Once again I have been let out on my own, once again I have come home with something a bit special. This time it's a very rare beast, a circa 1957 Berneg 175 Fario, a splendid motorcycle of Italian origin which is as desirable as it is rare. It's not clear how many survive but it is thought that less than 500 were produced. They were mighty expensive and had a few reliability issues, most manufacturers in Italy at the time were wiped out by an influx of small, cheap cars that flooded the market, Berneg were no exception.
The story goes that two engineers Paride Bernardi and Corrado Negrini started the business in Bologna in 1954 to manufacture parts such as frames, tanks and mud guards for other bike manufacturers. They soon started making bikes of their own with the 160cc Iridea appearing on the market in 1955. The Fario came along a couple of years later with a four stroke twin of 175cc. Power output was 11hp at a fairly heady 8000 RPM, quite revy for a 4 stroke of that vintage.
Competition was stiff and very few of the hundreds of Italian manufacturers survived, Berneg went to the wall in 1961.
The exact history of this fine example is not clear, it is still wearing it's original Italian plates, it will soon be registered in the UK, it will get a bit if tidying up and will then no doubt end up in a collection.
I still have a whole load to do on my other bikes so it will be a while till I get round to this one, I have put it in storage for now.
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