My Morini 350 Kanguro X0

Life in the Rupe’s Rewires shop is of course warm and agreeable, but sometimes you have to get out and do something new. Which is why I bought this 43 year-old, 50,000-mile 350 Morini Kanguro to ride in the 2025 Land’s End Trial.

It’s an ancient event, run for about 21 hours across the lanes and trails of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. I have never done such a thing before. My mate John Westlake, who completed the Exeter Trial in January, says something small and light with good lights is what you need. I am hoping this bike will fit the bill.

I’ve been egged on by Morini expert Benjy Straw, who also has a Kanguro, and vouches for its decent off-road ability. I have also rejoined the Morini Riders’ Club. I was last a member in about 1981, when Adam and the Ants had a hit with Stand and Deliver.

All I have to do is make sure my Kanguro works. It has been quite nicely looked after, and converted to 12 volts throughout by a cunning process published on the Morini Riders’ Club website. But the electrics still needed checking over: sure enough I found burned wires, skinny wires and a few iffy connections. Nothing a day’s work can’t sort out. Basically the loom is a tube with wires at each end, so it’s not that hard to understand.

The motor was a bit smoky, which Benjy reckoned would be rings. Sure enough, the piston and rings were quite a way past their service limit – and already on maximum oversize. My bike had cast iron barrels (unlike the barrels on many Morinis which are plated) so I could have bought some 64mm pistons (2mm oversize), which gets the engine to about 390cc. But it also increases vibration, so I wasn’t keen.

Eventually I found a secondhand set of pistons and plated barrels via Morini expert Ian Lucas. New rings, circlips and gaskets from Mdina Italia, and away we go.

Except the screw threads for the exhaust nuts in the heads were fubar. It had been a right struggle to remove the exhaust nuts so I wasn’t surprised. Off the heads went off to the ever-resourceful Benjy, who has developed a way to fit bronze inserts, and save the heads to fight another 50,000 miles.

All I have to do is screw it all together before Easter. You can read the full story in the next issue of Classic Bike magazine.