1939 Miller-Balsamo 200 Carenta

It was a motorcycle he knew nothing about, but he loved the lines of the machine. He bought it, restored it and displayed it in May 2023 at the 13th Annual The Quail Motorcycle Gathering, where it deservedly earned “Best of Show.” No tremendous surprise, as it’s simply stunning.

Quite the find

In the spring of 2018, John was alerted to the Miller-Balsamo’s offering at auction by a team member at Aste Bolaffi, a company then mounting their first-ever motorcycle auction in Torino, Italy. “For many years I have collected Art Deco and Streamline Moderne industrial design objects,” John says from his Goldman Architects office in San Francisco. “But I had never previously seen a Streamline Moderne influenced Italian motorcycle. So, it was a natural purchase for me.”

For some background, Streamline Moderne became popular in the early 1930s and lasted until around 1950 and is a style that can trace its roots back to Art Deco design. However, Art Deco was more linear and ornamented, while Moderne is all about the swooping curves and softened edges of aerodynamics. “I became aware of the Miller-Balsamo two days before the auction was to run,” John explains. “And literally, when I first saw the photo of it on the Aste Bolaffi website, it stopped me in my tracks.”

For John, it’s all about the Miller-Balsamo’s proportions and balance, and he says the motorcycle represents perfection of design. “Every inch of this bike seems considered by the designer and the way they played with every one of those lines. Just look at the way the lines carry through from front to back, the whole thing communicates speed, like it’s going to cut through the wind. Which is funny because it’s not a fast bike. It’s only a 200cc 2-stroke, but it sure looks like it could go fast.”

Marque development

Miller-Balsamo dates back to around 1919 in Italy, when brothers Ernesto, Edgardo and Mario Balsamo imported and sold American-made Excelsior and British-made Ariel motorcycles. Wishing to expand their horizons, in 1921 the brothers designed their own machines and powered them with 125cc and 175cc 4-stroke Swiss-built Moser engines. Shortly after, in 1924, lightweight machines equipped with a 2-stroke 98cc engine appeared, and these were essentially powered bicycles marketed under the names Excelsiorette and Miller. By the mid-1920s, the company’s motorcycles were more sport-oriented machines that proved rather successful in racing events.

Then, working with engineer Giulio Cesare Cappa, in 1928 the Balsamo brothers developed a 175cc 4-stroke engine of their own design, while also powering some of their motorcycles with Rudge-Whitworth Python single-cylinder engines. According to an article in a 1979 issue of the magazine La Becane (The Bike), the firm continued to produce motorcycles through the 1930s and chased world speed records with specially faired machines powered by a new 175cc engine. The Bike article claims that one such machine, with Carlo Fumagalli at the controls, achieved several records, and “reached the maximum average of 141.998 km/h [88.233mph] over the distance of 5 km from a start.”

By the mid-1930s, the company was trading as Miller-Balsamo and had designed its own 250cc, and then 500cc, 4-stroke single-cylinder engines to replace the Rudge power units. Miller-Balsamo was soon heading in a direction towards an enclosed machine in 1938 with the launch of the 98cc Schermata — Italian for “Screen” or “Shield.” Looking to the future of motorcycling, in 1939 the streamlined Miller-Balsamo 200 Carenata was launched. Notably, the Italian word most often associated with a fairing is Carenatura — perhaps Miller-Balsamo chose to shorten that to Carenata for this fully-faired machine.

“A couple of articles reference that an Italian Futurist drawing by William Rossi called Domani [Tomorrow] may have been an influence on the design of this motorcycle,” John says. “This is quite possible, as there are certainly similarities between the drawing and the Miller-Balsamo Carenata. I am a huge fan of Italian Futurist designs, and since Futurism is about speed and modern technology, it is quite related to Streamline Moderne designs.”

A special model

The Carenata is not simply an “enclosed” motorcycle with a sheet metal body over a frame; it is a “unibody” design where the sheet metal body is structural, eliminating the need for a frame, quite similar to modern-day automobile construction. Under the aluminum body is a parallelogram front suspension system with a single central spring featuring an adjustable steering damper. At the rear of the machine is a swingarm suspended by a single spring, which is not quite in a horizontal position.

Powering the Carenata is a Miller-Balsamo-designed 196cc piston port 2-stroke single-cylinder engine with dual exhaust. It measures in with a 59mm by 72mm bore and stroke and is purported to have made 7 horsepower at 4,500rpm. Fuel is fed via a 20mm Dell’Orto carburetor while sparks are created through a flywheel magneto. Power for the 6-volt electrical system is provided by a DC generator. A 4-speed gearbox is shifted with a foot pedal on the right hand side. Overall, the Carenata with its 19-inch front and rear wheels weighs about 287 pounds.

Although the Carenata did not meet sales expectations prior to World War II, the model did reappear postwar alongside more traditionally designed motorcycles powered by 4-stroke single-cylinder engines in 250cc and 500cc sizes. However, by 1950, the Carenata is no longer in the company’s range of motorcycles. Production of Miller-Balsamo powered two-wheelers was winding down by 1957, when the company launched its last new model, a 49cc moped. Ultimately, motorcycle production ended in 1959. Now quite rare, John knows of only three other Miller-Balsamo 200 Carenata motorcycles.

