What do you do when a pandemic forces you to stay home? Why, restore old motorcycles of course! That’s exactly what Marcelo and María have been doing these past few months, and the results are spectacular. Marcelo recently completed a Ducati 250cc 24 Hours Replica, originally made in Spain by Mototrans in the 1960s under Ducati license. Meanwhile, María embarked on her first ever restoration project: a Zanella 100cc, made in Argentina circa 1960! We caught up with the dynamic duo to find out more about these bikes!
At the beginning of the pandemic I asked Marcelo to teach me to restore a bike. I already had a basic knowledge of mechanical things from our local high school in Argentina, a well known technical school that had a unique way of teaching general education while also teaching us about agriculture, mechanics, farming, etc.
The Zanella has a brand new NOS motor that we found in Escondido, previously owned by a gentleman who had it on the shelf for the last 58 years! It was brand new, never before fired! After working for around 130 hours on this bike, the highlight of the experience was to start the engine for the first time. We still had some work left to do on the bike, but the whole time leading up to that moment I was just so curious about what it would sound like…and it sounded amazing!
Riding the Zanella for the first time was exciting for two reasons: I had to get used to the very challenging experience of riding a 100cc, and of course because it was an almost brand new motorcycle that I had assembled. What I enjoyed the most was to be involved in a new project, to learn so much about motorcycles, and to do it all right next to Marcelo, my mentor and partner.
Since I’m now a Zanella owner, my next project is another Zanella, this time a 175c named “Ponderosa.” It was a popular model made in Argentina in the late 60s.
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