Jeffrey T.

Schnapp
PIAGGIO

6 ITALIAN LESSONS ON MOBILITY AND MODERN LIFE

Foreword

Roberto Colaninno

Piaggio was founded in the highly productive climate of Italys industrial-

ization, fast becoming one of its leading actors and aligning its industrial
development with the countrys extraordinary economic and civil growth.
In the post-World War Two period, and after having concerned itself with
the design and production of the most diverse forms of the transport of
goods and people, Piaggio took its name and that of its products around
the world, thus becoming the very symbol of Italian and European industry,
linking its name to the theme of mobility that has always been synony-
mous with freedom.
Businesses, like living organisms, have their own genetic code, an
intimate trait that marks their existence, guides their actions, and, lastly,
determines their fate. Piaggio has based its history and success on a love for
innovation, on the capacity to imagine a future invisible to others, and to
understand, interpret, and hence, satisfy peoples needs, even the needs of
those who are beginning their lives today, wherever they may be in the world.
It has done so for 130 years, and it continues to do so today.
Our roots sink deeply into these values, into this business culture that
finds fertile ground in the skills, in the talent, in the insights of our people,
and is substantiated in the brands and products that different generations
and peoples have learned to love and make their own, as though inter-
nationalization and innovation were, starting from the original ideas, the
intrinsic heritage of those objects.
Today Piaggio and its brands are actors on the global stage, providing
innovative mobility solutions both in mature Western markets and in the
emerging countries. Piaggio is in India, Vietnam, and China, accompany-
ing the economic and social development of countries and populations
that are the locomotive of the world, seeking solutions and new proposals
to the theme of mobility to make everyones life, at every latitude, easier
and more sustainable. And it does so by fitting into the culture, the his-
tory, and daily life, which is exactly what happened in Italy and in Europe
seventy years ago. Because Piaggio is no longer just a great Italian com-
pany, it is an asset of the world of mobility that has no borders. But having
a global presence also means having a great responsibility toward the
countries and cultures with which we interact. For this reason, wherever
in the world, the Piaggio Group associates its industrial and commercial
policies with ventures inspired by social corporate responsibility: from the Roberto Colaninno,
Chairman and Chief
study of the evermore advanced engines and propulsion systems in terms Executive Officer of
Piaggio & C. S.p.A.
of respect for the environment, to social commitment with initiatives such
as Vespa for Children, or the recent agreement with (RED) to support
The Global Fund in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
Our product range goes from small scooters to sports motorbikes,
which also play leading roles on the race tracks and in the worlds top
competitions, from commercial vehicles to revolutionary ones, such as the
first and most widespread hybrid-powered scooter in the world, from the
sumptuous motorcycles designed for endless distances to icons of elegance
like Vespa, unanimously recognized as one of the symbols not only of style
but also of Italian culture.
With the third millennium now under way, Piaggio is a group that op-
erates in the world, and that distributes its points of excellence around the
world, because we want to be at the forefront wherever ideas are created,
wherever innovation and lifestyles are born that will influence the decades
to come. For this reason Piaggio Fast Forward has its headquarters in Bos-
ton, Massachusetts, where research, the university, visions of the future,
technology, and business forge positive synergies. The Piaggio Advanced
Design Center is instead located in Pasadena, California, in the land that
inspired or cultivated all the cultural revolutions of the contemporary age as
well as Aprilia Racing, the technologically most advanced division of Gruppo
Piaggio, at Noale, not far from Venice, where the legend of the Aprilia mo-
torbikes was born. It is thanks to this cross-pollination of cultures and ideas
that Piaggio todayjust like in the pastis searching for the key to continue
to anticipate and fulfill the needs and the aspirations of the future.
The world of transportation is being disrupted today in ways that
exceed the challenges faced by Piaggio when it gave birth to the Vespa in
response to Italys shift from a wartime to a postwar economy. The digital
revolution has invaded every nook and cranny of the globe, profoundly al-
tering the behavior patterns of societies as a whole and the daily habits of
the individuals that make them up. The very procedures by means of which
companies like Piaggio undertake the modeling, engineering, testing,
and manufacturing of products, not to mention the ways in which prod-
ucts reach and are experienced by consumers, have changed. The pace of
everything has accelerated, spawning new frictions: between the rhythms
of government policy-making and social needs; between local and global
markets; between the workforce as it currently exists and the workforces
that are needed to support the new and emerging models of development
and manufacture.
The Piaggio Group remains deeply committed to playing a leader-
ship role in this emerging, expanding universe of mobility, where scooters,
motorcycles, and other light mobility vehicles will become ever smarter,
and ever more connected and interconnected. Innovation means vision and
imagination as well as rigor and technical know-how. Thats the spirit that
breathes life into the book FuturPiaggio. Thats the spirit that informs Piag-
gios efforts as it ventures out beyond its 130-year anniversary to develop
new products and pioneer the twenty-first-century approaches to mobility.
In a few decades our planets population will double, and megalopolises
whose dimensions we can only imagine will accommodate tens of millions
of people. The challenges that these scenarios, together with the progress
of new technologies, pose us are a testing ground never before faced by the
human race. Mobility and therefore the social relations in these new urban
environments, the eco-sustainability of complex systems like that of trans-
port, the interaction between vehicles, networks, users, and environments,
are just a few of the trials that we shall be facing in the next few years. But
it is a future that must not scare us and that could be experienced as a great
opportunity by those companies and by those cultures that have cultivated
within the genes of change, that like in a natural evolutionary process have
been able to select the virtuous behaviors of those who can look well beyond
the optical horizon. The challenge will be to be able to speak to the new gen-
erations, and interpret their needs that we still do not know about.
In an extraordinary moment of technological, economic, and social
transformation, we are called to do something different and harder than
'simply' learn from our history: we must cherish its lessons and, at the same
time, continue to write it, pursuing the road of continuous innovation,
following with coherence and vision the same values that underlie our work
and that have guided us for over 130 years.
Contents

Timelines

Contemporary Icons
65 Piaggio

Aprilia
75 Gilera
Foreword 62 Snapshots 108 Anthropologies
Roberto Colaninno

Moto Guzzi
64 The Piaggio Biumvirate 112 Exploded view
67 Italian Streamliners 114 Anthropos as rider

81 Moto Guzzi
69 Stellar engines 116 Engine
15 Italian Lessons 71 P108B 118 Saddle
Jeffrey T. Schnapp 73 Variable Pitch Propeller 120 One body fits all

Gilera
74 Piaggio-dAscanio 122 Center stand
19 Lightness 76 San Remo - Monte Bignone Funicular 123 Lounging
91 Aprilia

25 Quickness 79 Scooter Wheels 124 Legshield

Derbi
29 Exactitude 80 Renato Tassinari 125 Necktie
33 Visibility 87 Georges Monneret 126 Handlebar
37 Multiplicity 89 Ciao 128 Kickstarter

Piaggio
99 Derbi

41 Future 91 Logotopia 130 Workout bench

93 Giuseppe Gilera 132 Floorboard
95 GP (Guzzi before Guzzi) 133 Storage
97 The Guzzi Triumvirate 134 Headlight
99 The Mechanical Mule 136 Rearview mirrors
101 Aprilia A1 138 Wheel
103 Aprilia RS 140 Skin
105 Aprilia Supermotard 142 Logo

108
62
15
144 Piaggio Dictionary

146 Ad occhi chiusi(With closed eyes)

156 Mele (Apples)
Alce (Moose) Mod
Ape Monoforcella ( Single fork tube)
Ap Monthlry
Ape Bestellscooter (Ape Transport Scooter) Mosca Bianca (White fly)
Aprilia Movibilit (Movability)
Aquila (Eagle) MP3
Bimodale (Bimodal) Nettuno (Neptune)
Bisiluro Tarf (Tarf twin torpedo)
158 Nibbio (Kite)

148 Bitubo (Twin tube) Non un problema (Its not a problem)

Breva OPRA
Calendars Otto bulloni (Eight bolts)
Calessino (Mini-gig) Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa
California Paperino MP5 (Donald Duck MP5)
Cardellino (Goldfinch) Pentar
Carosello (Carousel)
160 Piaggista (Piaggio-ist)
Carromotore edile (Three-wheeled Pianale (Flatbed)
construction microtruck) Pianeti (Planets)

150 Centoporte (One hundred doors) Piglialo, piglialo, va al cancellone (Pick that one, that one, hes at the gate)
Chalet Birreria Erhardt (Erhardt beer chalet) Piuma (Feather)
Con Vespa si pu /(With a Vespa you can) Primavera (Spring)
Derbi Quattro bulloni (Four bolts)
DouglasVespa
162 Regolarit (Enduro)
Emmina (Little M) Ribaltabile (Tipper)
Ercole (Hercules) Rondine (Swallow)
Ercolino (Baby Hercules) Rose (Roses)
Eurovespa Sardomobili (Sardomobiles)
144
152 Federico Fellini Sciame (Swarm)
Frenata integrale (Integrated brakes) Scooter
Furgoncino (Minivan)
164 Seventy Years Young
Galletto (Cockerel) Tipo 107
Giardinetta (Station wagon) U
Gigante (Giant) Vespa (Wasp)
Giubileo (Jubilee) Vespa 400
Griso Vespa Commercial

154 Guzzino (Little Guzzi) Vespa Lastenroller (Vespa Freight Carrier)

Guzzne (Big Guzzi)
166 Vespare (To Vespa)
Hangar Sperimentale della Piaggio di Finale Vespina (Little Vespa)
Ligure (Piaggio Expiremental Hangar in Finale Vespista (Vespist)
Ligure) Vespone (Big Vespa)
Lambreta X-scootering
Lapa Zigolo (Bunting)
Laverda
Lodola (Skylark)
MAS
ITALIAN LESSONS Italian Lessons

Jeffrey T. Schnapp

Companies are expressions of collective personhood. So their histories

pit the contingencies and imponderables of human history against the
actions, dreams, and ambitions of generations of individuals. They can be
recounted from a variety of vantage points: the familiar one of founders
and successors; that of innovators and inventors whose inventions fulfill
their dreams or escape their intentions; the perspective of workers on the
factory floor striving for social justice or economic opportunity; that of
statistics spinning tales of growth, decline, shifts in productivity, ebbs and
flows of capital, the vicissitudes of market shares; the standpoint of com-
munications, public relations, corporate culture, and consumer outreach;
and, finally, that of products whether as expressions of real or imagined
human needs or as a currency animated by the communities of customers
that bring them to life. All are valid and vital expressions of the interac-
tions between individuals, collectivities, products, and markets. In the case
of a company as venerable as Piaggio, whose 130th anniversary is marked
by the present volume, each of these genres of historiography has its own
history, often in connection with prior anniversaries.
There exist studies of the companys economic history from overall
portraits like Tommaso Fanfanis Una leggenda verso il futuro (1994) and
Andrea Rapinis examination of the genesis and success of the Vespa,
La nazionalizzazione a due ruote (2007), to biographies of key figures
like Alberto Mondinis Unelica e due ruote: la libert di muoversi: Vita di
Corradino dAscanio (1995). There are also specialized studies of specific
branches of the Piaggio family tree (like the four volumes that the Centro
Culturale Aeronautico Ugo Antoni has dedicated to Piaggio aviation).
And, of course, the numerous copiously illustrated monomarque chroni-
cles devoted to the evolution of the brands that now make up the Piaggio
family: tomes like Giorgio Sartis VespaThe Complete History from 1946
(2006), Brizio Pignacca and Paolo Contis Moto Gilera (1989), Mario Colom-
bos Moto GuzziStoria, tecnica e modelli dal 1921 (2007), and Moto Guzzi,
novantanni di arte e tecnologia (2011). Most of all, there exist many shelves
full of books about that most iconic of disruptive mobility vectors, the
Vespa: books on the evolution of the Vespas design; its place in advertis-
ing, music, film, and popular culture; and the history of its spinoffs (among
which the Ape enjoys pride of place).
1 - Driver Juan Manuel FuturPiaggio touches upon all of these precedents but seeks to be
Fangio with test
drivers at the Piaggio none of the above. It provides a panoramic entry point into Piaggios cur-
Pontedera plant, 1956
rent family of brands in the self-reflexive, idiosyncratic essayistic mode
inaugurated by Michel de Montaigne four centuries ago and polished to
perfection by modern masters such as Italo Calvino. In probing Piaggios
history, the book analyzes the culture of mobility that Piaggio products
have embodied over the course of the past 130 years, with its eyes fixed
on the future. Its language is that of the futurist sintesi (synthesis): com-
pressed, crackling with jump cuts, fast-paced. It performs a series of barrel
rolls through twentieth-century culture, society, engineering, and design,
opening up little more than some spiraling aerial views.
Aviation represents just one early chapter in Piaggios history, so per-
haps the better analogy is between FuturPiaggio and a ride on the saddle
of a Vespa, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, or Gilera that takes the reader through the
architectural fabric of a polypolar city that just turned 130 years old. Dense
and filled with sites for future growth and opportunity, the Piaggio cityscape
encompasses place names like Milan, Pontedera, Genova, Sestri Ponente,
and Finale Ligure, to which must be added Noale, Arcore, and Mandello del
Lario, not to mention production sites like Scorz, Baramati (India), and
Vinh Phuc (Vietnam). Last but not least, theres the United States: a design
center in Pasadena, California, and Piaggio Fast Forward, a new venture in
Boston, Massachusetts, complete the map. Once confined to Italy, Piaggio-
land is now a global domain. It is a place where the present and the future
are being built upon the past, through a continuous process of adaptation,
renewal, and reinvention. Places of demolition or burial are scattered here
and there. The patina of history has settled upon a building or two. But there
are also new citadels under construction throughout the world.
FuturPiaggio dialogues with two models from the past that are mo-
ments of Italian excellence in the field of design: Fortunato Deperos bolted
Depero futurista 1913-1926 (published in 1927), the artists typographically
muscular anthology of his own career through the futurist movement, a
replica of the bolted technical manuals found in Italian factories and ma-
chine shops, and the 1970s libri rossi (red books) in which Olivetti codified the
design processes, with their French-fold pages and ghostly layering effects.
The book is designed so that it can be read in linear fashion: as an extended
narrative that tracks the overall chronology of Piaggio; its signal products
and projects; key figures, movements, and moments. But it is also designed
so that it may be skimmed, dipped into and out of at one point or another.
The present essay serves as an anchor for a variety of shorter forms:
snapshots in the form of mini-essays on products, inventions, or persons;
anthropologies in which a defining vehicle from the past or present is
 dissected; timelines that graft the histories of Piaggio and its family brands
onto a unified family tree; and foldouts featuring several contemporary
Piaggio products. It concludes with a Piaggio lexicon: a playful dictionary
of nearly one hundred items extending from A[d occhi chiusi] to Z[igolo].
The essay that forms the backbone of FuturPiaggio draws its inspi-
ration from Italo Calvinos Six Memos for a New Millennium. Known as his
American lessons because they were written for the Norton Lectures at
Harvard University, the institution of higher learning where I teach, the
work deftly explores five values that were of vital importance to Calvinos
sense of contemporaneity and futurity: lightness, speed, precision, visibili-
ty, and multiplicity. Such is the chapter structure that I have recast here in
a Piaggio family key. A sixthopenness or consistencywas projected but
never completed due to the writers untimely death. I have filled in the void
with an epilogue devoted to Piaggios future.
With aims that are more descriptive than Calvinos and expressive means
that are more modest, FuturPiaggio was composed on the Harvard campus,
Calvinos destination, at the very moment when the Piaggio group has opened
a Boston beachhead with the aim of extending its leadership role in the field
of light transportation and mobility into the new millennium. Though the book
explores the companys past, its point of arrival is the future.