John and his motorcycles

From a young age, John was interested in vintage cars and commuted to high school in a 1967 Triumph GT6. He didn’t enter the world of motorcycles until he was in his late 20s. That’s when one of his employees (who was also a friend) arrived at the office on a Honda 90 Passport. John says he started borrowing it to run errands around San Francisco and enjoyed how easy it was to both ride and park. Taking that into consideration, John decided he wanted to get a “real” motorcycle and bought a 1977 Yamaha RD400, which he kept for some time before selling it, next buying his first new machine, a 1985 Yamaha RZ350.

“I bought the RZ350 brand new for $2,000 in mid-1987,” John says, and “it was the first new motorcycle I bought and I still have it.” Since that time, John has purchased only one other new motorcycle, a limited-production Ducati MH900e circa 2001. John still has that machine, too. All the other motorcycles John has purchased have been vintage bikes.

A love of Italian machinery

John became interested in classic Italian motorcycles by way of his passion for vintage Italian Alfa Romeo automobiles. One day, while in the Marina neighborhood of San Francisco, he spotted a 1977 Moto Guzzi LeMans 850. “I thought that was a beautiful Italian motorcycle that would look great next to one of my Alfa Romeos,” he says. Finding a 1978 850 LeMans for sale in St. Louis with low miles, he bought it and had it shipped to San Francisco — that was his first Italian motorcycle and he still owns it.

“That Moto Guzzi got me interested in Italian motorcycles, so I bought Mick Walker’s book on classic Italian motorcycles,” he explains. “I went through the book and identified every Italian motorcycle I thought was beautiful and made a list of the bikes I’d like to own one day. The second Italian bike I got was a 1974 Laverda 750 SFC, which was my first restoration.”

What really piqued John’s interest were Mondial motorcycles, and he began collecting machines from that marque, including those with significant Grand Prix race history. He’s now sure he has the largest group of Mondials in the world and he further expanded his collection with many other Italian marques, including more Moto Guzzis, Benellis, MV Agustas and Rumis. As a collector, John’s name is widely recognized, and he’s well-known as a serious buyer. That’s how he ended up learning of the Miller-Balsamo.

“This guy from the Aste Bolaffi auction house sent me an email,” John explains. “I didn’t know him, but he knew who I was and he knew I was a collector of rare Italian motorcycles. He told me they were conducting their first auction of cars and motorcycles and he’d send me a link to the catalog. Well, I went online and Lot No. 1 was this 1939 Miller-Balsamo. When I saw the picture I immediately knew that I wanted to add that bike to my collection.”

As mentioned earlier, John didn’t have a great deal of time to think about what he’d do, as the auction was just two days away. He set an upper limit of what he was willing to bid and when the auction hit that number no one else bid any higher.

“I might have gone higher, but I got it,” John says. Purchased during the pre-Covid era, John had the Miller-Balsamo crated and flown to San Francisco by Shippio.com. Six weeks after winning the bid on May 24, 2018, he landed the machine Stateside on July 9. As delivered, it was obvious the bike had previously been restored, rather poorly, but it ran and was rideable. “Although the body looked good from 15-feet, there was so much Bondo in it and it needed a complete restoration. Not too much mechanically, but the body needed to be completely gone through and repainted.”

John sent the Carenata to David Harris at The Zen House in southern Mendocino County. David is a very proficient mechanic, and John says, “nothing mechanical scares him; for instance, he worked on my Mondial Grand Prix bikes and got them sorted and then test rode them on Highway 1 near his shop.” On the Carenata, David disassembled the machine and had all body components delivered to Pete Misthos, aka “Pete the Painter,” at Underground Colors in San Francisco.

“We researched how all the other metal surfaces would have been finished in 1939, and then David sent those out for refinishing,” John explains. John also discovered the correct color was Amaranth, which is a shade of red tending toward the darker side of the spectrum. He selected an Amaranth color used by Porsche.

“It was a massive project, really, because the body is all aluminum, so it took time to get the bodywork all correct without any Bondo, and Pete can do that,” John says. “The Miller-Balsamo was ready to show at The Quail Motorcycle Gathering in 2022, but I couldn’t attend that year, and that’s why it was there in 2023.”

On the road

To start the Miller-Balsamo, John says there is a small chrome knob on the left side which activates the fuel tap. “However, for the first ride of the day, or after a long time since the last ride, the carburetor does need to be tickled and to do that one must remove the left side panel, tickle the carb, then reinstall the side panel,” he says. “This does not take long to do.”

All rubber components, with the exception of the hand grips, were replaced and the engine tuned. John’s ridden the machine more than a few miles, and he says after The Quail show the machine was stored in his warehouse but he wanted to display it in the front entry of his office. Instead of loading it up to make the journey, he fired it up and rode it about 5 miles.

“The suspension leaves something to be desired, but it’s a really beautiful motorcycle and people just can’t believe it when they see it,” John says. “At The Quail I thought it might be a contender for Best of Show, but this is a street bike whereas my two previous Best of Show bikes at The Quail were both Mondial Grand Prix race bikes. I was amazed, though, because I was told that it got unanimous votes by the judges for Best of Show, which is very unusual for any concours.”

He concludes, “It starts easily, runs perfectly, it’s rideable, and the judges want to see all that. People were really just stunned by the Miller-Balsamo.” MC