Silvio Ollearo
My brother Roberto has always been a lover of motorcycle racing, and he had good reason since he was born and lived in the midst of motorcycles, engines, frames and wheels, as our father built motorcycles from 1920 to 1952.
He has always participated in “enduro” and speed races, but to achieve results he had to wait 52 years.
In fact, he won the Italian sidecar championship paired with Renato Rocchi in 1973-1974 on a Suzuki 750GT sidecar with tuned engine built with my cooperation.
Returning back in the years, immediately after the war (but I’m sure he had the idea befor), he wanted to create a racing bike that would bear his name.
The choice fell on the four-stroke Ollearo 250 pushrod engine from my father’s production . He planned and designed the modification in a single camshaft, did melt the headframe aluminum; the rockers were my task, he studied the lubrication of the top by applying an immersed oil pump inside the basement, deriving the motion directly from the crankshaft.
The Ollearo “250 Racing” during the first test at the “Valentino Nuovo” (now Parco Ruffini), led by Silvio Ollearo.
He worked hard on the overall weight reduction by applying alloy rims, Salvay aluminum central hubs, mudguards, tank and aluminum handlebar too.
A considerable reduction in weight was obtained by modifying the frame, drastically reducing the rear swingarm by passing the transmission shaft outwards.
He was the progenitor of the “monocross” rear suspension with engine built into the chassis under the tank.
Everything was built in extreme economy, just think that at that time many materials were difficult to find, so we had to make do: the elastic joint of the shaft of the cardan was the rubber-canvas of the Fiat Topolino, saddle supports and rear fender were made from dural of an English fighter jet shot down by our anti-aircraft guns.
By this lightening was achieved the total dry weight of 107 Kg.
The bike was painted in light ivory that distinguished it from all the others, in particular the frieze on the tank: it is an “OLLEARO” writing, elusive in red while behind it appeared a large R, also elusive blue.
The frieze was the work of the painter Kiki Macciotta, our friend, who was part of the group “Surfanta” (Surreal and Fantastic) with Lorenzo Alessandri, Dionisia Goss and others.
The official motorbike birthwhere in the spring of 1947 in the avenues of Valentino Nuovo, and the results were very encouraging: in fact, we were not far from the Moto Guzzi Albatros and Benelli Bialbero powers.
Roberto participated in various circuits and mountain races, the last was in Pinerolo after which the bike was put aside to wait for other activities.
In 2006 my son Enrico took part in the Dijon-Prenois circuit for vintage motorcycles with the Ollearo 250 Corsa.
It got a lot of interest from the public and reviews were published in all the journals of the branch.
Now it shows off in our private collection with every model built by my father.
Turin 6 January 2010
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