History of Benelli and Motobi

Six brothers founded the Benelli concern in 1911 in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast. It is one of the oldest surviving motorcycle builders in Italy. They started as a repair business and gradually moved on to producing a variety of components for various diverse industries including firearms.

Below – the Benelli brothers in 1929: from left, Antonio (Tonino), Francesco, Giovanni, Giuseppe, Fillipo and Domenico.

Photo of the Six Benelli brothers

The first motorcycles

After the First World War the company started motorcycle production with the introduction of lightweight motorcycles of 98cc, soon increased to 150cc. Giovanni and Guiseppe were the engineers, Filipo and Domenico the accountants, Tonino was the racer, Francesco concentrated on his car business. Tonino started racing on a tuned version of the firm’s 150cc model and gained many successes. In 1927 the firm built a 175cc overhead cam racer for Tonino which proved to be unbeatable. In 1932 a double overhead cam version was produced, and machines based on this design were to race into the 1960s. A bad crash in 1932 was to end Tonino’s racing career. He continued as a factory test rider until his death, on a test run, in 1937.

By the mid 1930s Benelli was one of the top five Italian motorcycle manufacturers. In 1938, a supercharged 250 four cylinder, water cooled bike was developed, producing 62 bhp. Unfortunately this was never raced due to the start of WW2.

During World War Two the factory started making parts for the military. After the war many small capacity machines were made and of note were the two and four stroke versions of the Leoncino 125.

Motobi

Red Motobi Sport Special

The Motobi marque emerged in 1950 as a separate concern when Giuseppe left to form his own company (moto is the Italian word for motorcycle, b was for Benelli, Moto-B). Motobi produced a range of two stroke lightweight motorcycles with horizontal engines, and then the familiar horizontal (egg-shaped) four stroke engines which remained in production for almost twenty years.

Meanwhile Benelli, and to a lesser extent Motobi, were very active on the racing scene and famous riders include Renzo Pasolini, Mike Hailwood, Tarquino Provini, Silvio Grassetti and the Benelli 250cc World champion in 1969, Kel Carruthers.

During the 1960s, Benelli, who by now had the Motobi marque back with them, started exporting considerable numbers of machines to the USA, namely the 250 Motobi inspired singles, also vertical singles in 2 and 4 stroke versions, and finally what many regard as the last real Benelli before the Tomaso takeover, the 650cc Tornado.

The De Tomaso years

As the Seventies dawned the Argentinian Alejandro De Tomaso bought Benelli and also Moto Guzzi who were both in financial trouble. A range of 4 and 6 cylinder bikes were produced to supplement the existing range of smaller bikes, ranging from the 4 cylinder 250 to the mighty 750cc and 900cc 6 cylinder models. During the ’80s Benelli focussed much of its efforts on its new range of mopeds and scooters. In 1987 2 new 125s were produced: the exciting 125cc Jarno street racer and BX, at which time it was announced that Benelli would focus entirely on small capacity 2 strokes, while Guzzi concentrated on the larger capacity bikes. However, sales continued to decrease and in 1988 Benelli was sold to Biesse Woodworking Group owned by former Benelli employee, Giancarlo Biesse. During the 90s Benelli produced significant numbers of small lightweight models, but no larger bikes.

Benellis from the 70s and 80s

Andrea Merloni

In 1995 Andrea Merloni took over Benelli. A number of small models were released, including the Adiva and the Pepe. The company was revied as a producer of larger bikes with the 2002 launch of the Tornado 900 Tre super sport bike.

QianJiang Era

In 2011 Benelli celebrated their centenary in Pesaro and a new range of bikes was announced.

The company are now part of the QianJiang group, and produce a range of scooters as well as the modern sports bikes.

It took the QJ group a number of years to turn around the financial troubles from the Merloni era and by 2012 it was just starting to show that it was going to create new significant models and gradually move away from the triples, although they still were to be purchased in various export markets. Meanwhile the long running models of the Pepe and others were still listed but around 2016 a new set of in line 4 cylinder models were presented at a ceremony in Pesaro. These models were the BN 600 and the Italian built BN 600 R which was sold at a premium price in Europe, and the 600 GT followed a little time afterwards.

2017 was a major year for Benelli with the introduction of the TNT 125 a hugely popular model in the UK, and shortly after the larger wheeled BN 125. Other models of note were the 251, and the 302.

2018 to 2019 saw the introduction of larger capacity twins. The models were the 500 Leoncino  and the 502 TRK in various trims. The 502 TRK was Italy’s best selling motorcycle for a number of years. In recent years the QJ group was absorbed by the giant automotive Geely group and the line up of Benelli motorcycles continues to grow with new versions of the 500/600/700/and 800 cc engines machines coming out, the latest being the very popular 702 TRK which is again the best selling motorcycle in Italy. Benelli has a firm foothold in the UK market now with the long standing importers Moto GB making big inroads into its share of the UK market.