2 - Moto Guzzi MGX-21

ITALIAN LESSONS Lightness

The late 1960s and early 1970s were a prolific period when it came to mes-
saging new notions of generational mobility. During that era a swarm of
slogans buzzed about the ears of scooter-riding teens and young adults
thanks to the creative work of advertising agencies like Leader, where
Gilberto Filippetti managed the Piaggio account: slogans like those who
Vespa get a bite of the apple; those who dont, dont (chi Vespa mangia
le mele [chi non Vespa no]); punning variants like Ill buy myself one of
those Vespas (mela compro la Vespa); and images of sardine-can-like
automobiles crammed with tense elders contrasted with the free-spirited
youth mounted on 49cc steeds summoned up to the tune of sardomo-
biles shun the sun; the Vespa shines (le sardomobili non godono il sole;
splende chi Vespa). The wit and lightheartedness of period ads hints at a
leavening underway in society at large: the ascendancy of a new youth cul-
ture with an alternative code of values, the shedding of old strictures and
institutions in pursuit of new pleasures and freedoms.
How might a vehicle expedite a revolution defined by an increasing
split between the old and the young, the caged and the uncaged, the
stationary and the perpetually on-the-move? By breaking the rules. The
nature of the transgression is exposed in an even more elevated expression
of the advertising imagination: an ad that read one day a small aircraft
shed its wings in the sky to become a myth on land (Un giorno un pic-
colo aereo lasci le ali in cielo per diventare un mito in terra). The phrase
is artfully crafted, and that small aircraft was, of course, none other than
the aeronautical engineer Corradino dAscanios Moto Piaggio 6 or MP6,
his reworking of the MP5, known as the Donald Duck (Paperino). The MP6
belonged to the hymenopteral, not the avian family. As legend would have it,
the prototype was greeted by the companys leader Enrico Piaggio with the
fateful words: It resembles a wasp! (Sembra una vespa!).

3 - Piaggio test drivers,

1960s

4 - Cable car for tramway, 1920s

 Contrary to what is sometimes written, the Vespa was not one of the
first motor scooters. Autopeds traveled the streets of 1920s London. In the
1930s, Salsburies and Cushmans were widely available on the American
market. Even as the Vespa was evolving from the MP5 to the MP6, Volugra-
fos were coursing Italian roads and the Japanese were breeding vehicles
like the Fuji Rabbit. Unlike these predecessors and peers, however, the
Vespas inventor was an aeronautical engineer. Its key technical and design
features were born in the kingdom of the air. Once they descended to
earth, they were bundled together by dAscanio to allow people to fly in
some novel, socially meaningful ways that have matured over the course
of subsequent decades.
Long before it gave birth to a terrestrial legend, Piaggio was in the
mobility business. Rather, it was in a variety of mobility businesses be-
cause, over the course of 130 years, Piaggio contributed in significant ways
to the development of just about every form of motorized mobility known
to mankind: from shipbuilding to railway and roadway vehicles (including
mopeds, scooters, motorcycles, trikes, cars, and trucks) to aircraft and
aerial tramways [San Remo-Monte Bignone funicular]. Established by Rinaldo Piaggio
(18641938) in 1884, the Societ Rinaldo Piaggio became Piaggio & Compa-
ny in 1887, concentrating its initial activities in the fields of forestry, car-
pentry, and the outfitting of luxury passenger liners [The Piaggio Biumvirate]. Soon
thereafter it turned to the construction of railway cars, trams, and cable
cars. During the Great War, Piaggio renewed its commitment to shipbuild-
ing, participating in the development of the Motor Torpedo Boats (Moto-
scafi Armati Siluranti) that would play a key role in the Adriatic theater in
the wars immediate aftermath. Though later products like the Moscone 5
(Big Fly) 100cc outboard engine, launched in 1949 and marketed through
the mid-1950s, attest to the enduring presence of marine engineering in
the companys DNA, the period between World War I and II is character-
ized by an emphasis on aviation. The effort was led by Rinaldos son, Enrico
Piaggio (who fully assumed the helm after his fathers death in 1938), and
encompassed the development and production of seaplanes, passenger
aircraft, fighter planes, and bombers, not to mention several generations
of radial engines and variable pitch propellers [Stellare Engines and Variable-Pitch Propeller].
DAscanio first joined the Piaggio team in 1932 to develop propellers
for its P16 bomber [Corradino dAscanio]. He also set to work refining elements
within Piaggios research infrastructure in Finalmarina, including the
hydrodynamic tank and wind tunnel facilities, before moving to Pontedera
where his focus was on propeller and aircraft engine designs. DAscanios
true passion remained the helicopter, and during the second half of the 5 - Piaggio P148; 6 - Background
Lycoming O. 435A Technical drawings,
1930s his energies were absorbed by various editions of the Piaggio- engine, 1950s 1930s

dAscanio helicopter. Two initial versions were developed on paper, the PD1
and PD2; a third, the PD3, went through several phases of elaboration until
the war interfered [Piaggio-dAscanio]. Testing was underway when a bomb fell on
 the hangar where the PD3 was in storage; other bombardments followed.
By the wars end, much of the Pontedera industrial complex lay in ruins.
The reconstruction of Italy was going to take place from the ground up.
So the Vespa fell from the sky because historical circumstances
stripped dAscanio of his wings. The engineer was instructed by Enrico
Piaggio to postpone all further work on the PD3. He would instead have
to tackle the redesign of a vehicle type for which he felt little affinity:
one that was heavy, noisy, dirty, impractical, and difficult to mount and
dismountthe motorcycle. It was around that new vehicle type that the
company would be rebuilt [Logotopia]. DAscanios aim was to create an alter-
native to the motorcycle. Many of the solutions he adopted to make the
Vespa fly in its own distinctive way were of aeronautical derivation: the
front mono-strut, a monocoque body encasing the engine, the chainless
transmission, forced-air cooling, perhaps even the stub-axle-mounted
interchangeable wheels. Others were responses to practical needs:
a partial fairing to protect the rider from the elements; the integration
of the gearshift mechanism into the handlebar; comfortable ergonomics;
the provision of a spare tire. Others still, like the elimination of the longitu-
dinal crossbar in favor of a step-through frame, borrowed from the design
of womens bicycles.
The package was born complete with a new power train: a buzzy two-
stroke 98cc single-cylinder engine for the 19461948 models, soon followed
by a 125 and a lineage of ever lighter, more powerful descendants. Within
three years came the addition of other comforts: a side-stand and, later,
center-stand; a baggage rack or passenger seats; and a cargo bay. Seventy
7 years of subsequent tweaks and technical improvements have done little
more than confirm the rigor of the Vespas design. The myth on land that 10
sprung into being in 1946 has matured as it has endured.
The myth in question has been parsed in a multitude of ways. It has
been enshrined as a symbol of Italys postwar reconstruction and of the
distinctive interlacing of technical skill, styling, craft, and design that
characterizes Made in Italy goods. It has been associated with the eman-

7 - Ape 450, 1965 8 - Background

Ape AC, 1960

10 - Moscone Piaggio 11 - Background

outboard engine, 1957 Moscone Piaggio
outboard engine, 1954

9 - Presentation of Ape Rickshaw in the presence of the Prime Minister of India, Nehru, Bombay, 1949
cipation of women, the emergence of postwar consumer culture, the rise
of subcultures like those of the Vespa Club swarms of the 1950s and 1960s
and the British Mods of the 1960s and 1970s. Our theme is lightness and,
having spent a lifetime alternating between the worlds of bicycles, scoot-
ers, motorcycles, and automobiles, Id like instead to pursue a phenomeno-
logical line of inquiry. Whats unique to the mode of flight that the Vespa
enables? How does the vehicles design enable particular kinds of mobility?
What sorts of freedoms does it afford the individual or a society?
As any self-respecting motorcyclist will (rightly) insist, driving is not
equivalent to riding. The exposure to risk, the intensified sensorium of speed,
high levels of bodily engagement in turning and braking, and the need for
constant focus on the road render the piloting of a motorcycle a far less
distracted exercise than the everyday driving of an automobile. Likewise,
scooter-ingor Vespa-ing, as Piaggio advertising campaigns would have
itis not the same action as piloting a motorcycle (even if racer-adventurers
like Georges Monneret approached them as if identical) [Georges Monneret].
The English verb to scoot hints at the differences. Scoot derives from
the Scottish skute or skewt, referring to the action of ejecting, squirting,
darting suddenly or unexpectedly. Scooting could thus never be reduced
to a matter of top speed, maximum lean angles, and traversing long
distances. Nor could it be reduced to mere economy of motion from point-
to-point. Rather, scooting connotes agility, efficiency, and pleasure experi-
enced in the process of covering modest distances through the exercise of
the riders ability to invent pathways in sudden, irregular, or unpredictable
manners. In short, Vespa-ing is all about the delta of quick acceleration
and deceleration. Its about flickability and riderly cunning: think metis in 12
ancient Greekthe trickster smarts demonstrated by heroes like Odysseus.
Its about speed on a reduced scale, momentary or improvisatory speed,
velocities that are more mental and social than somatic.
Pre-Vespa scooters possessed many of the elements required to en-
able people to scoot. The Vespa recapitulated these elements both by im-
proving upon them and innovating. It delivered a complete, fully integrated
package, setting new technical and design standards. Above and beyond
the modest sticker price, the simple power plant, and the vehicles modest
weight, the small tires and quick nature of its steering make traversing
narrow spaces and labyrinthine trajectories fun. The upright riding posture
with feet firmly planted on a floor is intuitive, comfortable, and requires
no special bodily exertion. The step-through frame allows for effortless
mounts and dismounts, transitions between walking and riding so fast
that no motorcyclist or automobile driver could even dream of them. No 12- Vespa 400, 1957 13 - Background
Vespa 400, technical
special clothing or safety gear is presupposed: a pencil skirt is just as wel- drawing, 1957

come as a three-piece suit. Theres provision for everything from book bags
to handbags to knickknacks. The same ergonomic ease enjoyed by riders
applies to passengers.
 When compared with a car or motorcycle the Vespa is a social vehicle
. Singly, its always been easy to chat with a passenger riding on
[Renato Tassinari]

the back (even subsequent to the imposition of helmet laws). Collectively,

its just as easy to interact with fellow riders. The pace isnt so fast as to
preclude conversation. Darting in and out of traffic breeds solidarity. Ves-
pas flow in and out of gaps in the urban fabric like water into the cracks
in the pavement, transgressing every threshold between sidewalk and
street, indoors and outdoors, the on-road and the off-road. Their move-
ments can be purposeful; just as often they are the motorized equivalent
of the idle peregrinations of the flaneur and his nineteenth-century peer,
the dandy, ever embracing opportunities to surprise or shock the driv-
ing multitudes. The city is the Vespas theater (though its also a nimble
platform for limited-radius explorations of the countryside). It finds its
homeland in crannies forbidden to bulky vehicles.
The Vespas homeland is growing in the twenty-first century as
megacities expand and automobility becomes ever more restricted and
restrained by traffic congestion. Far from belonging to the past, scooting
remains a key skillset for citizens of the future.

