Most of my best friends, wherever they are in the world, I've met through motorcycles. I met up with one of them today, Mauro, who I met 10 years ago when I lived in Italy. He's got a 1968 MV Agusta 250 B which he's owned from new, and we took it out to photograph today. Unfortunately it broke down and we couldn't sort it without tools on the spot, so we had to trailer it home again, yet on the way back Mauro was telling me how much he loved this MV, even if it wasn't reliable at times - huh, old bikes eh?
Then back at his place, he showed me some old but fantastic period photos including the ones you see here of him as a teenager on his old man's MV 2 stroke 150 with 'motore lungo'. There were also several of his wife Graziella, shown here in the colour snap sitting on the very same MV 250 we photographed today, but in 1970. They met as teenagers, married, had kids and had a happy life - then she died at age just 48 from cancer. I didn't know this previously, and when he told me today, it made me understand more clearly why he's such the kind, gentle person he is, and why the MV is so important to him. When I saw my wife and 7 month-old daughter again when I returned to them this evening, I just felt so lucky.
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