1954 Gilera 150 Sport. Registration number, not road registe...

Hammer

£1,300

1954 Gilera 150 Sport. Registration number, not road registered. Frame number not found. Engine number 191-3801.
Gilera first sprang to prominence in the late 1930s when its glorious supercharged 4-cylinder racers trounced BMW in the premier Grands Prix and simultaneously snatched the world speed record away from the German marque. Throughout the early 1950s, for Gilera it was the racers that again grabbed the headlines, the Arcore marque's fours taking five manufacturer's titles and six individual championships in the hands of riders such as Geoff Duke, Libero Liberati and Masetti. Take 1957 alone, Gilera won the 500 cc World Championship with Liberati; second was Bob McIntyre, Duke 4th, Milani 9th and Bob Brown 10th, all on Gileras. On the other side(s) was John Surtees 3rd on an MV, Jack Brett 5th on a Norton, and Walter Zeller 6th on a BMW, case closed.
Although racing generated valuable publicity, it was sales of road bikes that paid the bills. The majority of machines sold were lightweights based on the overhead-valve 125 single that had appeared in prototype form in 1948. Developed and enlarged first to 150cc and then 175cc (with perhaps 9.5 bhp and a 4-speed on tap), these simple ohv singles, built in both Turismo and Sport versions, proved top sellers throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, although their high price outside Italy made them a relatively rare sight.
This unusual machine comes with a 2012 dating certificate from the VMCC and MOT from the same year, there has been no addition to the mileage since so it will need recommissioning if you want to put it on the road.