14

14 - The test driver 15 - Background

Natale Biasci rides the Technical drawing
Paperino, Biella, 1945 of the Vespa 98 as
it appears in the patent
of April 1946

16 - MP6 prototype, 1945 17 - Vespa 946 Bellissima, 2014

18 - lvaro Bautista
riding the Aprilia RS-GP,
Sepang, 2015
ITALIAN LESSONS Quickness 20

Lightness is to speed as the feather is to the arrow. Arrows can fly without
them but fly most efficiently when equipped with feather fletchings. Which
is to say that lightness and speed belong to distinct, if complementary, or-
ders of value. The one can contribute to the other but doesnt presuppose it.
If the Vespa embodies the featherweight pleasures associated with
spurts and surges of speed, the A in Aprilia stands for the arrows acceler-
ation and arc. The P in Aprilia stands for power, performance, and passion. 21

A fourth P was added when the firm joined the Piaggio group in 2004. The
trailing L marks the persistence of lightness as a core Aprilia value.
Aprilia was born in the Veneto town of Noale in the aftermath of
World War II under the aegis of aerodynamics. Its name, evocative of the
Latin Aprilis, the springtime month sacred to the goddess of love Aphrodite,
was borrowed from an automotive deity: the Lancia Aprilia sedan, manu-
factured between 1937 and 1949, whose record-breaking low drag coeffi-
cient (0.47) was the result of its being among the very first cars engineered
using a wind tunnel. 22

The Aprilia brands pedigree is not unlike that of an earlier and older
Piaggio acquisition, Derbi. Both began their lives in the realm of ultralight-
ness: as bicycle workshops that turned to the manufacture of mopeds and
small-displacement two-strokes [Aprilia A1]. Their subsequent development
was defined by fierce dedication to racing. That commitment is the stuff
of legend in the case of Aprilia. It has translated into ten world titles in the
125 category, nine in the 250 category, and nineteen manufacturers titles
(which places Aprilia in the all-time manufacturers top-four). Seven World
Superbike championships (three riders' plus four manufacturers titles) 23

between 2010 and 2014 must now be added to the palmars thanks to the
racetrack successes of the RSV4 Superbike, not to mention seven SuperMo-
to championships (three riders' plus four manufacturers titles) between
2004 and 2011. At the time of writing, Aprilia Racings new Moto GP entry,
the RS-GP, is competing successfully in the top formula class and the RSV4
remains near the top of the World Superbike heap. A unique record of ac-
complishment, all in all, particularly when one factors in the considerable
heft of Aprilias Japanese competitors and their no less hefty research and
development budgets. 24

Quickness is never absolute, whether on a motorcycle as technically

refined as an Aprilia or on another vehicle: all the more so when it comes to
19 - Stefan Bradl riding 20/24 - lvaro Bautista negotiating off-road terrain and asphalt twisties (not straight-line speed).
the Aprilia RS-GP, and Stefan Bradl
Austin, 2016 on the track Nor can quickness be reduced to abstract indicators such as traction, accel-
eration, or horsepower. Rather, velocity is a situated kind of performance,
dependent upon complex interactions between the technical characteris-
tics of a vehicle, pilot inputs (no two riders are exactly alike), and environ-
mental factors such as the roadway surface, the geometries of the circuit,
temperature, and weather. The management of high speed is an asocial,
if not antisocial, act. Less about adrenaline than on-the-fly calculation
skills, it demands self-absorption and an intensely located form of human
intelligence that is unlike the impish playfulness of operating a Vespa.
In the case of racing, what would ordinarily be threatening to ones
sense of bodily integrity must become as routine as a nod of the head.
There is no such thing as looking too far down a race track, just as theres
no such thing as too much feel for the immediacy of the roadway. To race
means to live a split consciousness between the here and now of perfor-
mance, the onrushing future within the racers immediate field of percep-
tion, and cognitive processing of the constantly shifting, turbulent realities
of competition itself. To neglect the first would be to give up the ability to
adapt to the roads real-time inputs. To neglect the second would be to
sharply limit ones navigational choices. To neglect the third would be to
ride without strategic smarts: to forget to take defensive lines, to assume
uncalculated risks, to chew through tires in a haphazard fashion.
From the time of its foundation to the late 1980s, Aprilia built its
racing empire on the dirt and gravel. The early Scarabeos (19701974)
were motocross bikes that evolved into the increasingly hardcore (and
prize-winning) MXs, RCs, Tuaregs, and even trial bikes like the 1988 TXR.
The emphasis began to shift over to the tarmac in 1985 with the debut of
the first generation of Rotax-powered 250 GP bikes on the world champi-
onship stage. Piloted by Loris Reggiani during the course of their early de-
velopment, these formula bikes featured innovations such as rotary valves,
advanced suspension and frame designs, and a growing bin of then-exotic
carbon fiber parts. As the Aprilia 250s clambered their way to the top of
the racing heap in the early 1990s, they were joined by the RS 125R: sev-
enty kilos (154 lbs) of pure state-of-the-art race engineering. Together,
the Aprilia two-strokes turned the road racing world on its ear during the
1990s and early 2000s. Race replicas followed in their train, preaching the
Noale gospel of quickness wedded to lightness to mass market consumers.
Converts appeared in droves. Most belonged to the sixteen- to twenty-five-
year-old age bracket.
There were older converts as well, which brings me to an authorial
confession. Vespa-ing has been an everyday pleasure and practicality
for much of my adult life. But Aprilia-ing has been a passion in the double
Latinate sense of love and subjectionthe latter is best translated into the
language of broken bones. Aside from carrying out some track tests of the
formidable second generation RSV Mille at the time of its release in 2006 25 - Background
Stefan Bradl, Doha, 2016
and once test riding an SXV 450 at a supermoto track [Aprilia Supermotard], two
Aprilias crossed my path in the course of a racing career that flourished
in my forties and early fifties, summoned my way by dint of youthful mo-
torsports engagements as well as research on a book concerned with the
 anthropology of speed. The first encounter was little more than a weekend
fling; the second assumed the form of a three-year marriage. The dalliance
was with one of the very few RSW 125Rs that made it across the Atlan-
tic and the American continent to the West Coast [Aprilia RS]. Even though
125-category GP racing (classed as Formula 3 by North Americas oldest
road racing organization, the American Federation of Motorcyclists) was
thriving, most of the competitors were running kitted Honda equipment.
I was one of them. But, thanks to a fellow racer and friend, I had the priv-
ilege of spending a weekend testing an RSW 125R at Sonoma Raceway 45
minutes from my San Francisco home.
Sonoma is a devilishly tight, technical track, not unlike Laguna Seca
or Philip Island, with few straights and featuring blind rises and descents,
off-camber and double apex turns. A tight hairpin greets the rider right be-
fore the finish line. Its a circuit that I know inside out, having trained and
won a few regional races there over the years. My habitual mounts were a
Honda RS 125R, a 450 Superbike, and a Tigraft Yamaha supermono. All were
well-developed, top-of-the-line racing machinery; none were as finicky or
demanding as the Aprilia with its lateral air intakes and carbon fiber tail
section. But as soon as you dialed in the suspension and got the carbura-
tion right, the Aprilia was razor sharp: just the ticket to transport the rider
on a magic carpet ride far beyond the limits of what seemed possible in
the realm of late braking points, corner speeds, and lean angles.
Aprilia reentered my life in the form of an RS 250 Challenge bike which
I raced successfully in the West Coast championship for three years, as well
as in some Aprilia Cup races. Though a less exotic creature than the RSW
125R, it provided many of the same satisfactions, was easier to set up, and
more forgiving to ride at the limit. Aprilias slogan is be a racer and being
a racer, particularly a competitive racer working with tools as capable as
todays Aprilias, is about testing limits. Its about inhabiting the thin line
that separates mastery from catastrophe, testing the outer edge of pace
and grip, moving mental and physical markers forward and back, exploring
lines in dialogue with suspension, tire, and gearing settings. Through trial
and error, an ideal choreography is scripted that is just as precise as the
steps that make up a ballet recital. The circuit is marked with a series of
invisible action points that must be hit with clockwork accuracy lap after
lap. When one is missed, adjustments have to be made for a succession
of subsequent actions until the time-space sequence is back in sync so
that the arrow may, once again, find itself squarely aimed at dead center.

26 - Stefan Bradl,
Doha, 2016
27 - Gilera Saturno
hermetic engine,
1946-1959
ITALIAN LESSONS Exactitude

Precision conjures up visions of smoothly machined billet surfaces and

symmetries; of choruses of micrometers, calipers, gauges of every variety
and kind, along with potentiometers, electrodynamometers and their kin,
hymning the virtues of exact measurement and calibration. Such is the
crystalline dream world of mechanical engineers. The realities of the ma-
chine shop and the racetrack rarely conform even as they seek to actualize
such dreams. They prove to be gritty, smoky realms of dissimilitude under
the sway of magic talismans, potions, and proportions, where unquanti-
fiable forms of knowledge, like intuition or feeling, rub up against exacti-
tudes inexorable truths.
Giuseppe Gilera was well aware of this tension as, in 1909, he transi-
tioned from being a renowned mechanic and tuner of the first generation
of Milanese motorcycles, bearing poetic brand names like Moto Rve, to the
manufacturer of the sorts of two-wheelers that could boast that their reli-
ability / perfection / performance / speed / endurance has been demonstrated
in many of this years competitions [Giuseppe Gilera]. The year was 1921 and the
early generations of pre- and post-World War I Gileras were artisanal ma-
chines, raced and perfected by Gilera himself (an accomplished competitor).

29 - Gilera Rondine engine, supercharged and liquid-cooled, 1935

30

They were state-of-the-art vehicles brimming over with innovative fea-

tures. The first 1909 VT models, assembled in a small workshop in Milan,
made use of overhead valves (instead of the lateral flathead designs ad-
opted later) as well as a direct leather transmission belt to which a slipper
28 - Background 30 - Gilera 500 Saturno, brake was applied directly. The 1929 Gran Sport 500 model, manufactured
Gilera, commemorative front view of a model
logo, 1930s from the first series, instead in Gileras new Arcore factory, featured a double-cradle lower
1946-1959
frame and interconnected front and rear brakes (in an era when engi-
neers were persuaded that front brakes would provoke a loss of control).
Mature products like the celebrated Gilera Rondine built upon these prior
habits of innovation with its supercharged, water-cooled, dual overhead 32

cam 500cc engine of OPRA derivation. This was the engine to beat in the
late 1930s, even without the full aluminum fairing and a stabilizing dorsal
fin that enshrouded it when it broke the world speed record for its class
in 1937, attaining a speed of 274 kilometers per hour (170 mph) along the
Milan-Bergamo autostrada.
Gilera is the one member of the Piaggio family of brands whose bikes
have managed to elude my reach. But if the fairy of mobility were to alight
upon my shoulder and grant two Gilera wishes that personify the brands
ethos of precision and performance, my picks would be (mirthfully) satur- 33

nine: the 1948 Saturno 500, one of the high water marks achieved during
the epoch when Gileras founder was at the helm of the firm; and the 1989
Saturno Bialbero, the classic Saturnos splendid descendant from the Piag-
gio era (which began in 1969).

34

31 - Technical drawing of the Gilera bialbero engine

from the spare parts catalog. Section view of the engine

The muse of exactitude would dictate a meticulous dissection of each 35

of these polished and potent beasts. But a selective sketch will have to
do instead because exactitude also consists in the rigorous observance
of limits, and our limit here is the finite universe of pages available within
the confines of the bolted book known as FuturPiaggio. The late 1940s Sat-
urno is enshrined in the memory of enthusiasts like the former editor
of Motociclismo dEpoca, Carlo Perelli, as a monument, a work of art,
that immediately conveyed a sense of power, style, and speed. The work
of art in question was designed in 1939 but only underwent full production
in 1947, evolving in its frame and suspension but retaining the same ele-
gant 500cc vertical four-stroke, single-cylinder power plant. Unlike period
engines, this one was cast as a single unit that encased everything except
for the carburetor and electrical units: the wet sump oil tank, oil pump, oil 32 - 500 Saturno Turismo, 1947-1950
33 - Saturno Corsa 500, 1951-1957
lines, and oil filter; the entire gearbox and primary gear drive, all absorbed 34 - Saturno Militare, 1953
35 - Saturno with off-road setup, 1957
within a single-cylinder block. The finned head contained the valves, push-
rods, rocker arms, bushings, and hairpin springs. All of the components
(with the lone exception of the crankshaft) could be removed without
 taking the engine out of the frame. In the absence of signs of external
plumbing, all lubrication of the engine was internal. In short, the Saturno
was a monument to exactitude whose beauty was the result not just of
functionality, but also of ultraclean, compact lines.
The Saturno came in five flavors: Touring, Sport, Police, Military,
and Racing. There were two racing models: one for road courses, the other
for motocross. Indeed, for all the titles conquered on an asphalt stage,
its important to note that Gilera landed just as many on the dirt. The story
of Gilera dirt bikes is a long one, stretching from the motocross Saturnos
of the 1950s to the Piaggio-era trial and motocross 50s, 125s, and 600s
of the 1970s and 1980s to the definitive expression of Gileras record of off-
road ambitions, if not success: the 1992 RC 750R. But its a tale that would
transport us far from our destination: the last of the Saturno breed, the
1989 Saturno Bialbero (and its racing derivatives, the 560 and Piuma).
The Bialbero (twin-tree) was made in small numbers between
1988 and 1990, on the twentieth anniversary of Gileras acquisition by the
Piaggio group. It was initially built mostly for the Japanese market where,
despite the abundance of competing local products, the appetite for
Italian excellence in engineering and design remains robust. It featured
an elegant space frame, half fairing, top-of-the-line componentry, and
a fully adjustable rear shock absorber system to suit different riding styles:
all wrapped up in a Gilera-red package that extends to the swingarm and
wheels. Powered by a 500cc double overhead cam (the twin tree), four-
valve single-cylinder engine, it sought to fill a niche market that was then
emerging for stylish, high-performance singles: the racing class known as
supermonos. Supermonos stage a meeting of opposites. They wed the
ultra-precise handling and braking prowess of a purpose-built formula bike
with the gritty, torquey characteristics of a thumper, taming the vibrations
of the latter by means of balancer shafts and electronic trickery. The result
is a bike that handles like a Moto GP bike but with a fatter power curve
(which equals exactitude plus fun).
Today, the Gilera name may not shine as brightly as it did back in the
mid-twentieth century. But it lives on in performance scootersa vehicle
category in its DNA since the early 1960sand in the performance edition
of the Piaggio MP3: the Fuoco 500 three-wheeler with its innovative alloy
parallelogram central steering arm, proof of Flauberts dictum that God
is in the details (Le bon Dieu est dans le detail) or, rather, that God is
the greatest of mechanical engineers.

