Wisconsin, as I’ve noted in the past, seems to have an inordinate amount of interesting vintage bikes hiding up in its barns, garages, and sheds. Once again, 2Vintage seems to have found himself one of those irresistible machines that you just don’t see every day. It’s a scooter this time—but it’s one that even some UK-based vintage scooter fanatics in the comments have said that they didn’t even know existed.
It’s Italian, but it’s not a Vespa, and it’s also not a Lambretta. It’s not even a Malaguti. Instead, it’s another name that you probably already associate with motorcycles rather than scooters. Folks, this is a 1967 Ducati Brio 100.
At the beginning of the video, the seller tells the story as they know it. The original owners had it, kids rode it like a farm bike across fields, and it eventually ended up stored in a barn somewhere, left to sit for the next 30-plus years. Eventually, it found its way to the curb on trash day—and that’s where the seller rescued it, thinking that maybe they could fix it up. Amazingly, it still had the original title, which you’ll see later in the video.
When 2Vintage picked it up, he knew that it had low compression. Still, it was such an unusual find that he simply had to bring it home so he could try to fix it up. Only one question remained as he loaded and unloaded his truck: Would he be able to get it running after having sat for over 30 years? It only showed a little over 200 miles on the clock—though the bike itself could of course have been ridden for more miles than that.
At first, there was no spark—but 2V traced the problem to either a bad coil wire or a bad coil. Soon enough, he found that the coil wire was at fault. One switch to a good wire later, and there was spark! Next, it was time to sort out the fuel and compression. The engine kicked over when he brought it home, which was good news—but the other pesky elements of good combustion would probably need some work.
I won’t spoil the ending for you, but all I’ll say for now is that there is clearly an untold ‘previous owner’ story involved. You don’t get to see it, but you do get to see clear and slightly bewildering evidence of it. Watch till the end of the video—and like us, you can look forward to seeing where this project goes from here.
