Claudio Castiglioni lost his long battle against cancer on the morning of August 17 at the age of 64.

Well aware of his health problems, Castiglioni had named his son, Giovanni, president of MV Agusta upon final closure of its association with Harley-Davidson and the return of MV Agusta under full control of the Castiglioni family. He kept for himself the title of honorary president and had remained very active in the company until last spring, when his health sharply declined and he flew to a clinic in the U.S. for what was regarded as very advanced chemotherapy. Though I always received reassuring messages about Castiglioni’s recovery after the treatment, I never had a chance to meet with him once he returned to Varese.

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How do Roman gladiators show their bravery these days? They fend off assaults from chaotic traffic on their ever-faithful Vespas! I experienced this craziness first-hand while taking part in Vespa’s 65th anniversary party, held earlier this month in Rome. The event culminated in a parade of more than 5000 PX 125/150s from all over Europe.

During “Vespa Days,” I circulated Rome solely on Vespas, from the highly refined and solidly performing 300 GTS to the nostalgic PX 150. The latter is an incredible leftover from the 1980s that brought back memories of a hilarious story told to me by the late Gordon Jennings. The article was published in Car & Driver and illustrated with a cartoon. The artist drew the little Vespa as a monster, its kickstarter morphing into the long neck of a snapper turtle ready to sink its teeth into Jennings’ right calf.

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The second life of Moto Morini that started in 2003 has come to a sad end. On April 10, all that remains of one of the makes that helped create the legend of the Italian light- and middleweight bikes from the 1930s to the ’60s will go to the highest bidder.

Moto Morini’s assets have been valued at 5.5 million euros, but bidders will be given the opportunity to bid either for the premises alone, starting at 3.3 million euros, or for the brand and what is still in stock, starting at 2.2 million euros. The lack of credible offers to acquire Moto Morini after it applied for Chapter 11 was the gloomiest aspect of the collapse, a condition that progressively turned into a black hole from which the company was unable to recover.

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Claudio Castiglioni has acquired MV Agusta back from Harley-Davidson at the rumored symbolic price of $1. If this rumor should ever happen to be confirmed by either one of the parties (it will never be), it would mark second time that Claudio Castiglioni has been able to pull off this very lucrative trick. First time was back in the ’90s, when he sold, for a substantial amount of money, a badly limping Cagiva Group to the Malaysian Proton Group. Proton returned Cagiva to him the next year, at a symbolic price of…$1.

So, if the most recent news is solidly based, it would mean that Harley-Davidson saw an investment well in excess of $100 million go down the drain, just like that. In fact, in addition to paying Claudio Castiglioni a cool $75 million for the acquisition of MV Agusta, Harley Davidson invested in excess of $30 million in new tooling and in financial reserves to cover the losses all the way into 2011, at which point H-D’s plan was to have MV Agusta reach the break-even point.

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Is this the end of the road?

Moto Morini lost what many, including yours truly, regard as its last chance to get back into business with its failed acquisition by tiny but financially solid Nuova Garelli. This resurrected old make has no factory or assembly lines in Italy. It’s just a marketing project to design and sell scooters made in China.

Nuova Garelli made a first bid to acquire Bologna-based Moto Morini before the company applied for Chapter 11. The negotiation failed due to opposition by the unions that in Bologna are ruled by the “soviet” branch of the leftovers of the Communist Party. No joke. Nuova Garelli then made a second bid that seemed to win the approval of both the court and manpower at Moto Morini. But when things appeared to be nearing a positive solution, both the unions and the authorities shunned the meeting. At that stage, Nuova Garelli shut the door for good.

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