1977 Magazine-Motorcycle Illustrated

[Steve Brown]

Has anyone got a copy of the magazine Motorcyclist Illustrated from 1977? Specifically the one with a test of the 350 Sport and featuring pics taken at Morphy Motors in Tring? Not sure which Month but I expect it will be July/August or possibly October of that year.
I had a copy of this for years but lost it in some house move or clear-out. I'd love to get either a copy of the magazine or even a photocopy/scan of the article with it's pictures.

[George 350]

I'll have a look next time I'm up in the loft.

[Steve Brown]

I'd appreciate that George-it will be relevant to both of us as the pics are of a 76 model wire wheel/disc sport in and outside the showroom of Morphy Motors. Oh and it's the bike I bought in October that same year.

[julianharty]

Steve,
There are 5 issues from 1977 listed for sale currently https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Illustrated-Mo ... n_40205207 however none have Morini's mentioned either on the cover or in the table of contents. I suppose you can at least add a watch for new items that match your search terms.

BTW I've bought an issue that has a road test of the strada. When it arrives I'll see if the article mentions the test of the sport.

Happy hunting

[Daddy Dom]

Steve, I wonder if it may be another title?
I have a 1976 issue of Motorcyclist Illustrated (not "Motorcycle") Vol 19. No 6., featuring Dave Minton's test of GOC 249N, a double-drum Sport.
All the photos are set in the woods. It didn't make sense to me that they would then do another Moto Morini road-test in 1977? But hey!
Just thinking aloud.
Cheers,
Dom

[julianharty]

Dom,
Would you be up for scanning the article and sending a copy by email (for instance) to Steve? I'd love to read a copy too. I checked online and there are several issues from 1976 currently for sale however I can't find the issue you mention. And BTW is Vol 19. No 6. the June issue? I can't see the volume or issue details on the covers or contents pages online on eBay.
Thank you

Julian

[Steve Brown]

Hi Julian and Dom, thanks for your offers/infos. I think I read the Dave Minton test back then but would still like to see it again if possible. Dom, you're right about the mag title, somehow I left the 'ist' out of my post title but not the message, age I think. As for why would they test another in 77 I think it was because they got hold of a disc model to try. I could even be wrong about it being that magazine of course but remain pretty certain, happy to be proven wrong too. They didn't ride my bike, just wheeled it outside for some pictures.
There was another mag I kept with the one I'm looking for. That was a road test annual or compilation called 'Superbikes of the '70s' or similar. That had a Morini test and may have been the Minton one? Anyway, I seem to have lost both of them.
I am watching ebay for them and think it most likely to be the July or August issue I need as that's when I was at Halton (Julian will know why) and looking to get a new Morini. By October I'd sold my DT250, paid the deposit and signed up for 3 years HP. I'd bought that mag and found the dealer was just down the road!

[landy]

Hi Steve,

Not sure if this is what you are searching for, or if it confuses things more. There is a road test by Dave Minton in the February 1978 issue of Motorcyclist Illustrated and the bike pictured, not the one tested, was provided by Morphy Motors. It is an alloy wheel, pre-electric start 350 Strada in silver with only 2 miles on the odometer.

I don't have the magazine, but the article is included in the Brooklands Books 'Moto-Morini Performance Portfolio 1974-1978', compiled by R M Clarke.

Regards, Ian Dyckhoff

[Steve Brown]

Hi Ian, no confusion! Mine is a 350 Sport in red so that is a different article for sure. I'd still like to see it though-especially the pictures. My memory of the shop/forecourt layout is hazy now (and hardly relevant) but it would be nice to see still. I was down that way a little while back and decided to go to Long Marston and see where the shop was. Predictably there is no sign of it now as it's all executive houses, the poor residents may have no idea of the history of their part of the village. E.g. local motor and horse carriage trader going back several decades there and in Tring too. Nor that they were pretty hopeless as mechanics and buggered my bike's electrics and ignition up pretty effectively before it even got its first tax disc fitted.
Still, happy days. I was 21 and had the world at my feet. Which is where it still is.
I used to pity their Laverda customers even more than myself. There was always at least one triple in their workshop with the engine looking a bit sorry and a big invoice growing steadily.

[George 350]

"I'll have a look next time I'm up in the loft"

Hi Steve,
No joyy in the loft I'm afraid.
Did have a sole copy of MCI up there but it was an earlier one (1973!) that I've kept for reasons not remembered.
I did do a big purge of old bike mags a couple of years back when I reboarded the loft and got rid of loads of stuff that never did 'come in handy one day' and my guess it could well have gone out then.
Regards, George.

[3potjohn]

I have a Motorcycle Mechanics from the seventies which I bought as it has an article about stripping a Trident engine, a complete waste of time I subsequently discovered. The engine strips itself. I shall never forget the sound of a conrod letting go at 115 ish mph.
But another article is a test of the new Morini which I ignored at the time as too small. At least it does not do 35 to the gallon of 5 star and 30 miles to the pint of GTX, nor eat a chain and rear tyre in 2000 miles. But I was young and impetuous.
I can scan that I guess.
John

[CJN904T]

Sorry about thread revival. I remember Morphy Motors well. In and around 1977-78, maybe 1979, they'd have open days. You could rock-up and ride their demonstrators, it was a proper day out. The roads in and around Long Marston / Tring are right for it. Not sure if MM ever sold motorcycles on the the back of it, but being so out of the way, reckon it put them on the map.
I too went there recently, and you're right, the site is now, ahem... 'executive' housing. I'd love to see pix of MM's forecourt etc as I remember it.

[corsaro chris]

For Morini Riders Club members; remember that we have a Club Librarian who holds a vast collection of Morini-related printed material including most (if not all) British English language road tests. If it's not held, he has contacts who can help search for the related stuff.

Steve - did you ever turn up a copy of the article?

CC