36 - Saturno bialbero, 37 - Background

1988-1990 Saturno bialbero,
1988-1990
ITALIAN LESSONS Visibility

For Calvino, visibility is associated with the strenuous exercise of the

muscles of the imagination: the human faculties that enable images
to crystallize into a well-defined, memorable, and self-sufficient form.
Though Calvino had in mind the sorts of mental image sequences that
go on to make up comics, animated cartoons, and literary narratives, the
same powers of rigorous insight that translate into rigorous forms of out-
sight also inspire the creations of the mechanical imagination. Howev-
er functional, every vehicle is born as a vehicle of desire. And every new
vehicle that is added to the world thanks to labors of invention and design
reframes that world, alters the nature of the human experience of space,
and contributes to an extended sense of identity. Moto Guzzi has, thus,
always been more than the portal to a fast ride or a leisurely cruise: it has
been the gateway to a Mondo Guzzi, a Guzzi world. The loyalty of guzzisti is
to that world.
Founded in 1921, acquired by the Piaggio group in 2004, Moto Guzzi is
based in Mandello del Lario, on the shores of Lake Como [GP (Guzzi before Guzzi)]. Its
symbol is the eagle and its factory is the worlds oldest facility continuously
dedicated to the production of motorcycles: a state-of-the-art facility, de-
spite its age, where artisanal practices mesh with advanced manufacturing
techniques. This meshing permits a nimble, almost bespoke approach to the
assembly process that larger competitors would find hard to imagine.

40 - Internal view of the wind tunnel (inaugurated in 1950)

at Moto Guzzi plant in Mandello

Moto Guzzis DNA is just as rich in racing victories as is Aprilias and Gil-
eras. But the typology of its production is more comprehensive because
38 - Moto Guzzi 39 - Background it includes mopeds, scooters, heavy and light motorcycles alike both for
V9 Bobber Excerpts from
an invitation to visit on-road and off-road usage, light three wheelers akin to the Ape, ro-
the wind tunnel,
April 12, 1954
bust military three wheelers like the Mechanical Mule, police bikes, even
agricultural machinery such as rototillers [The Mechanical Mule]. The universe of
Guzzi power trains is distinctive as well with respect to the other mem-
bers of the Piaggio family. Though it settled upon frontal 90-degree
V-twin engines in the mid-1960s, its engines have varied between 1 and
8 cylinders, always with a preponderant emphasis on four-strokes. Last
but not least, theres the signature shaft drive, standard on most Guzzis
since the late 1960s.
Factory gates mark a threshold between the public and private do-
main, between the space of society at large and the realm of work. They
serve as sites of arrival and departure, theaters where love or animosity
erupt, dreams begin and end, and social forces coalesce or collide. The
Moto Guzzi factory in Mandello is no exception to this rule. Because our
theme is the sort of tunnel vision that transforms dreams into realities,
Id like to privilege a different gateway to the Guzzi universe: an ingress 42
that elicits no less excitement and anxiety than the one into which Aeneas
strides as he enters the Sybils cave en route to the Elysian Fields: the Moto
Guzzi wind tunnel.

43
41 - Internal view of the wind tunnel

Constructed in 1950, the Moto Guzzi wind tunnel is a monument to the brands
visionary history: to its dogged pursuit of fast, light, exact, and memorable
self-sufficient forms. It was the first such tunnel built specifically for the de-
velopment of motorcycles and reflects the state of Moto Guzzi before its turn
in 1957 from a racing-driven organization to one increasingly devoted to pro-
ducing heavyweight-class bikes for ordinary consumers.
Motorcycle fairings had been around since the 1920s as a response to
the turbulence and attendant challenges experienced by riders at elevated
speeds. They were the result of guesswork, added on as an afterthought,
and often generated as many handling problems as they resolved. Moto
Guzzi opted instead for a scientific approach that borrowed from ad-
vancements in aerodynamic engineering that, despite much talk about
streamlining in automotive design, had been applied nearly exclusively to 42/43 - Moto Guzzi
wind tunnel, internal
aeronautics. 28.5 meters deep and 8.2 meters in diameter, the tunnel was and external view

an open return design of the Eiffel type, powered by a 900-horsepower,

12-cylinder Fiat diesel engine that drove the fans. It was large enough to
allow for the testing of actual vehicles (rather than models) and riders
 atop them. The rider and vehicle were attached to a free-floating pendu-
lum with a paddle at its base, suspended in an oil bath so as to respond to
pilot input. Shifts in wind resistance resulting from changes in the riders
position were immediately registered on a large dial studded with indica-
tor lights. As the two-time 350 category champion and, later, Guzzi rac-
ing manager, Fergus Anderson would put it in an essay on his work as a
Guzzi test pilot: I always have the impression that I really am flying along
through the air.
And fly they did. Moto Guzzis faired race bikes of the 1950s soared
high in the record books, repeatedly winning the 250 and 350 classes on
both world and national stages between 1951 and 1956. Contemporane-
44 ously, the engineer Giulio Cesare Carcano was tasked with developing an
even more muscular expression of Guzzis dreams of world domination: a
water-cooled 90-degree V-8 engine, complete with transversally mounted
magnesium crankcase, whose power output reached the then-unthinkable
figure of 80 horsepower [Guzzi Triumvirates]. This showpiece of the Guzzi eagles
engineering wingspan was too far ahead of its time. It broke land speed re-
cords and won races. Just as often it crashed, suffered crankshaft failures,
and endangered the lives of world champions. The V-8s demise coincided
with Moto Guzzis retirement from racing and the arrival of its now legend-
ary V-twin engine: the V7.
The V7 was based on a prior design that Carcano developed for the
Fiat 500 and is the progenitor of todays Moto Guzzi power plants. A di-
rect descendant, twice the size of the original and, at 1400ccs, the largest
45 V-twin engine ever built in Europe, throbs in the double-cradle frame of my
2015 California Touring, isolated by means of elastomeric engine mounts.
For a rider accustomed to the ergonomics of race bikes, the California is
an abnormally comfortable but surprisingly agile lounge chair that purrs
along at highway speeds as if the landscape could go on forever. It can
and does on a big-bore Guzzi.
Theres no more serene perch from which to observe a world ever
more feverishly on the move than a motorcycle that earned its visibility on
the world stage in 1970, when it became an abiding icon of the California
Highway Patrol.

44 - V9 engine 45 - V7 II Stornello
ITALIAN LESSONS Multiplicity 49

Nested within every one of these parables of lightness, speed, precision,

and visibility, theres a deeper tale of metamorphosis: of shape shifting on
the move between the continents of the air and of the ground, between
the challenges of on-road and off-road travel, between the pursuit of
everyday utility and pure performance or handling agility and linear speed.
Omnia mutantur, nihil interit (book 15, verse 165) writes the first-century
poet Ovid in his Latin masterpiece The Metamorphoses: Everything 50
changes, but nothing is lost. Amidst the cycles of mutation, key subplots
within the Piaggio family annals have yet to be conjured up. They are
best grouped under the umbrella of multiplicity to the degree that all are
underwritten by a shared principle: that invention is defined as much by
creative recombination and reuse as it is by newness.
The creation of an engine is a time- and capital-intensive operation.
Even if developed with a single purpose in mind, such costs alone amount
to a strong argument in favor of a multiplicity of use cases. Like the com-
mon nucleus of hypernovels such as Calvinos If on a Winters Night a 51
Traveler that generate a proliferation of separate narratives, every engine
is, by its very nature, an engine of multiplication.
The Moto Guzzi playbook provides numerous cases in point. Carlo
Guzzi devised the Galletto 160cc four-stroke single power plant in 1950 for
a unique sort of vehicle that combined the advantages of a Vespa (rider
protection, ease of use, step-through frame, spare tire) with those of a
motorcycle (large radius wheels, adequate horsepower, high-speed han-
dling). The vehicle in question remained in continuous production between
1950 and 1966. Yet the Galletto engine didnt sit still during its sixteen-year 52
production run. It found its way (with slight modifications) onto the Er-
colino commercial vehicle: a trike-shaped truck capable of carrying up to
350 kilos of cargo. Likewise, the Zigolo 98 started out life as a motorcycle
engine. It then migrated to the Aiace light-duty truck only to complete its
life cycle powering the 1965 rototiller known as the Motozappa 110.
Similar tales abound on the Aprilia, Gilera, and Derbi branches of the
Piaggio family tree. At their root lies the even greater diversity of Piaggios
own history. The present essay began by noting Piaggios contributions to
46 - Ape B, 1954 47 - Versions the advancement of nearly every form of motorized transport during its 53
of the Ape C, 1956
130-plus years of existence, from the outfitting of Transatlantic steamships
in the nineteenth century to the building of railway cars, trams, and even
48 - Background 49/53 - Different cable cars during the first half of the twentieth [Italian streamliners]. Aviation was
Ape C, 1956 setups of the Ape B for
commercial uses, 1954 the core commitment from the mid-1920s through the end of World War II.
Land transportation took over during the postwar, encompassing not just
the Vespa but also the Piaggio Ciao moped, manufactured between 1967
and 2006 [Ciao]. What explorations of the sea, land, or air will the twenty-first
century hold in store? And how about the twenty-second?
Piaggio aviation started by building aircraft and aircraft engines un-
der license from others (Dornier and Gnome-Rhne) in Finalmarina. It then
transitioned to one-to-three-seater monoplanes and biplanes in the form
of the P1P11 series. Some of these early aircraft were visionary endeavors
like the P7 racing seaplane designed by Carlo Pegna for the 1929 Schneider
Trophy race. Lacking pontoons, it was equipped with cantilever shoulder-
wings and a sealed, watertight fuselage. Its wings flush with the water, the 54
P7 would rise up on its twin hydrofoils propelled by a marine screw located
at the stern; a variable-pitch propeller mounted up front would take over
as it lifted up off of the water into the air. Piaggio aircraft grew in size
and complexity by the mid-1930s and achieved dozens of speed, freight,
and endurance records. Powered by Piaggios own 14- or 18-cylinder radial
engines, equipped with variable-pitch propellers of dAscanios design, the
firms two-, three-, and four-motor bombers and passenger planes figured
among Europes most advanced during the wartime years [P108B]. The post-
war era marked a shift to civil aviation with Piaggio Aero Industries
splitting off definitively from the Piaggio group in 1964. 55
In the realm of land travel as well, multiplicity has remained the
rule. Now, as in the past, Piaggios production spans two-, three-, and
four-wheelers: in addition to scooters, motorcycles, and Apes, it builds Por-
ter microvans and light trucks. The metamorphic multiplier par excellence,
however, remains the Vespa, whether as a socio-cultural icon, as a power
train complemented by a mix of componentry and accessories, or as a
platform for generative design. The Vespa was mutable from the start with
spare wheels, tanks, storage compartments, fenders, hooks, racks, mirrors,
lights, pipes, and even sidecars, all orbiting about a common nucleus that
spins a tale of modern existence as life on the move [Scooter Wheels]. This tale
was largely written by generation upon generation of consumers around
the world who, through gestures of customization and personalization,
transformed the Vespa into their Vespa.
The Vespas peregrinations encompass variants like the so-called
Vespa of the Sea, the Moscone outboard motor in the late 1940s. A
decade later came the ACMA Vespa 150 TAP designed for the French Min-
istry of Defense: a reinforced scooter armed with an 89-caliber anti-tank
gun, designed to be parachuted along with its operators into the jungles 56
of Vietnam. In the 19571961 period, it even bred a Vespa 400 automobile,
another collaboration with the French company (Ateliers de Construction
de Motocycles et dAutomobiles): a lean two-stroke microcar whose fuel
consumption was a modest and very up-to-date 45 miles per gallon.
The truest expression of the Vespas metamorphic capabilities bears 54/56 - Ape TM 703,
Calessino 200, and
the name of another member of the Hymenoptera: the Ape (or bee). Porter Electric Power

The Ape was the Vespas first progeny. Introduced little more than a year
from the time of the scooters launch, it was equipped with the same 125cc
 engine, the same controls, wheels, and handlebar as the V1T model. The
two-wheeled tail section, however, was a Cabinet of Transformations.
It could be deployed as a flatbed truck, pickup, taxi, panel van, food truck,
or minibus; it could be sheathed in sheet metal, wood, canvas, or left
uncovered; it could sit flat or tip down or up, as desired. From the outset
dAscanio imagined the Ape as a worker bee: We had to fill a gap in the
means of post-war utilitarian locomotion, bringing to the market a small
displacement delivery vehicle with low fuel consumption, a modest pur-
chase price, and low maintenance that would be easy to drive, maneuver-
able in the heaviest city traffic and, above all, suitable, ready, and available
for home delivery of goods. The formula remains no less valid than it was
in 1949, when the Vespas creator penned these words. In addition to the
many hundreds of thousands of Apes still in use in the developed world, the
Ape remains a vital link in the transportation infrastructures of developing
countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. Over 180,000 per year are built in
Piaggios factory in Pune, India, at the time of writing.

