STORN WARNING

This month’s classic ride may be something of a tiddler, but it is most emphatically not your average sub 250 motorcycle.

It was also primarily intended to be a commuter machine, and yet it’s not overtly utilitarian. Its styling is best described as ‘interesting’ and, in parts at least, the Moto Guzzi Stornello does rather look like it’s been tailored by a committee. And yet beneath all those odd angles and almost haphazard fittings lies a machine that was designed and built by the very same firm that had produced GP competitive, half-litre motorcycles from horizontal air-cooled singles through to liquid-cooled V8s. It would surely be a cold day in hell if some of that flair for turning out race bikes wasn’t imparted to this strange little 160cc single here, and amazingly one of the firm’s great designers was involved in drafting this unusual little machine.

The bike’s roots and