Anyone have info on this old Italian bike?

[William McClean]

from the Moto Parilla brochure

MDS 70cc Super Dart

" Perfect for low cost dependable transportation "

ENGINE - 4 cycle, 3 speed , OHV pushrod, roller bearing lower end. Light Alloy cylinder, and head qt. sump, gear driven oil pump. 5 H. P. at 6500 rpm. Bore 44mm, stroke 46mm.

ELECTRIC SYSTEM - 20 W. flywheel magneto.
CLUTCH - Multi-plate in oil
CARBURETEOR - Del' Orto 15mm.
FRONT FORK - Teledraulic
TIRES - 250 x 16 front and 275 x 16 rear
FUEL TANK - 2 1/2 gal.
MAX SPEED - 53 mph.
MILEAGE - 196 mpg.
FOB PHILA. - $289.00

With the 70 on the fuel tank and modified badging, do you think some of those the thoes 413 miles were on the race track ?

It looks to me like you have a nice barn fresh competion machine still in racing livery
Enjoy !

[slarsonroy]

Thats a pleasant thought, but it looks like a factory logo to me. Its on both sides of the tank and on the top. Its also on the front fender. I cant imagine anyone racing this little thing.

[jmanjeff]

do you have pic's of this bike ells where



Sheldon's EMU

[slarsonroy]

I have them posted on photobucket.

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x252/crazyroy62/MDS/

[jmanjeff]

i fond it here all so http://www.cybermotorcycle.com/galle...h/MDS_70_1.htm

[slarsonroy]

Thanks Jeff, thats my bike on Sheldons Emu. Thats a good site but it didnt have anything about it until I sent mine in.

[Snakeoil]

I see that you've been searching the web quite a bit. I spent some time searching for references to MDS and except for way too many hits on helmets, all I found were various sites with pictures of your actual bike ;-)

[slarsonroy]

I emailed Joe (or maybe someone else) at cosmopolotion motors with some pictures and they said they never heard of MDS. Must have a short memory. They did say it was definately Italian though.

[slarsonroy]

This was sent to me by the Maserati group in Italy. Thanks for the lead Rub.
Joe from Cosmo said he hasnt seen anything related to MDS since 1968. He said they used to buy a lot of end runs and bankrupt company bikes and sold them back in those days.

[slarsonroy]

As far as I can tell, Motoleggera translates to lightweight.

[Snakeoil]

The direct translation for motoleggere is moped. It's probably inappropriate to use a direct translation here. That is often the case when translating languages. I think motorbike is probably a closer equivalent translation.

I don't speak Italian, but I speak decent Spanish and they are very close, at least in the written word. I'm going to give you an attempt at a translation here.

"The Scoccimmaro Co. of Milan presented for 1955 a motorbike with a 4 stroke, 65cc motor. The cylinder and head from MDS are a single aluminum casting. The 3 speed transmission is housed in a two piece casting. It has an open frame and medium size wheels with 2.75-16 tires, a telescopic front fork and a swingarm rear suspesion. Production was based on a model originating (patented?) in 1938. Subsequently until 1960, production continued in the same basic form with a 4-stroke motor of 70, 75 and 80cc, including a scooter of 65cc, also with a 4-stroke motor."

The caption under the picture reads: "The MDS Sports Motorbike with 75cc 4-stroke motor for 1960."

I hope this helps.

[slarsonroy]

Thats awesome Rob, thanks for that translation. I made a feeble attempt by using an online translator but yours is a lot better. Im still trying to find out what year it is by the serial number, but it looks like this may be an impossible task. Im planning on using ITS to obtain a title and I think I might just call it a 1958. Whos gonna tell me any different?

[Snakeoil]

I think I screwed up part of it now that I've had a night's sleep and realize that it says 1958, not 1938. I think the line I translated as "Production was based on a model originating (patented?) in 1938." should read "Production remained basically unchanged until 1958.

This makes more sense when you combine it with the sentence that followed. It looks like they made only a 65cc bike from 55 to 58 and then from 58 to 60 made the same bike in different displacements.

Sorry about the screw up. I'd say you are safe anywhere from 58 to 60. If you register the bike in a non-title state, it might be easier. In NY, they let you register the bike with a bill of sale. The registration is non-transferable until they do a search of stolen VINs. If the bike comes up clean, you get a transferable registration in the mail. If you have a friend in NY or a similar state, you could have them register the bike. Once it is legal, you could then have them transfer it to you officially with the new registration and get it registered in your state.
Just a thought.

[slarsonroy]

I caught that Rob, no big deal. The only other difference I came up with was that it was 2 Scoccimarro brothers in Milan that started the company. I made sense of it all with yours and mine put together. You filled in the confusion on the rest of it.
I usually go through the International Title Service for titles and have had no problems with them. It usually runs about $100 when its done.