57 - Background
Ape 400 and Ape 450,
mid-1960s 58 - Porter Glass Van Electric
ITALIAN LESSONS Future

In the concluding paragraphs of his American lessons, Calvino reflects upon

the multiplicity of an individuals life experience: Who is each one of us, if
not a combinatoria of experiences, information, books we have read, things
imagined? Each life is an encyclopedia, a library, an inventory of objects,
a series of styles, and everything can be constantly shuffled and reordered
in every way conceivable. The observation applies even better to a collective
subject like a company, whose complex and multifarious doings combine in-
tergenerational continuities, conflicts, and ruptures; paths chosen or aban-
doned; cycles of expansion and contraction. Almost by definition,
a global enterprise that has endured for over 130 years weaves a capacious
net and within that net the future is precisely that which eludes capture
except via a diligent reading of present signs and strategic bets. In the case
of the Piaggio Group, that present includes new challenges to confront and
new promises and opportunities with respect to the future of mobility.
The challenges are manifold. They include competing with lower cost,
lower quality producers as well as with multinational titans in industry sec-
tors such as scooters and motorbikes. The light mobility sector has always
been competitive, though never more so than over the course of the past
decades as globalization has transformed all aspects of production, dis-
tribution, and marketing. Riders enshrine in memory bikes that they have
ridden and loved. Collectors build monuments to legendary marques. Books
are devoted to consecrating this or that slice of scooter or motorcycle histo-
ry. Shunted aside in most of these commemorative gestures are discomfit-
ing truths regarding the sustainability of makes that fail to grow beyond a
narrow circle of founders. Intrepid technicians do not necessarily make for
skilled businessmen and, in spite of the many memorable models produced
and world titles achieved, Gilera, Moto Guzzi, Derbi, and Aprilia were in par-
lous states by the time they were absorbed into the Piaggio Group. Indeed,
it was the concerted effort undertaken by Roberto Colaninno in the wake
of IMMSIs 2003 acquisition of Piaggio to transform the group and its family
of brands into a genuinely global, publicly held enterprise that has ensured
the enterprises competitiveness and secured its prospects for the future.
The moral of the story is simple: scale, global reach, innovation, and an
integrated approach to research and product development are all prerequi-
59 - In a world ever sites for future leadership.
more populated with
autonomous vehicles
The challenges are also demographic. In advanced economies the
of every kind, Moto population continues to age, and the appeal of scooters and other small
Guzzi launches the first
flying vehicle prototype. displacement two-wheelers to young people has diminished over recent
The Moto Guzzi 8V
opens up new horizons
decades in inverse proportion to the appeal of smart devices. (Only among
for the mobility of the older riders have motorcycle salestypically of heavyweight cruisers
future.
grown.) In the otherwise thriving markets of the developing world, two-
and three-wheelers sell well but tend to be viewed as stepping stones to
automobility rather than as a solution in their own right.
There are societal challenges as well: ever more stringent safety reg-
ulations and a growing aversion to risk in parental attitudes toward their
teenage childrens use of and access to scooters and motorcycles. Legal
and policy shifts have contributed their share as well. The special protec-
tions via tariff barriers once enjoyed by low-displacement vehicles in some
countries are a thing of the distant past. Cities worldwide are favoring
bicycles and mass transit over individually operated motorized vehicles,
irrespective of size, in an effort to reduce pollution and congestion. Last
but not least, there are evolutionary challenges associated with the motor-
cycle industrys maturation in the course of the twentieth century. In the
high-performance sector, for instance, the capabilities of motorcycles like
the RSV4 and its peers equal those of the purpose-built formula race bikes
from barely a decade ago. The world market is so well supplied with qual-
ity products that differentiation has become difficult. The performance
capabilities of todays sport bikes so vastly exceed the technical skills and
riding needs of most customers that they can prove ill-suited to real-world
driving conditions.
The biggest challenge (and greatest opportunity) of all has little to
do with the ebb and flow of societal or juridical attitudes toward scooters,
motorcycles, trikes, and light trucks. It is the result of the revolutionary
transformations underway in the ways that people and goods move about
in the contemporary world. The ubiquity of networks and smart devices,
the rise of the sharing economy, the availability of on-demand services
that build upon existing but underutilized infrastructure: these and other
related factors have raised profound questions regarding the future of the
transportation industry. Add to this the prospect of autonomous cars and
trucks soon roving the worlds roadways and the conclusion is obvious: if
the twentieth century was the century of the automobile, the twenty-first
century is the century of networked communications. Accordingly, the
vehicles that survive and thrive under these new circumstances will have
to become smarter, cleaner, more efficient and flexible networked vehi-
cles. This implies not a continuation of industrial-era models of motorized
mobility but the creation of new types of vehicles, platforms, and services
that, in addition to being innovative from a strictly technical standpoint,
build upon information and network infrastructures in innovative and so-
cially meaningful ways. Every revolution in mobility is a cultural revolution,
and the disruptions that are currently underway are no exception.
Beyond autonomous cars and trucks, the mobile vectors of tomorrow
will include light transportation platforms that cross boundary lines that
once seemed difficult, if not insuperable: moving between interior and
exterior spaces or between GPS-enabled and -denied environments; across
stairs, sidewalks, and streets; to and from below ground, ground level, and
the skies. They will make possible new sorts of cargo and delivery systems
that operate at paces (slow and fast) and on scales (micro to macro) un-
like those that characterized the age of automobility. As electronic systems
take over the controls and vehicles evolve into smart, sensor-rich nodes
within networks built upon vehicle-to-vehicle communications, driving
as we once understood it may gradually become a thing of the past: a
quaint industrial-age craft practiced less out of necessity than as
a hobby, out of nostalgia, or as a form of sport. Once relegated to factories
and warehouses, robots and robotic vehicles will wander ever more freely
around the spaces integral to everyday life, both public and private.
Piaggios commitment to blaze a trail into this new era of mobility, or,
better yet, movability, is embodied by two current products and in its re-
cent North American venture: Piaggio Fast Forward. The first of these two
products is ten years old, but remains just as prescient today as it was at the
time of its launch in 2006: the MP3. This pioneering three-wheeler, currently
available in three models (Hybrid, LT, Yourban), has given rise to an entirely
new vehicle class. With its two independent front wheels joined together by
an alloy hinged parallelogram attached to a central steering arm, the MP3
leans like a sport bike but is far more stable on wet or irregular roadway
surfaces. Unlike a motorcycle, it stands up on its own thanks to an electro-
mechanical locking system that maintains the vehicle upright without need
for a foot on the ground or a center stand. A wide array of enhancements
have been added to the base model during its first decade, including a ride-
by-wire throttle, ABS brakes, wheel-traction control, and a PMP (Piaggio
Multimedia Platform) that connects the vehicles onboard computer to other
smart devices. There is also a hybrid power train option, unique in the world
of scooters. Because driving an MP3 doesnt require a motorcycle license in
Europe, it is the ideal scooter-sharing vehicle and is currently available in four
European cities through the Enjoy network (with other cities soon to come).
The same effort to forge new vehicle typologies informs the Wi-Bike:
Piaggios pedelec (pedal electric cycle) with a difference launched in late 2015
in three Comfort and two Active models. With its 250-watt electric assist
motor, the Wi-bike provides three separate drive (Eco, Tour, and Power)
and assist (Standard, City, and Hill) modes. Capable of multiplying rider
power threefold up to a maximum speed of 15.5 miles per hour (25 kph),
its display, battery, and motor are paired with the riders smart phone via
an encrypted code that disallows their detached use: a strong disincentive
to theft. In addition to setting drive and assist modes, and battery-power
management parameters, riders can perform a wide variety of actions via
a proprietary application. They can interact with fellow riders, select routes
and navigation options, monitor the vehicles present location (via GPS/
GSM), and/or track vitals as a function of a given workout goal. The perfor-
mance model makes use of a clean carbon toothed-belt drive (instead of a
conventional chain); its state-of-the-art continuously variable-transmission
system is akin to that found on scooters but exceptional on bicycles.
These two promissory products with respect to Piaggios determina-
tion to play a leading role in the future of light mobility are associated
with the foundation of Piaggio Fast Forward. Led by a team drawn from
the top ranks of the technology, design, culture, and engineering fields,
Piaggio Fast Forward is located in Boston in close proximity to the citys
world-renowned innovation community and to some of the worlds leading
research universities. Its mission is to develop new vehicles and products in
domains such as personal robotics, near-distance goods delivery, health
care, and recreation. Founded in July 2015, its home turf lies in the space
of invention in-between the world of automobiles and aerial drones; a
space of smart crisscrossings between interior spaces, sidewalks, and
streets where humans and machines are developing new models of auton-
omy, dependency, and mutually beneficial coexistence.
To fast forward is to inhabit the edge of time. In the digital millennium
its sure to prove an edge no less electrifying than it was at the moment
of Piaggios foundation in 1884.

60 - Just like the MP3

created an entirely
new vehicle category,
Piaggio iMove prototype
inaugurates a new kind
of solar powered, urban
mobility, protecting
the environment while
meeting the needs
of future generations.
1945
61 - MP6 prototype
2014
62 - Vespa 946
Bellissima
1950
63 - The Vespa
Montlhry on the cover
of the Rivista Piaggio
2015
64 - MP3 Yourban LT
1950
65 - Streamlined Moto
Guzzi 75, utilized on
Montlhry raceway
2016
66 - Moto Guzzi MGX-21
1960
67 - Early 1960s
advertising
1955
68 - "La Vespa
talmente docile
e leggera che come
se non ci fosse" ("The
Vespa is so nimble and
light that it's almost
as if it's not there".)
Drawing and head-line
by Leo Longanesi,
"il Borghese", April 29th,
1955.
2013
69 - Ape Calessino 200
1948
70 - Vespa 125 equipped
with a folding canopy
2006
71 - MP3,
CAD drawing
1955
72 - Moto Guzzi 350 at
the Nations Grand Prix
1957
73 - The economy car
Vespa 400
2010
74 - Piaggio NT3,
Prototype
1909
75 - Gilera VT 317
2016
76 - Piaggio Wi-Bike
THE PIAGGIO BIUMVIRATE
/ STELLARE ENGINES / P
PROPELLER / PIAGGIO -
MONTE BIGNONE FUNICUL

AP
RENATO TASSINARI / GEO
LOGOTOPIA / GIUSEPPE G
TRIUMVIRATES / THE ME
A1 / APRILIA RS / APRIL
 TS
/ ITALIAN STREAMLINERS

O
P108B / VARIABLE PITCH

H
DASCANIO / SAN REMO -

S
AR / SCOOTER WHEELS /

PRGES MONNERET / CIAO /

GILERA / GP / THE GUZZI
CHANIC MULE / APRILIA
IA SUPERMOTARD
SNAPSHOTS The Piaggio Biumvirate
(Rinaldo and Enrico Piaggio)

Well before the foundation of Piaggio & Co. by Rinaldo Piaggio (18641938)
in 1887, the Piaggio family was involved in the business of moving people
and goods. Several of the family patriarchs, Rinaldos father Enrico in
particular, were leading figures in the Genoese shipbuilding industry. And
it was his early exposure to his fathers clipper ships that first inspired the
twenty-year-old to build a steam-driven sawmill in Sestri Ponente (1884),
to which were soon added facilities for outfitting warships and passenger
liners and investments in timber farms. The enterprise grew and came to
include plants in Finale Ligure (1906), Pisa (1917), and Pontedera (1924)
involved in a range of activities from the fabrication of trams and railway
cars to weapons manufacture and aviation. It was the last of these sectors
that soon became the companys focus as, building upon a series of patents
for Jupiter engines purchased from Gnome-Rhne in the mid-1920s, Piaggio
gradually undertook development of the Stella series of engines that would
power a range of subsequent passenger and cargo airplanes, fighters, and
bombers. Rinaldos vision of the future of aviation was a capacious one that
stretched far beyond the manufacture of engines: he was a co-founder of
the Societ Anonima di Navigazione Aerea, Italys first airline, which offered
hydroplane connections between Genoa, Rome, Naples, and Palermo. He
also established a number of companies like Aviotrasporti S.A., involved in
air transportation to and within Italian East Africa. Between 1934 and the
time of his death, he also served in the Italian senate.
In the wake of Rinaldos passing, the plants at Sestri Ponente and
Finale Ligure were taken over by his older son, Armando (19011978) while
Pontedera was managed by the younger son, Enrico (19051965). (The for-
mer would break away in 1964 and assume sole ownership of Piaggio Aero
Industries.) Graduating in Economics from the University of Genoa, Enrico
rode out the complex politics of World War II by, on the one hand, supplying
aircraft to the fascist regime and, on the other, distancing himself (like

77 78

77 / 78 - The funeral of 79 - Background

Rinaldo Piaggio, 1938 Rinaldo Piaggio, 1880s
 in Engineering, 1951
his honorary degree
80/81 - Enrico Piaggio
on the day he received
82 - Background
Enrico Piaggio, 1954
Piaggio Timeline
1882 Enrico Piaggio finalizes the
purchase of land in Sestri Ponente
(Genoa) to set up a timber yard.
1884 Rinaldo Piaggio, Enricos son,
founds Piaggio and directs its work
toward nautical fittings.
1906 Piaggio initiates the pro-
duction of trains at its Finalmarina
80
81
1917 In the wake of World War I,
Rinaldo focuses the activities of the
company on the aeronautical and
military sectors. Piaggio engages in
the production of MAS anti-subma-
rine motorboats and especially air-
planes and seaplanes, initially built
under Ansaldo, Macchi, Caproni, and
1937 The high levels of technical
sophistication attained by Piag-
gio products are confirmed by the
twenty-one world records obtained
by its aircraft and engines between
1937 and 1939. All are built in the new
factory in Pontedera where, since the
early 1920s, Piaggio has concen-
by the Minister of Defense, Rodolfo Graziani, he became the target of
the next two decades would more than confirm these assertions. [ JTS ]
in the wake of heavy Allied bombardments, Enrico turned his attention
to the development of affordable two-wheel ground transportation for
cessful milestone towards the constant improvement of quality, growth
of our strength that marks not the achievement of our goals, but a suc-
when, in 1943, failing to stand up during the radio broadcast of a speech
in quantity, and reduction in production costs. Piaggios expansion over
postwar reconstruction. The result was the Vespa (launched in 1946) and
an assassination). Even before the Pontedera facilities were being rebuilt
the Ape (launched in 1948). A mere decade later, thanks to Enricos focus
Today we hail the birth of the millionth Vespa: a concrete demonstration
on global markets, Piaggio became an important player on the worldwide
stage. On the pages of the company magazine he would proudly proclaim:
1938 Rinaldo Piaggio dies, leaving 1940 On the eve of World War
the company in the hands of his II, Piaggio manufactures trains,
sons Enrico and Armando. In the nautical fittings, aircraft engines
meantime, Piaggio has become a and airplanes, trucks, trams, buses,
business with many shareholders in funiculars, and aluminum windows.
the family, including the entrepre- 1943-1944 The Pontedera plant suf-
neur Attilio Odero. fers substantial damage as a result
1939 The highest expression of Piag- of Allied bombardments and the
facility. Dornier licenses, but subsequently
based upon Piaggio designs.
trated its civil and military aviation
manufacturing resources.
gios advances in aircraft engineering
is unveiled: the four-engine P 108.
destruction wrought by the German
army in the course of its northward
retreat. Production activities are
relocated to the northern Italian
province of Biella.

