In 1964 Richard
Morley was a successful racer of
125,250 and 256cc high cam Moto Parillas in International road races
throughout Europe. He started his motorcycle racing career riding a
500cc Triumph Tiger 100 at Brands Hatch in 1956. From 50cc Itom to 500cc
Moto Guzzi, he went on to ride many makes and capacities of road racing
machines on most of the UK circuits before his chance introduction to
Moto Parilla in 1963.
He still rides
today - on his old 250 works framed bike - at venues in the UK &
Europe where Classic fans can still hear the sound of a Parilla being
used as it was always meant to be on a track - hard!
Now over to RM to start the story......
Introduction
The first approach by Moto
Parilla / Capriolo UK importers came in the summer of 1963, following
publication of an article in the Motorcycle News on a constant mesh
multi speed gearbox I had designed and installed in my G 50 Matchless.
Their interest was to know if I could develop my gearbox cluster with 6
and 7 speed options to fit into the 250 Parilla unit construction engine
and gearbox.
After
a number of meetings with the Moto Parilla / Capriolo directors in
Croydon, South London, including a visit with them to the Parilla
factory in Milan, in October 1963. I agreed to further develop my
gearbox design for Moto Parilla to manufacture and install in their
motorcycles in return for the loan of 3 M.S.D.S Parillas and spares,
which I could prepare in Milan and enter in the “Continental
Circus" the following year. I also agreed, if all went to plan, to
help Parilla/ Capriolo develop new production racers for sale back in
the UK
RM examines a 250 engine
Arriving at Parilla's Milan factory some
five months later in March 1964, with Vic Watton my mechanic, friend
& supplier of our Ford Thames transporter. Things were not quite as we had
anticipated at Parilla.There was no sign of the Ceriani forks or
the Oldani front brakes which we understood Parilla would be providing
but there were 3 sets of multi spring racing clutches and 2 30 mm bore
SS1 Dell'orto racing carbs sitting on the bench awaiting our arrival
Text
of the above clipping
Management and staff were all most welcoming
but the competition
workshop was closed, manufacturing staff were working short time and
some of the Parilla directors I had met in London and Milan, were
no longer with the company. There were even rumours of the
company being taken over by another motorcycle manufacturer.
The competition workshop was
quickly re-opened and 2 ex racing mechanics were allocated to assist us
however the current Parilla management team seemed to have lost all
interest in developing new gearbox clusters?
After consultation with the Parilla / Capriolo directors back in Croydon
UK, it was agreed that we should abandon, or at least postpone, our
program to jointly develop new gearbox clusters with Parilla but
continue to develop the new 125cc engine and prepare our 250 and 256 bikes
before joining the "Continental Circus" in April, as
originally planned
Needing the maximum starts per meeting to
earn our living (having been offered £50 per qualified start at most
meetings), we concentrated all our efforts over our 3 week stay at
Parilla, to preparing the 250 and 256cc machine (this was to be entered
in 350 and 500cc races, where permitted) and to the development of a one
off 125cc racer based on a scaled down 175 H. C Parilla. The Parilla
model line up in 1964 also included a 50cc single and 350cc twin but
these models were completely non starters for road racing
development.
RM
gearbox
Had
Parilla developed and manufactured gearboxes based on my
constant mesh design we would have fitted 6 speed clusters in the
250 and 256 bikes and tried a 7 speed cluster in the planned 125.
As things were, we had no other practical alternative but to put
Parilla 5 speed clusters in the 250 & 256cc machines and latter
in the season, a six speed cluster based on a 50 cc Racer design I
had earlier developed and manufactured for Peter Lucas, into the 125.
The 125 was planned to be of a square (bore & stroke) engine
configuration however the gearbox and other issues took up so much time
we had to abandon the idea and took a chance on just sleeving down the
175 to 125. Of course this gave us a very long stroke engine which in
time became known on the Circus as "Morley's Steam Engine”.
To the envy of many MZ, Bultaco and MV riders, this engine was extremely
reliable and kept going when many of them had stopped, particularly when
we were all running on fuel supplied by the East German,
Czechoslovakian, Yugoslavian and Hungarian race organisers, reputed
sometimes to
be well below 70 Ron!
Eventually we got the 125 together and after test runs on the
Milan/Turin motorway, at times with a Police escort, we set off for our
first race meeting at the Nurburgring, West Germany, at the end of April
1964.
On
to Chapter 1 - Continental Circus
