgeable Italians. At rallies or autojumbles I’ve heard people say: ‘Go and talk to the French guy – he knows all about him!’ He was the last great Italian designer of the post-war era, and created so many interesting projects, starting with the Cigno scooter.”
Tonti had created the prototype Cigno (‘Swan’ in Italian) with his own design of 123cc two-stroke engine and three-speed transmission, as an ingenious blend of motorcycle and scooter, with a fake fuel tank acting as a storage box which the rider could grip with his knees (the real fuel tank was beneath the seat), or fold down flush with the front bodywork to create a step-thru scooter (there were footboards instead of footrests).
“Tonti had an appointment with the Air Force General in charge of Aer Macchi (as it was named back then) to show him the bike with a view to their manufacturing it,” says Nibart. “But that morning he arrived at the factory to find that the briefcase he’d strapped on the rear luggage rack had opened up, and all his drawings and papers relating to the project had spilled out!
He retraced his steps and fortunately found most of them – but now he was late for his appointment, and the General was about to leave in disgust when he turned up. He managed to convince him to stop long enough to look at the Cigno, and the next thing was he’d been hired to work for Aer Macchi in putting it into production, which entailed moving to Varese. They built about 3500 Cignos over the next four years, all with leading-link forks, including a 150cc version which came in 1953.” Nibart has an original, running 125cc model in his collection.
Alain also has a parallel-twin 250 Bicilindrica of which 40-50 examples were built in 1952-53 – his is No 44 – using a doubled-up version of the Cigno twostroke motor inserted scooter-style in a very unusual U-shaped frame with twin rear shocks, which this time around was more motorcycle than scooter. That’s because what looks like a fuel tank this time really is one. There are still footboards, albeit with a substantial pillion pad and footrests for the passenger.
“Aermacchis were always quite expensive until Harley got involved in 1960,” says Alain. “Their products were built to aviation standards, so lasted longer, but were more costly to purchase, while ultra-innovative in design. The Chimera looks like a 1950s American car, while the design of the Bicilindrica reminds me of a Le Corbusier chair.”
Arguably the pinnacle of Tonti’s design career is the exquisite – it’s the only valid description – 250cc Marilina two-stroke twin, which he built in 1954 for him and his new bride to tour Italy on during their honeymoon.
By now he had left Aer Macchi, which gave him the
time to create a unique two-wheeled work of art. He began by purchasing a 250 Bicilindrica on June 24, 1954 from Umberto Premoli, the local Aer Macchi dealer in Varese with whom he’d later collaborate in producing the 500GP Linto road racer. He then enlisted the help of a small group of men including Massimo Pasolini and Tonti’s long-time fabricator Alcide Biotti to clothe this bike in an imposing set of self-designed bodywork.
His inspiration for doing that was film star Marilyn Monroe, whose nickname in Italian was Marilina – hence the bike’s name, though we don’t know what his new wife thought of that. The couple toured on the bike after their wedding that autumn, and Tonti kept it to commute to work at the Mondial design HQ in Milan.
But in 1959 he was recruited by Bianchi, also based in Milan, who presumably supplied him with one of their own bikes to commute on, so in 1961 Tonti sold the Marilina to his neighbour in Varese. He kept if for just a couple of years before moving it on – but the well-used bike was now very scruffy, so the new owner stripped off the bodywork and gave it to Carrozzeria Mangano, a Varese bodyshop, to repaint... and then forgot all about it, or else couldn’t pay the bill.
“I’d seen the only two photos in existence of this extravagant-looking motorcycle which was captioned as a ‘Marolina’, supposedly powered by an Aermacchi engine, but none of my contacts knew anything about it,” says Alain. “Eventually I was put in touch with the man who claimed to have the bodywork, and over a two-year period we had this kind of courtship dance – he’d send me a photo of a different section of it, and I’d send him a picture of another of the bikes I owned, to disprove his belief that no foreigner could have a Cigno or a Dama! Eventually we met up in this deserted farm about 25km from Varese – and there, surrounded by dozens of motorcycles ranging from 1920s vintage racers to a 2010 factory Ducati superbike, was the Marilina bodywork which had been separated from the rolling chassis when it was given to the Carrozzeria to repaint.
“I eventually managed to acquire it in November 2015, and then a year later was extremely fortunate – given that so few were made – to come across a Bicilindrica 250 to mount it on. Thanks to the exceptional skills of several different French artisans led by Dominique Secco and the Atelier Renard, after hundreds of hours of work we completed the renaissance of Marilina, and unveiled her at the Varano Historic meeting in Italy. It caused a stir!”
At the other end of the Linto timescale is the 500GP parallel twin whose ohv motor was created by Tonti in 1966-67 by effectively setting two Aermacchi cylinders on a common crankcase. Bankrolled by Umberto Premoli, himself an ex-racer, this delivered to its two dozen or so privateer customers a level of performance much higher than the British singles they were using to try to avoid being lapped by Giacomo Agostini on his MV triple.
Alain is fortunate to be the custodian of the most successful of these production racers – the bike on which Swiss-domiciled Hungarian refugee Gyula Marzovszky finished second in the 1969 500GP World Championship – on which Alain has frequently appeared at major historic events all over Europe. ”It’s quite a physical bike to ride, but it sounds wonderful”, he beams.
Alain Nibart has assembled a unique collection of the products of one of Italy’s less collectable marques. For some reason, perhaps on account of their humble pushrod/ ohv single-cylinder mechanics, Aermacchi racers have never been rated as highly as even a Paton, let alone a Gilera, Benelli or MV Agusta.
But that makes it all the more praiseworthy that this French collector has had such an appetite for the bikes from Varese, in assembling this fine tribute to an important strand of Italy’s two-wheeled heritage.
‘AFTER HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF WORK WE WERE ABLE TO COMPLETE THE RENAISSANCE OF THE 250 MARILINA’