84
85
83

93001 produced by
83 - Railway car Duz

dello Stato in the 1930s

Piaggio for the Ferrovie
in the 1930s
84 - Coach for trolley
bus produced by Piaggio
SNAPSHOTS Italian Streamliners

attains a record level of 512,000 units.

1988 The 10 millionth Vespa is man-
1975 Piaggio makes the first proto-

1981 The Vespas annual production

A maker of train cars and trolleys dating to the turn of the twentieth

type of an electric Ape.

century, Piaggio moved into the fast track of railway manufacturing in the
1930s thanks to licenses acquired from the Philadelphia-based Budd Com-

ufactured.
pany. Founded in 1912, Budd made its name by developing the first all-steel
automobile bodies and had patented new fabrication and welding tech-
niques for the construction of stainless steel trains, giving birth to revolu-
tionary trains like the Pioneer Zephyr that, rebadged with the Piaggio logo,

record of on-road and off-road rac-

1971 The Ape gets a steering wheel

(founded in 1909), one of the most
became the Italian companys symbol at the 1936 Milan Trade Fair. There,

manufacturers thanks to its long

renowned European motorcycle
the stars of the Piaggio show were the first of what would later become

1969 Piaggio acquires Gilera

and becomes the Ape Car.

known as Italian Streamliners: short-distance trains like the M1 (or Em-
mina), a simple railcar for twenty-nine to thirty-five passengers that was
little more than a bus on rails, or the far sleeker M2 51-60 rail cars made

ing successes.
for the Mediterranea Calabro-Lucane lines: with their symmetrical front-
to-back lines; speed-scrubbed, rounded stainless steel contours and
scalloped side panels; OM diesel generators and TIBB electrical trains.
The efficient, self-propelled M2 vehicles were not only works of advanced

Piaggios brother, Armando, is based

nautic divisions of Piaggio separate.

latter, under the guidance of Enrico

in Sestri Levante and Finale Ligure.

engineering but also icons of an era in which streamlined design embod-

The former retains its production

1964 The automotive and aero-

headquarters in Pontedera; the

ied notions of hygiene, efficiency, and progress. All the more so given that,

1965 Enrico Piaggio dies.

in Italy, the era in question was that of Autarchy, and a key government
objective was making the most of the countrys limited raw materials
and energy reserves. Ten M2 units were made in 1937, followed by another
five, similar in design, for the Ferrovia Casalecchio-Vignola. But the bulk
of Piaggio streamliners took the form of railway carriages for passengers
and goods. Two four-wagon convoys were made for the Italian national
railways in 1939 and included the DUz (for baggage and mail), the Az (a

Powered by a new 50cc engine with

1961 The first Indian Vespa plant is
1960 The Vespa reaches 4 million
luxurious first-class coach), and the Bz (a second-class coach). Though

the production lines in Pontedera.

1963 The first Vespa 50 rolls off
units manufactured and sold
admired for their light construction and innovative use of materials, the
timing of the Italian Streamliners launch proved less than ideal. Italy was
under pressure due to the international economic sanctions imposed in

opened in Pune.
the wake of Mussolinis 1935 invasion of Ethiopia when it came to materials

worldwide.
such as steel. Because of the alliance with Nazi Germany, Italys military
build-up was taking ever-greater priority over civilian transport. Piaggios
fast track to the future was derailed during World War II, leading to the
destruction or dispersal of the Italian Streamliners. [ JTS ]

Apea key contributor to Italys post-

1945 After the war, reconstruction
of the Pontedera facilities initiates.

of the Vespa, the production of the

The first Vespa prototypes undergo

1948 In the wake of the success

1946 The Vespa is born.
85 - Locomotive M2DE,
series 50, 1936

Piaggio Timeline

development.
war economic renewalramps up.
1956 The millionth Vespa rolls off
Piaggios production lines as Italy
undergoes a revolution in motorized
mass mobility.
45 degree cylinder head (rather than
the traditional horizontal design),
it was the last design to come
directly from Corradino dAscanios
drafting table.
1967 The Ciao 50cc moped is 1973 Piaggio begins work on an
unveiled. The Ciao marks a technical electric moped (Eco Electron).
and stylistic breakthrough in the
field of ultralight mobility and a new
point of access to motorized mobility
for younger riders. It will soon be
followed by other Piaggio mopeds
like the Boxer, Bravo, and S.

P VII C16, 1936

86 - Stellare engine

engine, ca. 1940

87 - Background
Lesson on mechanics
using a Piaggio stellare
SNAPSHOTS Stellar engines

on the Asian market. Piaggio Foshan

the Chinese group Zongshen for the

engines, vehicles, and components

manufacture and marketing of its
portant strategic agreement with

Motorcycle Co. Ltd. is established

with Piaggio and Zongshen each
2004 Piaggio concludes an im-
The semiotician A. J. Greimas teaches us that, in addition to being useful,
a humble lock can be both symbolic (a divine protector of the home) and
beautiful: the object becomes part of daily life, contributing to its depth.
It would be tempting to extend this triad of attributes to the star-configu-
ration engines of the 1930s, recognizing the functionality of the object, the
inevitable associations with the flight myth of Icarus and the Wright Broth-
ers (featured in period propaganda posters), and the brilliant elegance of

2001 The Piaggio Group acquires the

assumes the helm at Piaggio, led by

segment, Derbi has eighteen world

2003 In October, the IMMSI group

the small displacement motorbike
its radial design. But beneath the surface of the object theres more: an

Spanish company Derbi-Nacional

Motor SA. A continental leader in
engineering history of Europe in miniature. For the origins of the engine one
must turn to England: to the 9-cylinder Bristol Mercury. The French man-
ufacturer Gnome-Rhne then adapted the Mercury under the name Titan

titles to its name.

Major in a 7-cylinder version, a model for which Piaggio served as a dealer
beginning in 1931. A few years earlier, a similar path had been followed by
the Jupiter radial engine. But it was the Mercury/Titan that spurred the
factories of Pontedera and Finale Ligure to develop two models of its own
the Stella VII (7 cylinders) and Stella IX (9 cylinders)with encouragement

um is inaugurated in Pontedera after

the United States. The Piaggio Muse-
88

2000 The opening of the first Vespa

seven years of work. It is flanked by

Boutique in Los Angeles marks the
return of Piaggio and the Vespa to

one of Italys most comprehensive

from the French (who viewed support of Italian aeronautics as a strategic

corporate archives: the Piaggio

safeguard against Germany). Heavy state involvement in aviation was
common practice in the 1930s, and Italy was no exception with the National
Ministry of Aeronautics channeling research and development in directions
that were thought to be militarily advantageous. It was within the result-
ing network of constraints that the entrepreneurial activities of Enrico
Piaggioactive in Pontedera at his fathers behest since 1928unfolded
during the 1930s and 1940s. On the one hand, Enrico undertook efforts to
develop civilian and cargo transport networks within Italy; on the other,

new Vespa in eighteen years, the Ves-

be powered by a four-stroke engine.

its debut, Vespa production reaches
15 million units. The first completely
1996 On the fiftieth anniversary of
1992 Production of the Porter light
his firm built its aviation business around what were by far its biggest

truck commences in Pontedera.

pa ET, is launched: the first to

clients: the air forces of nation-states like Italy but also countries such as
Sweden. Behind the scenes, there were other players as well in Piaggios
theater of stars: technicians like Renzo Spolti, the primary developer of
the Stellari. Spoltis masterpiece was the 14-cylinder double star radial en-
gine that, inspired by the Gnome-Rhne K14, sought to surpass its French
89 predecessor and carve out a distinctly Italian path to aviation stardom. [ CC ]

transmissions. These include the Zip

new generation of plastic scooters

(1992), Hexagon (1994, forerunner

scooter with a tubular steel frame

powered by two- and four-stroke

1989 The Sfera, the first Piaggio

and plastic body, gives birth to a

engines and with automatic

88 - Stowage of stellare 89 - Advertisement
engines on a P108 cargo for the four-engined

Piaggio Timeline
plane plane P108, early 1940s
of the maxiscooter), Liberty (1995),
X9 (2000), and Beverly (2001).
1999 Piaggios factory for the pro-
duction of the three-wheeled Ap for
the Indian domestic market is built in
Baramati (Maharashtra), India.
Historical Archive. the groups chairman, Roberto Cola-
ninno. In March, a new Vespone (Big
Vespa) is introduced to the public:
the GT 125/200. It is the first to make
use of a liquid-cooled engine and
dual-disc braking system.
92
90
91
holding a 45% ownership stake and
the municipality of Foshan holding
the remaining 10% of shares.
At the end of December, the final
contract for the acquisition of the
Aprilia-Moto Guzzi group is signed.
The largest European company in
the two-wheel sector is born.
SNAPSHOTS P108B

for the Indian market opens, marking

inauguration of a new engine factory

2012 In Baramati, the Piaggios new
plant for the production of scooters

The Piaggio Group enters a decisive

in the Asian-Pacific region with the

a new stage in its global strategy.

phase of operations development

Humans are clever strategists when it comes to gravity. Long ago they under-
stood the tactical advantages of dropping munitions on enemies from above.
But back in 1908, when motorized flight was in its infancy, the American as-
tronomer William Pickering argued, surely in good faith, that flying machines
would never drop dynamite on enemy forces in the course of conflict: aviation
was too angelic in nature, too elevated a calling. A quarter century later,
Winston Churchill harbored few such illusions: air power, he opined, would

bustion engine with a zero-emission

It is the worlds first hybrid scooter,

electric motor and the advantages

integrating a conventional low en-
vironmental-impact internal com-
either end war or end civilization. To forestall the second of these eventual-

makes its debut on the market.

In July, the Piaggio MP3 Hybrid
ities (thereby also precluding the first), governments worldwide adopted a

of a double power train.

pragmatic attitude: they demanded of industry the development of exponen-
tially heavier aircraft capable of carrying ever-more devastating payloads,
whether for purposes of offense or defense. By the late 1930s, such supersized
machines were designed to be multi-functional, to deliver both weapons
and men, to face enemy fire in all its varieties. Despite its overt belligerence,
fascist Italy joined the European air/arms race late and, given its industrial
infrastructure, could afford to contribute only a few specimens to this flying

trict of Vinh Phuc, near Hanoi. The

domestic market opens in the dis-

Vinh Phuc plant includes facilities

a vehicle production plant for the
Jurassic Park. It pinned its hopes for supremacy in the air to Piaggio, noted

welding and painting, and final

2009 The project initiated two

for research and development,

years earlier comes to fruition:
94 for fighter planes like the Ro. 37 and collaborations with Caproni on the
design of midsize bombers. The resulting P108BP for Piaggio, B for Bomber,
though the B version was only one of four variantswas the only four-engine
bomber employed by the Italian Air Force during World War II. A descendant
of the wood-framed P50-II, which proved unable to takeoff when carrying
its maximum payload, this magnificent flying knight in shining aluminum
armor was meant to rival American B-17 Flying Fortresses. It was equipped
with air-cooled 18-cylinder PXII radial engines that produced 1,500 horsepow-

first three-wheeled scooter with two

Stock Exchange. In May, the compa-
2006 Piaggio is listed on the Italian

ny launches a revolutionary product

er at takeoff, could fly at speeds of 420 kilometers per hour and at elevations

2007 The Piaggio Group officially

and riding pleasure: the MP3the

independent tilting front wheels.

that redefines both safety levels
over 7,000 meters, and carry a payload of 3,500 kilograms of bombs over a
distance of 2,500 kilometers. The secret P108B prototype flew in late 1939,
performing well in repeated tests. With minor fine-tuning, it was delivered
to the 274th Air Squadron in 1941 commanded by the twenty-three-year-old
Bruno Mussolini, Il Duces second son. This proved the P108Bs moment of
truth for, as he approached the San Giusto Airport in Pisa, the young aviator
flew too low, crashing into a house and killing three crew members including
himself and injuring three others. The event was cloaked in the language of

the launch of the Vespa LX. Available

125cc, and 150cc), the LX reinvigo-

martyrdom by the Italian press. A total of 38 P108s were completed by the

2005 A new generation of small

90/92 - Images of 93 - Background

with four different engines and in

body Vespas is inaugurated with

rates the Vespas classic look. The

Vespa GTS is also released in the
three displacement sizes (50cc,
the four-engined P108, Technical drawings
early 1940s of the P108 time production ceased in 1943 and went on to see action in fifty-five bomb-
ing sorties during World War II. None survived until the 100-year anniversary
94 - Remains of the of the first-ever successful bombing run in human history: the dropping of a
P108B in which Bruno,

Piaggio Timeline
second-born of Benito single explosive from an unmanned lighter-than-air balloon by the Austrians
Mussolini, fatally
crashed, 1941
against Venice in 1849. [ FP ]
spring, raising the GT models dis- arrives in Vietnam. Planning for the assembly of scooters, as well as in the industrial district of Vinh Phuc.
placement to 250cc. production of Vespa scooters for the warehouse, testing, quality control,
Vietnamese domestic market begins. and office areas.

