Visit to Cosmopolitian Motors

[averydad]

Hello to all,
In my search to find rims for my Monza I spoke to the folks at Buchannan. They are out of stock for several months but suggested I may contact Cosmopolitian Motors. I know of them as they were located in the Hatboro, Pa. area near where I live. However I thought they were long gone and forgotten. I googled the name and came up with a business listing in Lansdale,Pa. only 5 or 6 miles from my house. I called and spoke with a man who said he may have rims for me and the best thing would be to stop by the wharehouse and look around. Well a few days later I dropped by an unmarked building on a dead end street in an industrial part of town. I was blown away at what I found !! A cavern of a wharehouse with pallet racks four shelves high. Loaded with boxes floor to ceiling. Rows of eight foot shelves full of boxes and boxes. All Italian cycle parts. 90% N.O.S. packed in original boxes. Many boxes burst open and parts spilled all over the floor.
Fenders, Rows of gas tanks, hundreds of throttle kits, CEV lights, chrome rings, boxes of NOS speedometers. Even about a dozen bikes still in crates. How about two brand new lighted dealer signs featuring the Benelli Sei. The volume is almost unbelievable. Nothing is organized or labled. Pallets are stacked so high they can`t be searched and no one seemed to know what was in them. The fellow who greeted me was 82 year old Larry Wise. A true gentleman he offered me to dig around as long as I liked.He told me when Cosmo closed in the 70`s that this inventory was valued at about 5 million dollars and that little had beed sold since. He had a young kid working there that climbed around and tried to help me find rims. My heart leaped when he opened a pallet and pulled out a stack of Akront alloy rims 1.85 x 18 still in original wrappers !! I was so excited that it took a while till I realized they were 40 hole. We looked and looked but couldn`t find the 36 hole rims I needed. Most of the stuff is Benelli and Parilla. But alot was generic Italian light weight parts.After digging for an hour or more I sat with Mr. Wise in a ramshackle office and listened to stories about the business in the 60`s and 70`s. About racing at Daytona and the Italian riders brought over to race and promote the bikes. He had walls covered with photos of racers and piles of memorabilia, trophys and awards. The sad part was he doesn`t have the energy or man power to sort and market what he has. No web site. A few tries to market on ebay ended when he was ripped off be people he had trusted. He said he`d love to sell the whole stock at once. He even mentioned he`d thought it may have to be sold for scrap !!! He moved to Lansdale about a year ago and now is having trouble with the local zoning and fire marshall.
Anyway I hope this isn`t too far off topic. But any old bike fan would get weak in the knees at the site of the massive quanity of Italian bike parts. Included are some pics I snapped on my phone to give you a small idea of the scene I found. I have more pics if anyone is interested.
Rick

[graeme]

Hi Rick,
Yes please post more pictures please.
I've bought bits from them on Ebay a few years ago. The fellow that was running the ebay sales was very hard to contact.
I paid my money and recieved what I paid for.
They would no doubt sell lots of parts if people knew they had the parts for sale.

graeme

[basketcase]

Wow Averydad, Thats close to me too. Once I get a list together i will pay them a visit.
Randy

[averydad]

Here are some more pics....boxes of new fenders, cylinder heads stached on shelves, most still wrapped in paper....I can`t imagine what else could be found in this place !

[Ventodue]

Thanks for posting, Rick. That's really quite scary ... I'd hate to see it all scrapped, but neither would I want to be the person who has to try and sort it all out.

Bit of a nightmare ...

Ciao

Craig

[superleggera]

is this info correct:

(215) 672-9100 · 301 Jacksonville Rd, Hatboro, PA 19040

I bought stuff years ago from them on eBay. Difficult at best to contact and slow to ship. Nice parts though as all OEM / NOS.

[averydad]

The new address is ;

Cosmo Motors
101 East Blaine Ave.
Lansdale, Pa. 19446

Google to find new phone number.

[averydad]

Just ran across one of the huge lighted Benelli Sei dealer signs I saw at the Cosmo warehouse a few weeks ago. It`s listed on ebay along with a number of other possible Ducati aplicable items. Looks like they`ve found someone to start to help get some of the stuff sold. They are trading on Ebay under the name Cosmotorsusa. They have set up an ebay store and list a contact name, email and direct phone number.
I sure wish them all the best !!

Here`s the sign....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150843876170?ss ... 1438.l2649