From our Old Bike Archives – Issue 93 – first published in 2021.
Story: Nick Varta • Photos: Russ Murray
Was MotoBi the illegitimate son of the oldest extant Italian motorcycle company?
Having a company – an Italian company at that – controlled by six brothers would ensure certain differences of opinion from time to time. That company was Benelli, formed in 1911 at Pesaro on the Adriatic Coast, initially for the repair and general servicing of cars, motorcycles, light engines and even firearms. The idea actually came from Teresa Benelli, by then widowed, as a means of ensuring employment for her offspring; Giuseppe (the eldest), Giovanni, Francesco, Filippo, Domenico and Antonio. Both the eldest sons had studied engineering in Switzerland.
By 1914, the attention of the brothers had turned to military work, producing components for land vehicles and aircraft. With the war over, the future path was clear. Italy and much of Europe was crying out for affordable transport, and fratelli Benelli jumped straight in with a 98cc two-stroke engine that was designed to be mounted on conventional bicycles, driving the front wheel via a chain. The marriage of components worked well – too well in fact – because the engine churned out more power than the flimsy chassis could handle. The solution was obvious, and very soon Benelli had its own rolling chassis to form the first complete motorcycle bearing the Benelli name, which appeared in 1921.
This year also marked the point where the original five brothers were joined by the youngest sibling, Antonio, who had ambitions to be a top road racer, and soon proved his worth on a specially constructed 147cc model at the 1923 Italian Grand Prix. Within four years he had reached the top flight of the intensely competitive racing scene, proving not only his talents in the saddle, but the quality and speed of the company’s products.
Time to split
Benelli was going great guns, but then along came WW2, and like the majority of the Italian manufacturing industry, the Benelli factory was in ruins. At least several of the precious and exotic racing bikes had been secreted away from the plundering Germans (including the water-cooled four cylinder racer which was hidden in a dried-up well). But starting up production again was a nightmare and not surprisingly, there were various schools of thought within the family on how this should be accomplished. Giovanni and Giuseppe Benelli had always been the technical boffins, while the others concentrated on the administration side; a traditional form versus function rivalry that often ended in tears. After the latest disagreement Giovanni decided to pack his drawing board and make out on his own, taking his two sons Marco and Luigi with him.
The result was the formation of Moto B Pesaro in 1949, which initially appeared with just Moto B on the fuel tank but soon became MotoBi, operating in direct competition with neighbours Benelli. In short order, single cylinder two-stokes of 98cc, 114cc and 123cc appeared. The seminal 98B Balestrino featured the egg-shaped crankcases (somewhat reminiscent of the German Imme design) that were to become a signature of the company’s products, and which came to be referred to as Ova Potenza (Power Eggs). In 1952, the B 200, a two-stroke twin – essentially a pair of 98s joined – was introduced with the rather fanciful name of Spring Lasting, making its debut at that year’s Milan Show. The two-strokes were joined in 1956 by a range of four-stroke singles, initially in 125 and 175cc form, which were designed by Piero Prampolini, a freelance engineer. They looked very similar to the two-strokes, apart from a finned alloy cover over the valve gear. The short-stroke 175cc version known as the Catria (after the mountain and ski resort in the Apennines near Pesaro), was very well received and sold well. It was offered in various models including a Clubman racer which was highly successful in local events. With 8.5hp on tap, the 175 offered a worthwhile power increase over the smaller model. In later years the 125’s performance was enhanced by the addition of a 6-speed gearbox.
The horizontal design has been unfairly referred to as the “poor man’s Aermacchi” but in fact pre-dated the first of these, the 175cc Aermacchi Chimera. The MotoBi 175 had a bore and stroke of 62mm x 57mm and was later bored to 66.5mm to produce a 200cc version which was marketed as the Sprite. By 1966, a full 250cc version with a 74mm bore came on stream.
But Giuseppe’s health was flagging, and he passed away in 1957 at the age of 78, leaving Luigi and Marco to run the business. As well as concentrating on production, the youngsters also went about patching up the split in the family, to the point that Benelli and MotoBi merged in late 1961. Both brands continued in production separately until, with the economy in bad shape and European motorcycle manufacturers reeling from the sales of small cars, the inevitable combining of resources and assimilation of the two brands into one took place. A new range of 48cc MotoBi mopeds followed which achieved only moderate sales success. The final true MotoBi was the 250cc Sport Special of 1969. When Benelli was acquired by de Tomaso in 1971, both the Benelli and MotoBi names were used on various models. A casualty of the takeover was the closure of the MotoBi Competition Department (Race Shop) which had produced a string of national championships in various categories.
In 1995, the rights to the MotoBi name were obtained by Andrea Merloni, who announced plans for a range of scooters. Little happened until the Austrian company Michael Leeb Trading secured the name and began production of 50cc and 125cc motorcycles. For 2020, production was announced of an entirely new range consisting of the DL125 and DL300 models, both naked bikes, to be joined later by fully faired models conforming to Euro 5 regulations.
A survivor
In issue 92 we featured Jock Main’s Ceccato 125 and noted his passion for the lesser-known Italian brands. Well, here’s another rare lightweight, a 125cc MotoBi Imperiale Sport dating from 1957.
“This bike sits outside my office at home”, says Jock, “and sometimes I just stop and look at it. To me, it’s like when you see an older Bimota, really hand-made and beautiful”. Mind you, it wasn’t always beautiful, as he explains. “This goes back twenty years, probably more, and I heard about the Motobi through an old mate. It was being ridden by another mate’s wife, who became pregnant and stopped riding. It was a real heap; it had been hand-painted red and I just paid something like $1000, and took it home. I started riding it around the block – it ran OK but had no number plates – until a neighbour started shaking his fist at me, so I just put it in the shed and forgot about it for years. Eventually I gave it to Tex O’Borne and we talked about getting it back to original. I had been told it was a MotoBi 125 Sport but after Tex had it for a while he said, No, this is a 125 Imperiale – the hot set up!’
“The engine was in bad shape, although it was running, so Tex hunted around and found a complete engine in a crate in USA. It had apparently been sent there for the US race team but never used and I got it for $800. Tex put that in and we kept the original engine as a spare. So the restoration started and we sanded back the frame and found under the red paint that it was originally blue and silver. I really liked the look of that so that’s how it was repainted. After that I started hunting around on the internet – I reckon it would have been impossible without that – and found all the parts we needed in UK, Italy and USA.” In reality, the MotoBi shares many proprietary parts with other Italian lightweights of the period, including hubs, twistgrip, switches, FIAMM horn, Aprilia headlight and switchgear, Veglia speedo, tank cap and seat, but the main components, engine, frame, cycle parts, were all built in-house.
“When it was finished Tex said, “Don’t start it. This is too good to start – just wheel it everywhere’, so that’s how it came to end up in my house and it’s still never been started.”
Specifications: 1957 MotoBi Imperiale 125
Engine: Horizontal single cylinder OHV.
Bore x stroke: 54mm x 54mm
Compression ratio: 6.5:1
Lubrication: Wet sump
Power: 5.8hp @ 6,500 rpm
Carburettor: Dell’Orto
Gearbox: 4 -speed
Dry weight: 93kg
Fuel capacity: 15 litres
Top speed: 110km/h
