Everyone dreams of owning a motorcycle collection. Some of us are lucky enough to make it a reality. Such is the story of the men whose bikes are on display at Motorcycle And Design in Milan, Italy.

ChopCult member Marco Donati of Italy visited Milan to see the MAD show personally. This is his story and these are his photos. Anything lost in translation from Marco’s native tongue is made clear by his images. They are simply classifica dei motocicli.

The collection at MAD is presented not on a contemporary path, but all the bikes are mixed up and all of them are shown for two main reasons: their technical innovation and their visionary design. Viewing the exhibition moves two different feelings: one is admiration for these incredible pieces of art, the other is envy for the owner that can ride these beauties whenever he wants.

Harley on the side of a Bimota, a Confederate in the same room as an old scoot from Sunbeam; this mix at a first glance confuses the visitors. But if you relax and let your mind fly free than you begin to see the little line that connects everything: the genial vision of each brand founder. Their amazing passion and dedication to their dreams make possible for us to ride and to enjoy these pieces of art. Walking between these bikes you can smell this passion.

Two separate displays for single marques are include in this exhibition: one for Patton motorcycles and another for Vincent. Patton are the green rockets that for 30 years have been racing on all the most famous circuits in the world, most of the time with winning results.

Each Patton motorcycle is hand made and designed with passion by Giovanni Pattoni, and old-style man. With silent passion and incredible faith in his vision Giovanni has built up a small racing factory that has fought on the same battleground with huge factories like Honda and Yamaha. As I stood completely taken by the beauty of Senor Pattoni’s machines, it was impossible not to recognize them as pieces of art.

Next I witnessed the Vincent motorcycle display. For more than 80 years this historic name has shaken the heart of every person fortunate enough to be a Vincent rider. Even 50 years after the closing of the factory these amazing bikes are still the perfect specimens of design and speed. In fact, even today some crazy riders use Vincent engines with handmade frames to fight machines 50 years younger than their own on racetracks all over the world. Incredible though it may seem, sometimes these tifosi of the Vincent marque win and set speed world records.

Variety is what makes MAD truly special. In the same room it’s possible to enjoy the vision of a modern streamliner, a brand-new racing machine, a ‘60s café racer and stock motorcycles from the 1950’s. It is an amazing assembly of simplicity, strength, and technical geniality. I had never before seen a Vincent motorcycle, and I was a bit skeptical about their fame. Admiring these machines I was completely seduced by the clean shape of the engines, and of the bikes themselves.

Nowadays these machines transmit their power through the beauty of their construction and through the simplicity of their amazing designs. It’s impossible to admire these beautiful motorcycles without feeling envy for those who have derived their passion from these masterpieces. Being reminded that the very luckiest owners of these machines still get to ride them only makes that feeling worse.

We've uploaded and linked the large files of these images, too. To see any of these pictures full-sized, simply click the image and it will open in a new window.

Special thanks to Marco Donati. You can see more of his pics at www.marcodonati.com