Italian Motorcycles

Astra 1934 500 Sport

Astra-1934-500-Sport-RPW-1.jpg
The bike comes in a garage in a very altered (state). During the 70s in fact, when he was only a "old bike", the then owner had made major changes to turn it into a sort of "chopper" plan.
The bike then comes up with an eye-catching Warning "on the horns of an ox," with a large and wide seat for two people, with two mufflers pointing up that look like the "Guns of Navarone", etc ...
Since now the bike is not only old but it's a nice relic of the era, these changes seemed overly detrimental to the dignity of the vehicle and then, before you photograph it and put it on this site, I proceeded to replace them with pieces here and hen scratchings in the garage, which give an air of slightly more presentable.

The bike, except for a slight inconsistency in the rear brake pedal, is the one you see at the top of the third page.

Still reading old magazines is a photo of the stand at the Milan Fair in January 1935
(The model described in this page is visible in the background on the left of the photo)

At this point, looking at this picture, it is clear that the stand of the Moto Astra is the same as the best-known English brand name "Ariel" and is therefore deserving of clarification.

The then Italian importer of motorcycles Ariel (... and beyond), the well-known Max Turkheimer, was seen in the historical period fight against the nationalist forces then very strong in our country and this could preclude him a good part of the market away potential customers.
For this reason, the brand was founded Moto Astra and you could in effect say that the bikes were manufactured in Milan.
For these bikes the company was using a lot of material Ariel, but do not think that these bikes were simply rebadged Astra Ariel: several components that were assembled did not come from England.

Courtesy Renato Paganini


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