Before we get into this feature, take a couple of minutes to watch Sticky’s excellent video (above). This will give you a taste of just how much devastation has been caused in Italy recently.
If the Lord works in mysterious ways, then there’s a good chance he’s employed by a global media organisation.
You’d think with rolling 24-hour news channels to fill that all the major stations would pick up on every big story.
When it comes to the recent floods in Italy that killed at least 15 people, news in English was at least two days behind events, and rolling news quickly moved on to other subjects.
Cry me a river
What Happened?
Exceptional rainfall in the Apennine hills of Emilia Romagna caused massive landslides and swelled rivers to the point where they burst their banks. The historical centres of cities like Cesena and Faenza were flooded, but the big news story was the cancellation of the F1 Grand Prix in Imola. The overstretched regional authorities had little choice given the destruction, as both the main Rimini-Bologna motorway and railway lines were put out of action for days.
News quickly moves away, but the devastation for individuals carries on. Besides those who lost loved ones and the thousands rendered homeless, there are many stories of loss hidden in the mud.
This is an area famous for anything with an engine. Ducati, Ferrari and Lamborghini are all based in Emilia Romagna. The AlphaTauri F1 and Gresini MotoGP teams are both based in Faenza; a city most famous for its ceramics. Less well-known was a personal museum of scooter collector Luca Biagi of the Moto Scooter Club Vintage Faenza.
The only sensible way to pour mud out of a Lambretta Lui crankcase
A lifetime’s collection
I first met Luca a few years ago when I wrote an article on his Ducati Cruiser scooter. This was only one of many exotic scooters that he’d amassed as part of a fantastic private collection.
Sadly, when the Lamone River burst its banks in the centre of the city, Luca’s collection of scooters, stored lovingly in a large underground area below a small apartment block, was right in the firing line. Within hours, a lifetime’s collection of scooters and memorabilia was under 4 metres of water. The force of the tsunami was enough to smash open the steel doors and then tumble all of the scooters like they were socks in a washing machine.
When you imagine a flood, you think of water damage. What isn’t obvious, unless you’ve experienced it first hand, is quite how much mud accumulates. Up to 50cm of rain in 24 hours washed down tons of clay soil from the mountains. It then poured through the streets like a thick, brown soup.
Lost everything
In Faenza, this chocolate milkshake mess filled every low-lying building up to the first floor on both sides of the river. There are entire streets where every ground-floor dwelling is nothing but a mass of mud. Literally, all the belongings of some people is wrecked and thrown out on the street into piles of mud.
For Luca’s scooters, the added water pressure of being below ground made it possible for mud to invade places you wouldn’t believe. It’s inside headlights, carburettors, fuel tanks, cylinders and gearboxes.
Community spirit
What has been very impressive, from a human point of view, is how well the Romagnoli people have pulled together to deal with the disaster. On the whole, Italians are much more community-minded than most Northern Europeans. They work together, eat together and play together.
What happened after the flood was an enormous groundswell of ‘Blitz spirit’ that I’m not sure still survives in Britain. By the following weekend, the region was a hive of activity. Young people from all over Italy flooded into the city, replacing the departing water, armed with snow shovels and energy to help those in need.
Food is always an Italian priority. Open-air community cafes sprang up on street corners, handing out free hot meals to anyone involved in the clean-up operation. The atmosphere on that first weekend was almost party-like.
Friends in many places
For those like Luca, who have a big friend base to call on, then it is true that many hands make light work. Even so, the immensity of rescuing 23 rare and oddball scooters from a muddy basement and beginning to jet-wash them in an area with no electricity was going to be a massive challenge.
In the skip
I rocked up on the sixth day after the flood. By this time a massive pump had been used to drain the basement so the scooters could be removed. Almost straight away the basement began to refill with water because the ground water table is still so high.
All the paperwork, collections of magazines and books all ended up thrown into the street with the piles of soaked furniture from the neighbours’ apartments. Grabber lorries arrived to remove the entire sum of some families’ belongings.
I arrived after the scooters had all been jet-washed on the outside. They didn’t look too bad, but that masked horrors within. Next began the laborious process of stripping each one to try to save as many engine internals as possible. No matter which parts you removed, inside every orifice was mud.
Damage limitation
In the end with time marching on, and resources limited, the best we could do was wash the mud out of the cylinder, carburettor and crankshaft with a jetwash, lubricate everything with oil and put it back together. For the gearbox, it was just a case of draining the sludge and water and then refilling the engine with diesel or used car engine oil to displace the water and hopefully save all the ferrous internals from rust.
In my opinion, there’s not a single one that will be safe to run again without a full engine rebuild. That’s ok for Lambretta LI-series and Lui where spares are available and affordable. For oddballs like the Guizzo and MV Agusta scooters, not only are the parts hard to find, but the expertise to rebuild them is in short supply.
Realisation
I didn’t dare to ask if all of Luca’s collection was covered by insurance. I truly doubt it. Certainly, there are some things – particularly paperwork and intangible history – that can never be replaced at any price. One motorcycle collector in Cesena lost a championship-winning Ducati race bike. Another famous ceramics specialist in Faenza lost a collection of pottery works by famous artists. Many of the pieces smashed by the floods are irreplaceable because the artists in question have died.
Luca’s situation, hard as it is to swallow, is still much better than that. All the scooters are salvageable with time and effort. Even so, this is still ‘only’ stuff. More important is that none of his friends or relatives were included in the death toll. Being alive and healthy is more valuable than any collection of metal.
Luca’s other revelation is that while he may now be poorer in money and goods, he appreciated now that he is very rich in friendship. Many people from his club and friend circle from across the region came without being asked. He is grateful to everyone that freely gave their time to help rescue, clean and store the scooters.
What Can I Do?
Often, the natural reaction of scooterists to any unfortunate incident on our ‘scene’ is to look to donate a little money. In Luca’s case, while the generosity of strangers would be gratifying, there are far more deserving cases, even in the same street. There are people who’ve lost everything. In reality, their need is far greater than his.
Time heals
When I asked what SLUK readers could do to help him, the answer was simple: only the giving of time and labour can really make a difference. Without the generosity of hands-on expertise, these scooters will sit forever caked in mud
Words and video: Sticky
Additional images: Luca Biagi, Christiaan Foppen and Facebook.
What a sad but wonderfully well written article. We are indebted to Sticky for reminding us what is really important about our hobby. Friendship trumps material possessions every time !