Benelli 180 Volcano

**gavinnz** · 18th January 2014, 11:31

This bike is nuts... the Benelli factory shoehorned a 180cc two stroke engine into a minibike frame!! Volcano by name and volcano by nature.
The motor turns and has compression. Most of a bike their but some bits missing. Handlebars (broken) and headlamp are not in the photo, but come with it. No papers or plate with it, but these WERE road legal when new.

Forget your 200hp sports bike... THIS bike is on the edge!! lol

))

No idea of the real year.
Can deliver as far as Hamilton if you are not in a hurry.

Currently on trademe with a starting bid of 325.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/List...x?id=686773634
regards
Gavin
gavinnz@xtra.co.nz

**merv** · 18th January 2014, 13:45

We had one of these in the family in the early 70's because my brother was silly enough to buy one new when Keith Turner was the Benelli agent in Napier. My bro's one was a nice red colour and it was fun to ride and road legal as you said, would want to wheelie all the time, but the small wheels made it scary to ride off-road (and aren't all small wheeled bikes like this?) it would follow the terrain too much and want to throw you off especially on loose sand. There is a reason dirt bikes went to 21" front wheels, they just track so much straighter.

Back in the day I did enter this bike in HB Motorcycle Club scrambles and Mini TT for a bit of a laugh. Denill may remember that, but I only did it a few times because it was just too much hard work keeping it running straight without ending up crashing.

Suffice to say my bro' only kept it a short time and sold it. Here's a night shot of it with the cat sitting on it back in April 1973 to show what the complete bike looked like. Plenty of chrome. Plus another shot from a more front on angle. Not the flashest of photos because I only had an Instamatic back when I was a poor student.