Hi Craig and Graeme,
I'd decided after riding Paul's again last year and loving the experience that I just had to have one, and having done shiny restoration thing a number of times now, I was keen to go down a slightly different path. I kept my eyes out for a 175s that might prove suitable for an oily rag job. I wish I was doing it myself, but these things are very rare in this neck of the woods, and my looking was mostly done in Europe.
I got lucky and I found this one in january on
http://www.moto.it in Italy on the day it was posted up and immediately got in contact with the owner. Marco, a friend of mine was visiting his family villa in Graglia at the time, and the duc was in nearby Milan. Ivan declined my offer of a holding deposit until Marco got there to have a look. He said he'd just hold it for me. Marco (who owns about 20 classic italians of various marques), checked it out and took some photos. A few days later, the deal was done and Marco picked it up and stored it in Graglia, from where Barry and Angela picked it up whilst on holiday. As it turns out, I am now the second owner of it and I have all the original documentation as well.
I have to say, so far, everything has fallen into place nicely. I hope the next few phases carry on in that vein and there arent too many surprises!
The photos that Marco took can be found here if anyone wants to see them...
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7q6af6tx5qgrcl5/BDgwF4sauXKev
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