Southern Saturno

SOUTHERN SATURNO

CW READERS’ COLLECTION

Don't cry for thee, Argentina

THE PURCHASE OF A RARE competition motorcycle is often accompanied by a detailed history—a fat notebook chock full of service records, setup notes and race results. Kevin Rickbeil’s 1948 Gilera Saturno has no I such pedigree. All he knows is that the Italian Single, which copped Best of Show honors at the Minneapolis, Minnesota, round of CW's Readers’ Collection Series,

probably came to the U.S.

I via South America.

“I spoke to an individual by the name of Antonio j Riccardi, who owns a couple of Saturnos, and he said my bike might have come from Argentina,” explains the owner. “According to him, Gilera had a subsidiary there. The magneto-advance lever has a little cap that says 1 ‘Gilera-Argentina’ on it.” Rickbeil paid $4600 for the bike at an auction early last year, and has done little more than polish it since. “It was a runner when I got it, but I haven’t gotten a spark

in my magneto yet this spring,” he chuckles. “I’ve never really ridden it-just a short distance to make sure it ran. I was too nervous to open it up!”

Before he bought his bike, Rickbeil had barely heard of a Gilera Saturno. And even now that he owns one, he hasn’t had much luck unearthing information.

Recognizing a legitimate excuse to spend a day researching Italian motorcycles, I adjourned to the CW library: The Saturno began life as a production streetbike circa 1939. Through the 1940s and ’50s, it pulled double duty as Gilera’s production roadracer, the bike the boy racers rode. The really fast guys, Geoff Duke and his ilk, rode works Fours (the first of which was supercharged-ah, the good old days!), and won the 500cc World Championship five times between 1952 and ’57.

But while the Fours stole the glory, the Saturno was not without a little of its own,

particularly in modified “Sanremo” guise, so named in honor of its victory there in 1947. A win later that year in the Italian GP, and another three years later in Montjuich, Spain, cemented the Saturno’s place in history.

In its ultimate 1953 form, the long-stroke, 498cc, ohv, fourspeed Single produced 40 horsepower, which propelled the 280-pound machine to 115 mph. But the Gilera’s most notable feature remains its unique suspension, with hidden horizontal springs and scissor-arm friction dampers in the rear, and a girder fork not unlike that of BMW’s current Telelever up front.

“The suspension is what caught my eye,” confirms Rickbeil. In fact, the 40year-old machinist was so smitten by the girder fork that he made one for his Yamaha XS650-powered chopper, which topped the Custom Cruiser class at the aforementioned CW show.

But that’s a story for another day... —Brian Catterson >