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model: 1973 750 V7 SPORT

country: Italy

frame number: VK13428

engine number: VK32289

name: Mick Phillips

notes: Built: April 1973
First registered: April 1974, UK
Bought by me: November 1993
 
Bought for £1400 in bits but almost all restored and ready for re-assembley. It was claimed the engine had done only 1500 miles from new and so (wisely) had been left in one piece. The story goes that the bike had originally been bought by an eccentric collector who'd run it in then left it standing out in all weathers for almost three years. It was rescued in February 1977 and its then second owner started a long, slow restoration process. Unfortunately, the elderly gent died before he could finish it and I bought the bike off the man's son. All that was left to be done was to chrome the new, but matt black, silencers and the clip-ons. The rest was like a big Meccano set.
 
I took my time putting it back together and got it on the road in time to ride it to my wedding in 1996, my best man on the back. Since then it's only covered about another 4000 miles, partly due to my former job as a motorcycle journalist, when I was often awash with bikes to ride (poor me). The bike is now with me here in Italy (I moved here from England a couple of years ago), but has yet to be put through the minefield of Italian registration.
 
The bike has appeared in several magazine articles, notably Classic Bike (cover star!), Bike and Spanish magazine Solo Moto. It's also featured in Roland Brown's Superbikes of the Seventies book. I hasten to add that this is all because of my links with journalism and is not because the bike is an especially fine example (though it's not bad for a late 'un).
 
Mick Phillips
Rome, Italy