95

late 1930s
95 - Pitch P1001,
96 - Background
Pitch P1001, late 1930s
97

helicopter, 1932
97 - Sketch of the PD1
SNAPSHOTS Variable Pitch Propeller

2015 In June, Piaggio Fast Forward is

established in Boston, Massachusetts
as a platform for the development of

presents its Wi-Bike, a state-of-the-

new products and IP related to the
movement of people and goods.

motorcycle showcase), Piaggio

At EICMA (the worlds leading
Words / if roused from sleep / refuse their proper place, [but] when
they awake / they settle on backs / of invoices, in margins / of lotto tickets,
/ wedding invites or death notices. So writes the poet Eugenio Montale
regarding the unpredictable brilliance of inspiration. Corradino dAscanios
projects were often born in precisely this way, with sketches and notes
finding a temporary home on cigarette packs or on the palm of his hand.
The task of performing the necessary calculations (or of simply marveling

history takes place in Mantua, Italy,

It involves more than 10,000 Vespas

Motoplex, a ground-breaking con-

in celebration of World Vespa Day.
at just how rigorous dAscanios sketches already were) would rest on the

(and their owners) and 132 Vespa

In June, the largest rally in Vespa
shoulders of collaborators: designers like Mario DEste and trusted tech-

Piaggio inaugurates its first

nicians such as Galileo Rampichini and Fausto Taranto. The history of the

Clubs from 32 countries.

variable-pitch propeller dates back to an era prior to the formation of this
team: to a kind of helicopter lab avant la lettre established when dAscanio
was working in Finalmarina. But it became integral to Piaggios success
during the war years. It was 1932 when, fresh from setting the world
helicopter record for distance and duration with the DAT3, Corradino met
Rinaldo Piaggio at the behest of the Italian Ministry of Defense. At the time,

best-selling Beverly model, advanced

traction control and ABS braking, are

GTS family and on MP3 three-wheel-

ers. Also added are PMP systems for
introduced on scooters in the Vespa
dAscanio was at work on the T-24, a lightweight propeller whose pitch

rider-assist systems, along with

electronic vehicle control and
could be altered by means of a simple electrical command, eliminating the

2014 Already present on the

need for heavy and unreliable motorized gear assemblies. By 1934 he had
left Finalmarina for Pontedera and quickly set about replacing their prior
handcrafted propellers with advanced versions of the T-24. These featured
a thrust-bearing system capable of absorbing vibrations and variations
in torque at the blades base, as well as a mechanism for pitch rotation
and calibration that relied upon the electric braking of an idler drum and
step-down gears. Four years later, the new P-1001 propeller introduced a

A grand total of over 18 million Vespas

190,000 units, after ten years of con-
tinuous growth during which over 1.3
Vespa worldwide sales reach nearly

million new Vespas have been sold.

have been manufactured and sold

number of additional improvements, replacing the braking system (which

since the first model rolled off the

Piaggio production lines in 1946.
caused excessive friction) with a kinematic mechanism that made use of
asynchronous rotors. The cabin commands were also upgraded to improve
reliability and simplify the task of piloting multi-engined aircraft. Other
propeller models would follow, but by the time the war was over, American-
made hydraulic variable-pitch propellers had long ago surpassed the Piaggio-
dAscanio patents. Little did it matter because Corradino had already moved
on. Strange sketches could now be found on the back of his cigarette packs:
sketches of everyday insects that would soon propel the postwar worldthe

2013 The PADC (Piaggio Advanced

unveiled. In addition to a bold new

aluminum parts and an electronic

luxurious Vespa every produced, is
Vespa and the Ape. [ CC ]

rider-assist system. In November,

Design Center) opens in Pasade-
na, California. The 946, the most

design, the 946 is equipped with

98 - Technical drawing
of the DAT3 helicopter
that d'Ascanio sketched

Piaggio Timeline
out in 1930 before
joining Piaggio
 SNAPSHOTS Piaggio-dAscanio
embodies an innovative approach
art electric-powered bicycle that

I learned with displeasure, but

Every great invention swims in a sea of precedents: fantasies, ideas, false
starts, experiments, and, most of all, decisions to ditch or pursue dreams.
to light mobility.

Alongside technical successes, it is the latter that tend to dictate the

historical record. The invention of the mechanical rotorcraft known as the
helicopter is no exception. Dreamed up repeatedly over course of centu-

not surprise, of the serious

ries, it was discovered by a crowd of inventors extending from Leonardo
da Vinci to Igor Sikorsky. Among these was the father of the Vespa. Cor-
cept store bringing together its core

accident that took place

brands: Vespa, Piaggio, Moto Guzzi

radino dAscanio had been thinking about helicopters since World War I.

today and destroyed our

His first patent was deposited on April 7, 1925: for a helicopter with two
coaxial rotors and an automatic slow-descent device. The idea gave rise
to three generations of designs: the DAT1, DAT2, and DAT3. (The T stood
for Pietro Trojani, who financed the project.) Developed between 1926 and
and Aprilia.

1931, these models established duration, distance, and elevation records.

But they never proved reliable enough to secure the sort of financing that
would have permitted them to soar. Enter the Piaggio-d'Ascanio or PD:
the DATs successor once d'Ascanio joined Piaggio in 1932. The first PDs
ket, powered by an environmentally
entry-level Vespa goes on the mar-

borrowed heavily from the vocabulary of the DATs and were built around
vehicles-smartphone interaction.
In March, a new variation on the

variants of their double variable pitch rotors. The PD3, by contrast, was an
friendly three-valve engine:

entirely new creature with a long tail section, a single overhead main rotor,
and a small, vertical rear rotor. Built between 1939 and 1942, redesigned
in the postwar years, it sought to guarantee a smooth descent even in
the Sprint.

the event of engine failure. Much to the glee of the children of Pontedera,
the PD3 underwent extensive testing. But it too proved unstable, giving
rise to one last postwar effort: the PD4. This helicopter drew its inspiration
from American Piasecki helicopters, sharing their double-bladed, counter-
rotating, synchronized tandem rotors. By September 1951, tests were
underway and, though successful, there were continuing problems with
wind interference between rotors. On August 5, 1952, before the entire
Piaggio leadership, the PD4s culminating test flight took place. At 7:15
pm, a stripped-down version of the aluminum and steel bird rose up from
the ground several meters, thundered down the runway, and initiated a
smooth 180 degree turn: smooth, that is, until it jolted violently to one side,
smacking its left wheel down hard on the asphalt, breaking both rotors,
and crashing on its side. The PDs death knell was sounded the next day
the Primavera is produced simulta-
its small body family of scooters.
For the first time in Vespas history,

neously at both the Pontedera and

by Enrico Piaggio in a letter to its inventor:

Primavera, the latest evolution in
Piaggio launches the new Vespa

Vinh Phuc factories.

99 - Technical drawing
of the PD4 helicopter,
early 1950s

104
PD, 1952
crash that happened
during the test of the
100/106 - Phases of the
experimental helicopter
105
experimental helicopter.
106
Gilera Timeline
1909 Working from a small
workshop in Milan, Giuseppe Gilera
founds the company. Gileras pro-
duction facilities are established
in Arcore, in the outskirts of the
Lombard capital. The VT 317 model
makes its debut.
1918 Gilera develops and produces
1936 The Rondine, a futuristic
racing motorcycle powered by
a supercharged 500cc inline
four-cylinder engine, is unveiled.
1937 The Rondine establishes nu-
merous world records, among them
a world speed record of 170 miles per
hour, achieved by Piero Taruffi (Italy)
102
103
1946 Immediately after the end
of the war, Gilera unveils one of
its most celebrated motorcycles:
the Saturno 500. Gileras new
four-cylinder 500s dominate the
premiere category in the Motorcycle
World Championship, engaging in
epic battles with marques such as
100
101
little time for hovering doubts. [ JTS ]
development, and reallocate all of the personnel involved.
I await your detailed report on the episode but have little doubt
Vespas were flickering in the dreams of postwar consumers. There was
that took place today and destroyed our experimental helicopter.
I learned with displeasure, but not surprise, of the serious accident
relative to the helicopter [] shut down the facility dedicated to its
that the blame is to be shared by the helicopter, about which I have
long expressed doubts, and by the pilot [] Please cease all activity
1952 Masetti triumphs for the 1957 After a one-year lapse, an-
second time in the 500cc class of other Gilera double triumph in the
the Motorcycle World Champion- 500cc class: Libero Liberati (Italy)
ship, helping Gilera to secure its first wins the riders title and Gilera the
500cc constructors world title. constructors title in the Motorcycle
1953 Geoff Duke (England) wins the World Championship. But theres a
world title in the 500cc class of the new twist: Gilera also secures the
Motorcycle World Championship; the 350cc class manufacturers title this
 SNAPSHOTS San Remo-Monte Bignone Funicular

Piaggios expertise in the fabrication of tramways, railway cars, and air-

craft carried over to other sectors of transport and transit. Among these
were people-moving systems for rugged landscapes like those surrounding
time around.

the resort city of San Remo on the Ligurian coast. The San Remo funicular
was one of the many ambitious projects undertaken by the civil engineer
and mayor (Podest) of the city, Pietro Agosti (18731930). Completed in
1936 by the Compagnia Italiana Funivie with the assistance of Ansaldo,
manufacturers title goes to Gilera.

it was considered one of the engineering marvels of its era. It provided

The same double victory will be

visitorsSam Remo was a major destination for elite British and Russian
repeated in 1954 and 1955.

touristswith direct access to a belvedere atop the 1,299-meter-tall Monte

Bignone. It was divided into three segments with two intermediary stops.
Each segment had two funicular cabins. The first segment was strung
along eight pylons and stretched 2,199 meters between San Remo to the
golf course and rose 183 meters. The second extended 3,524 meters, all
the way to San Romolo, and with seven pylons, rose 594 meters. The third
completed the distance from San Romolo to Monte Bignone and was 1,912
Norton, Moto Guzzi and MV Agusta.

500cc class of the Motorcycle World

meters in length, rising 433 meters. In addition to an up cable and a down

1950 Umberto Masetti (Italy) is
crowned world champion in the

cable, the system included a safety cable that allowed the servicing of
stranded cabins. The 1,742 meter span between two of the supporting tow-
ers was the longest in the world at the time of its inauguration on October
Championship.

28, 1936. But the oohs and aahs that it garnered in the Italian pressthe
international press was absent due to the economic boycott imposed by
the League of Nations in retribution for Mussolinis invasion of Ethiopia
were mirrored by the publics admiration for the state-of-the-art motors
that drove the system which, with little more than routine maintenance,
1939 Dorino Serafini (Italy) wins the
500cc class of the European Motor-
on the Milan-Bergamo autostrada.

cycling Championship on a Gilera.

remained continuously operational between the time of the funiculars

inauguration and its closure in 1981. Period poster campaigns celebrated the
journey as an almost magical flight from palms to pines. And the magic
carpet ride was provided by a conveyance fabricated by Piaggio. Piaggios
cabins made use of the same manufacturing techniques as on its stream-
lined Budd cars: stainless steel sheeting, rivet construction, everything to
ensure a combination of lightness, minimum maintenance costs, and max-
imum strength. Their total capacity was twenty persons, which amounted
to a per-hour rate of around eighty visitors spirited away from the city
and the Otto Bulloni models now fea-
500cc motorbikes equipped with side
valves with which it wins a number

ture engines with overhead valves.

center and lifted up into the thin air of the Ligurian peaks. The monthly
1935 Gileras Quattro Bulloni 500
of international competitions.

magazine of the Touring Club Italiano sang their praise as follows:

107 - Background
Advertisement poster
of the San Remo-Monte
Bignone funicular, detail
 110
Monte Bignone
funicular at work
108/110 - San Remo-
111 - Advertisement
poster of the San Remo-
Monte Bignone funicular
Gilera Timeline
1957 Gilera decides to withdraw
from racing competition having
accumulated over forty Grand Prix
titles, though it will remain active in
off-road, time-trial, and enduro rac-
ing. Its mid-size touring motorcycles
like the Giubileo, Rossa, Turismo, and
Sport become the brands flagship
1969 Gilera joins the Piaggio
Group. Thanks to motorbikes like
the futuristic 125 Twin Cylinder
Cross, it regains a dominant posi-
tion in motocross, time-trial, and
enduro racing.
109
111
1980 Gilera develops a new
single-cylinder four-stroke engine.
Initially available in 350cc and 500cc
versions, it evolves into a 600. Over
the subsequent decade, the Gilera
600 RC will earn several stage wins
in the Paris-Dakar Rally and the 750
RC prototype race bike will secure
108
in Pontedera. [ JTS ]
(Le vie dItalia, November 1936)
command systemswas produced exclusively by Italian labor.
They comfortably seat as many as twenty-five passengers and,
One of the surviving cabins sits at the entrance to the Piaggio Museum
is a sign of the times. Built during the regime of sanctions, every-
steel, run on eight wheels and are equipped with electric lighting.
eyes. A built-in telephone guarantees contact between each cabin
that speeds by like a phantasmagoria before the visitors admiring
The six cabins, whose key components are all made from stainless
thanks to large windows, provide views of a magnificent landscape
thing that went into itmachinery, cables, monitoring, control and
and the base stations The new San Remo-Monte Bignone funicular
1992 Gilera reenters the Motorcycle 2000 Gilera unveils the DNA, an
World Championship in the 250cc innovative model that sought to
class. bring together the worlds of motor-
1993 Production of Gileras is cycles and scooters. Though built
transferred to Pontedera. The Gilera on a motorcycle frame, for example,
brand focuses on the development it employs the sort of continuously
of sports scooters like the Runner. variable transmission found on
scooters (not a standard motor-
motorcycles, along with the new
Saturno 300cc twin.
an outright victory in the Rally of cycle gearbox).
the Pharaohs. Products such as the
powerful SP-02 and forward-looking
CX125 consolidate Gileras reputation
as a producer of state-of-the-art
125cc sport bikes.

of the Vespa by
112 - First sketches

Corradino d'Ascanio

his death
113 - Background
Vespa and helicopter

d'Ascanio soon before

sketches by Corradino
SNAPSHOTS Scooter wheels

Corradino dAscanio was, as he proudly put it, no slave to motorcycling

tradition. So when, in the waning years of World War II, Enrico Piaggio
summoned him to devise a new type of two-wheeled vehicle that was
genuinely utilitarian, he felt free to approach the problem with a fresh
eye designing a vehicle for non-motorcyclists like myself. Four problems
were foremost in dAscanios mind as he undertook this task: protection
(the need to shield riders from oil and dirt), access (easy mounting and

