Behold the famous Guazzoni!
What, you never heard of it? Don’t feel bad, neither had we. It must be one of the rarer brands in the world. From what little we can learn on Google and Wikipedia, it only existed for a few years in the 1960s/70s in Italy. They made small displacement road and offroad bikes, such as this, the 1965 Matta 50. We believe that’s what it is, anyway. The engine is about 1/18th the size of a Harley Sportster 883. Back in the day, there was professional 50cc racing, and a number of companies made 50cc street motorcycles. These days there are a few 50cc street bikes out there, but you’ll work hard to find them in the USA.
It’s one of the bigger restoration jobs we’ve had — in terms of labor, if not engine size — and one of the best looking ones. When it came to us, it had tires on it made by a company that doesn’t exist anymore in a size that no one makes anymore. Our task was just to make it look pretty, not to make it run and win races. This may be a lucky thing, because Lord knows what you’d have to do with it if any engine parts broke on it.
