FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Romanelli is renown in the Italian motorcycle
community for his role as distributor for Italian manufacturers and aftermarket
suppliers during the 70's and 80's.
Although Romanelli shifted his attention to his engineering business, he
retained his remaining spares inventory for over 20 years.
Bar Hodgson, Founder
and President of the North American International Motorcycle SUPERSHOW stated, "I’ve been aware
of the Romanelli Collection for decades and recognized it as an important
treasure trove of unobtainable NOS items.
When Steve informed me of Romanelli’s interest in selling, I asked him
to assist me in arranging this purchase.
This has resulted in a truly exciting opportunity and an important
legacy to preserve through an e- business."
Steve Munro, author of the loudbike blog
(www.loudbike.com), operated the successful loudbike e-Store for two years prior
to selling it to
loudbike’s initial eBay sampling has seen items aggressively
snapped up by worldwide buyers. The e-Store
(www.loudbikestore.com) will launch
in February 2010. In the interim,
loudbike will offer a sampling of the collection through its eBay store (www.loudbikesteve.com).
Contact Steve Munro at 1-866-972-5683 or
steve@loudbike.com
The release only touches on the amazing journey that we set out on last May while we were sitting in our pit at the DOCC Mosport Rally. A casual conversation and a few intense phone calls led to a half dozen trips to Montreal to visit with Frank Romanelli and the development of a business plan that evolved into what I view as the opportunity of a lifetime.
And then another dozen or so trips up to Canada to negotiate the deal – which was finalized with a two week stay at Frank’s while we did a physical inventory. And that’s been a big part of the fun in all this; hangin’ with Frank. The man has had more lifetimes than most; from running Formula Atlantic and Bimota WSB teams, to building mopeds in Belize, to designing bleeding-edge free-piston Sterling engine powered solar energy systems, to still playing soccer on Sundays with men less than a third his age. Like Bar, this guy refuses to accept old age and runs at a pace that would exhaust most of us. I heard stories from the early days of Ducati, Bimota, Laverda and Guzzi. His tales brought color to personalities I’ve only read about in magazines and books. His knowledge of the machines we play with is staggering.
So, the Hot-Blooded Mexican and I are hoping to be fully relocated to Ottawa by February and in the interim, I’m livin’ large in the ultimate man-cave. The 900sqft office area of our warehouse has had a bedroom added and the work space doubles as a cozy and funky living room – replete with the F1 as an artistic center-piece. A Ceriani magnesium 4LS brake graces the table and the wall ‘o (mag) wheels is just around the corner.
I’ve got my work cut out for me though. You don’t get a collection like this off the skids, out of the boxes and on the shelves overnight. So, life has been a constant shuffling of boxes, building shelves, unpacking, and trips to the recycler. Then it’s on to populating the revived loudbike e-Store and taking it live by February. And the e-Bay auctions that help me refine all my internal processes.
Bar’s been too busy with the Supershow to drop by and fondle the goods and to this day, I still haven’t had time to simply graze though the amazing collection of stuff and marvel at the coolness of it all.
Soon, though...
