My series of my favorite bikes from AHRMA racing continues with a Moto Paton 500 – something I never expected to see in person, let alone actually out on a race track!
Your first response may be, “what the heck is a Paton?” That is a fair question, and I’d suggest that you start on their history page. But the super short version is that the company was formed in 1958 by Giuseppe Pattoni and Lino Tonti (yes, the same guy of Tonti-framed Guzzis) after their previous race team (FB Mondial) shut down.
In the late 60s, they built a 500cc parallel twin racer called the BIC 500 which had tremendous success – fast forward to modern times and Giuseppe’s son started to offer a modern replica of the BIC. Articles at the time suggested that 7 would be built at a cost of approximately $79,500 a pop, but I haven’t been able to figure out how many were created. Regardless, you’re currently looking at number four.
This rarity is owned by Virgil and Jeff Elings, the father-and-son duo behind the incredible Solvang Motorcycle Museum. Jeff does the racing/parade laps nowadays and I had the pleasure of hearing this bike race in Formula 500 at AHRMA and Inde. Years back (about a decade ago) when Jeff originally got the bike he was also hoping to race it in the 500 Premier class but the bike got protested as it had a 4-valve head.
From a story in Motorcycle.com, Jeff said “It’s a replica and has electronic ignition, so it’s better than any vintage thing. Which I think is good for the sport. Of course the Matchless and Norton Singles are not originals, the frames, brakes, ignition. They’re running Honda dampers in the forks.”
Highlights include a handmade aluminium tank, fiberglass fairings, Maxton suspension with Ceriani 35R type forks, replicas of Fontana brakes (210mm front/180mm rear), Borrani type wheels, and more.
If you want to know what it’s like to ride this Paton, Ron Melton got the experience and wrote about it here.
All I can say is it was one of the loudest/best sounding bikes at AHRMA – I wasn’t able to record it on track but here’s a quick walkaround and you can jump to 1:45 to hear Jeff fire it up!