Pete Boyd wrote in with the following question and I though that someone out here might be able to help him out. I’m curious to know this myself actually.
I put a want ad in Craig’s List for any Italian singles
(motorcycles not ladies) and got a call from San Diego on this Mojave.
It had been sitting in a shed since 1981. It is an unrestored 1968
Montgomery Wards Mojave 260 with 1654 miles on the odometer. I read on a
site that Steve McQueen’s partner in desert racing and his stuntman (and
owner of the Triumph dealership in Hollywood), Bud Ekins, did the design
work for the Mojave. Both the body work and frame are different from the
street design Benellis/MW’s of that year. It certainly looks like a
knock off of the Rickman Matisse Triumphs from that period. If anyone
can confirm or deny that story, I would appreciate it. I just got it
running and thought I would send a quick photo. I look forward to seeing
what you have posted every day. Keep it up and thanks!
Pete Boyd
Anyone able to shed some light on this?
Motorcycle Photo Of The Day 
I don’t know anything about the bike, but did find this. If this article is accurate, it’s a rare bike.
http://www.mybenellis.com/mojave.html
There was also a 360cc version and they were sold by Montgomery Wards. I have an unused yellow tank and seat section with white seat hanging in my garage. This tank has also been used on many cafe racers with good results. There’s a ton of photos on Google images:
http://www.google.com/images?q=mojave+360&hl=en&rlz=1R2GGIT_en&prmd=ivns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&wrapid=tlif130144097631810&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1010&bih=630
Do you still have the tank and seat section and would you be willing on selling them. I have a mojave 360 that i am restoring owned it for the last 20 years i have had it sitting in a garage since i was 9. Its running great and all i need to put it back to original is the seat pan and seat and front fender. If you would like to sell them please let me know or if any one else has one let me know thanks e mail me at jeremyhaney00@hotmail.com thank you jeremy
wards bike still for sell it’s now 2014 march thanks joe 209 632 0303 central ca
i have an original nos seat fender never on a bike for sale. are you still looking?
You might find this interesting also:
This is what I was told. Benelli was working on a Rickman replica/copy that was abandoned. They ended up putting 260cc or 360cc engines in these frames,(that were engineered for 650cc or 750cc engines) for MW. The smaller engines made the bikes cheaper for MW but resulted in a funny combination of over engineered frame with small displacement engine.
I just bought a 260 and do not know much about them. Years made, numbers made?
There were 2 of these abandoned in the woods when I was a kid in the late sixties they were all dented and sprayed fluorescent orange, walked by them many times before I found out they belonged to my friends older brother, I asked if I could have them and he said yes, they were identical but for displacement, I took both apart and had enough parts to make a complete 360cc, but the bodywork was completely trashed and the cylinders were hopelessly seized, so at that time Montgomery Ward was almost out of business but I called them and said I’d have to go to the store to order the parts I wanted, I did that and got 1st oversize piston, rings ect. plus all the top end gaskets, gas tank, seat and rear tail section, front fender, it was ridiculously cheap I was only 13 at the time and I could afford it. Sanded and painted the frame, polished all the aluminum, reassembled the rest, and naturally it looked like new. Put some oil, gas and a battery in it and it started on the 2nd kick. Ran fine sounded very good and quiet mechanically, my dad was pretty proud of me, I loved that experience.