2008 Marco Simoncelli wins the rid-

ers championship in the 250cc class
of the Motorcycle World Champion-

final race of the season in Valencia

ship, Gileras first in the 250 class.
dismounting), maneuverability (navigating tight spaces), and punctures

the 100th anniversary of the two-

He participates in (and wins) the

with a special livery celebrating

114 115 (avoidance of on-the-road inner tube repairs). If the first problem was
addressed by enclosing the engine train in a full fairing and the second was
resolved by means of a frame design that omitted the motorcycles central
crossbeam, the third and fourth required rethinking the motorcycle wheel.
Larger diameter wheels were, of course, more stable at high speeds and
more resistant to roadway perils such as potholes. But local transit rarely
involved elevated speeds; more often, it demanded the ability, as it were,
to turn on a dime. To this end, dAscanio adopted wheels not unlike those

combines the performance and fun

same year, the Gilera Fuoco makes

the practicality of a scooter. In the
produced: the GP 800. The GP 800
found on aircraft for the first of the Piaggio production scooters, the V98;

2007 Gilera launches the fastest

ment motorcycle combined with

of a medium-to-large displace-
and most powerful scooter ever
their dimensions were 3.50 x 8 inches (half the size of the wheels favored
116 117 for motorcycles). The solution proved successful and endured, with subse-
quent models only gradually evolving into todays 120-130 mm wheels (with
12 inch wheels adopted in the case of the GT/GTS series). But the wheels in
dAscanios mind were still spinning with fresh solutions to the problem of
flats: a flat shouldnt be any more of a mechanical problem for a motorcy-
clist than it is for the driver of a car, he opined. So he designed his scooters
for quick repairs and even to carry a spare. On some models, the spare was

Stefano Perugini (Italy) and Fabrizio

2006 After Aprilias absorption into

return to 125cc class racing, Gilera

the Piaggio group, Gilera resumes

mounted behind the passenger. On others, it was bolted to the back of the

for the 2004 season. Its riders are

2004 For the first time since its

mounts a two-rider campaign

front fairing or tucked into the left side rear panel, opposite the engine. And
then there are the splendid mutant hymenoptera over which every collector
118 119 pines, like the 1951 Sei Giorni, with its spare wheel mounted vertically along
the axis of the center platform, and the 1965 90 Super Sprint, with its center

Lai (Italy).
wheel topped with a chest pada fuel-tank lookalike that doubles as a
114 - Vespa 50 SS, 1965 115 - Vespa 150 GS, 1957 glove boxthe Sistine Chapels in the Vespa cosmos. All of these spares were
simple to mount because the scooters one-sided front suspension, mod-
eled after the design of aircraft landing gears, and its one-sided drive train

world title for Gilera, Manuel Poggiali

2001 Gilera rejoins the Motorcycle

class. Forty-four years after Libero

(Republic of San Marino) wins the

116 - Vespa 125 Sei 117 - Vespa 150 GS, 1955 which, thanks to a removable left-side tail section, rendered all the wheel

World Championship in the 125cc

125cc class riders championship.

This marks the two-ring brands
Liberati secured the 500cc class
Giorni, 1951
bolts readily accessible. Better still, the presence of a center stand permit-
ted Vespas to be parked upright (rather than being leaned on a side-stand).
118 - Vespa 50, 1963 119 - Vespa 125, 1962 Once parked, they could be rocked forward or backwards so as to allow the
rapid substitution of tires. [ JTS ]
Gilera Timeline
 SNAPSHOTS Renato Tassinari

Innovation sometimes works in ways that are misaligned with current sys-
tems of belief. Such is the case of the founder of one of the most remarkable
institutions associated with the Piaggio brand: the Vespa Club. A motorcy-
cle enthusiast from the beginning, Tassinari was the leading motorsports
journalist who, in 1920, came up with the idea of the Esposizione Milanese
del Ciclo e del Motociclo, an ancestor of todays EICMA. His subsequent
career featured stints as the Director of Corriere dello Sport (19371942),
then known as Il Littoriale: Quotidiano sportivo di tutti gli sport. Mobilization
of the Italian body politic through sports was a key theme of the fascist
regime and, as a powerful advocate of mass motorization as an extension
of mass athletics, Tassinari was soon promoted to political roles, serving
in parliament, as secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, and on Mussoli-
ring brand.

nis personal staff. A signatory to the 1938 Manifesto on Race, he remained

a loyal apologist for the regime through the demise of the Italian Social
Republic. Tassinaris arrival in Pontedera coincides with the Vespas launch
and, borrowing from his bag of prior tricks, he set about forging a mass
its debut: a 500cc, high performance

(Italy) and Roberto Locatelli (Italy).

250cc class of the Motorcycle World

top-notch racers: Marco Simoncelli

three-wheeler. Gileras team in the

vespista movement. The foundations for said movement were established

Championship now includes two

120
version of Piaggios unique MP3

at the 1948 Milan Trade Fair, where he staged a 2,000 scooter swarm
across the city streets, in the midst of what would soon become one of the
most comprehensive brand-building campaigns of the postwar era. Next
came international swarms, rallies for female riders, competition events
with monetary awards, a Miss Vespa pageant, and the Piaggio calendar.
All these initiatives were stitched together by means of two overarching
endeavors. The first was the launch of Piaggio magazine in January 1949
as a bidirectional bridge between the company and its clientele. Published
for thirty-one years, the monthly viewed Vespas traversing the ruins of
its commitment to competing in

bombed-out buildings as the expression of a renewed will to life and labor

the 250cc class of MotoGP.

and promised not just to immerse consumers in the ever-expanding world

of the Vespa but also to provide a forum for their actions and voices. This
it did by publishing vespisti on its pages alongside articles by established
writers like Orio Vergani and Corrado Govoni. The second was Tassinaris
masterpiece as a publicist: the building of a worldwide network of Vespa
121 Clubs. By the mid-1950s, some one hundred Vespa clubs had been founded
in Europe and were organized into a union, presided over by Tassinari him-
2003 Gileras 500cc maxiscooter,

self. Each club provided membership cards, stickers, route maps, banners,
a calendar of events and activities, and discounts on Vespa parts. Most
of all, they built a subculture, as vibrant today as it was in its early heyday,
the Nexus, is launched.
thirteenth world title.

120 - Sports journalist 121 - Invitation to enroll that lives the Vespa not just as a functional vehicle, but as the badge of
Renato Tassinari, in the Vespa Club
founder of the of Italy published in a mobile lifestyle and identity. [ JTS ]
Vespa Clubs and the Rivista Piaggio
executive editor of in July 1951
the Rivista Piaggio
 122 - Background

Due Province, 1960

Vespisti at the Giro delle
Renato Tassinari
in collective usage of the Vespa.
equipment on every Vespa. And the ever
should be considered isolating, antisocial,

felt and powerful urge that expresses itself

namely, that motorcycles and motor scooters

growing passion for this eminently practical,

fun, and functional vehicle has bred a widely
solitary vehicles. On the contrary, a passenger
The Vespa recently shattered a commonplace

(whether male or female) has become standard

that had become deeply ingrained over the years:

Moto Guzzi Timeline

1921 Emanuele Vittorio Parodi, his
son Giorgio, and friend Carlo Guzzi
found the Societ Anonima Moto
Guzzi with offices in Genoa and
production facilities in Mandello Ton-
zanico (subsequently Mandello del
Lario). The logo of the newborn com-
pany is an eagle with outstretched
The label G. P.an acronym of
Guzzi/Parodiis immediately
abandoned and transformed into
Moto Guzzi, so the GP 500 is the only
vehicle that will carry the G. P. label.
Moto Guzzis first production model,
the 8 HP Normale, undergoes an
initial production run of 17. The Nor-
1921 Moto Guzzi earns its first rac-
ing victory: in the Targa Florio open
road endurance race.
1924 The Moto Guzzi C4V takes the
European Championship by storm,
taking first, second, and fifth places.
1925 1,200 motorbikes are built by
over 300 workers in the Mandello
1927 To overcome the limitations 1934 Moto Guzzi becomes the
of rear suspension designs, Carlo largest manufacturer of motor-
and Giuseppe Guzzi devise an elastic cycles in Italy.
frame consisting of a steel case 1935 The rider Stanley Woods
housing four springs and a hinging (Ireland) wins the prestigious Isle
swingarm. To test the frames effi- of Man Tourist Trophy on a single-
ciency Giuseppe embarks on a jour- cylinder Guzzi 250cc (Lightweight
ney to North Cape, Norway on the TT class) and twin-cylinder 500cc
wings, the symbol of the Italian Air
Force in World War I, to honor their
common friend and intended fourth
partner, Giovanni Ravelli. (An avid
motorcyclist and aviator, Ravelli died
in a test flight in 1919.) The compa-
nys first motorcycle, the G.P. 500,
is built with the technical support
of Giorgio Ripamonti.
male is the first motorbike in history
equipped with a center stand.
factory. newborn GT. The model in question
is dubbed the Norge as a tribute to
the Italian-built airship bearing that
same name that flew over the North
Pole in May 1926.
1929 Production reaches 2,500 units.
(Senior TT class).
1937 Omobono Tenni (Italy) wins
the Lightweight TT class (250cc)
at the Isle of Man.
1939 Moto Guzzi unveils its highly
successful Airone 250, of which a
total of 29,926 units will be built.

123 - Gathering
of vespisti, Milan,
Piazza Duomo, 1950s
Moto Guzzi Timeline
1939/1945 Production concentrates
on the military market: the Alce, the
Trialce, and the Airone Militare are
developed for the Italian Army.
1946 The company becomes Moto
Guzzi S.p.A. and builds its first
lightweight two-stroke motorbike:
the Moto Guzzio Motoleggera 65,
1949 Bruno Ruffo (Italy) is crowned
as the first world champion in the
250cc class of the newborn Motorcy-
cle World Championship; Moto Guzzi
wins the manufacturers trophy for
the 250 class.
1950 The 500cc Falcone, the last of 1951 A repeat of 1949: Ruffo wins his 1954 Anderson performs an encore,
Moto Guzzis lateral single cylinder second world riders title in the 250cc winning the 350cc class riders title
bikes, is launched. A full-scale wind class and Moto Guzzi its second with Moto Guzzi collecting its second
tunnel is inaugurated in Mandello world manufacturers title. successive constructors title.
del Lario. Thanks to this instru- 1952 Enrico Lorenzetti (Italy) 1955 Giorgio Parodi dies and Moto
ment, the first rigorously designed triumphs on a Moto Guzzi 250 in the Guzzis formidable 8 cylinder 500cc
aerodynamic fairings are developed Motorcycle World Championship. makes its debut. An extraordinarily
for race bikes. The Galletto, the Both the riders and manufacturers advanced power plant for its time,
also known as the Guzzino. 50,000
units will be produced in the Guzzi-
nos first three years. In the 1950s the
models name will change to Cardel-
lino and the engines displacement
will grow to 73cc.
worlds first big-wheeled scooter, is
launched on the market and soon
proves extremely popular. Decades
later, the same big-wheel approach
will inform the design of Aprilias
highly successful Scarabeo.
titles come back to Mandello.
1953 Fergus Anderson (England)
wins the riders title and Moto Guzzi
the manufacturers title in the 350cc
class of the Motorcycle World Cham-
pionship. For the next four years the
pattern will be much the same.
the engine is water-cooled, equipped
with dual overhead cams, and a
separate carburetor feeds each of
its eight cylinders. In the same year,
Bill Lomas (England), Andersons
successor on the Guzzi world cham-
pionship team, wins the riders title
and Moto Guzzi the manufacturers
title in the 350cc class.
 over the world
124 - Contests and
gatherings of vespisti all
Moto Guzzi Timeline
1956 A fourth double victory:
Lomas triumphs in the 350cc class;
Moto Guzzi wins the class construc-
tors title.
1957 A turning point in Moto Guzzis
history: in agreement with several
other Italian manufacturers (Gilera
and Mondial), the company with-
1958 Moto Guzzi develops the
worlds first engine with a chromed
cylinder barrel: an innovation that
finds its way into engines for the
Zigolo model.
1964 Carlo Guzzi dies.
1965 Giulio Cesare Carcano designs
the 90 degree V-2 longitudinally
1967 The management of Moto
Guzzi is transferred to SEIMM (Soci-
et Esercizio Industrie Moto Mecca-
niche). The 703cc displacement V7
engine goes into production.
1971 The legendary V7 Sport is
unveiled. Three versions will be devel-
oped for the American market: the
1973 Another change in corporate 1976 The Le Mans makes its debut.
management takes place: having It will prove the most successful
already acquired Benelli, the De model from this period of Moto
Tomaso Industries Inc. group, led by Guzzis history and undergo produc-
Alejandro De Tomaso, also acquires tion in four versions: the Le Mans I, II,
Moto Guzzi. Building upon the suc- III, or 1000.
cess of the V7 Sport, the 750 S and 1987 The California III, now
750 S3 models are launched. equipped with a 1064cc engine
draws from racing after amassing mounted engine that is destined to Special, California, and Ambassador. 1974 The 850cc edition of the Moto and electronic fuel injection, goes
a remarkable track record of 3,329 become the signature of Moto Guzzi Guzzi California is unveiled. on the market.
victories in official races, 14 world motorcycles down to the present day. 1988 The new Guzzi-Benelli Moto
titles, and 11 victories in the Isle of (G.B.M. S.p.A.) company is founded.
Man Tourist Trophy. Moto Guzzis
last major title is that of Keith
Campbell (Australia) who wins the
riders world championship in the
350cc class.

1952
the Channel on
125/129 - Georges
Monneret crossing

an alumininum raft
a Vespa mounted on

built for the purpose,

127

130 - Background
Georges Monneret
crossing the Channel

128
125

126

129
SNAPSHOTS Georges Monneret

torcycle show, Moto Guzzi seizes the

counterpart. During the EICMA mo-

limelight by presenting three futur-

istic prototypes designed by Miguel
2009 There are two new additions

Galluzzi and Pierre Terblanche: the

to the product line: the V7 Classic
and V7 Caf, the Classics sporty
Remembered as the man who invented Vespa adventure travel, Monneret
(19081989), aka Jojo la Moto, is one of the legends of early motorcy-
cling, with nearly 500 racing victories, 183 world records, and 19 French na-
tional titles to his credit. Monnerets stable of two-wheeled rides was highly
diverse, from the 250 on which he won his first national championship in
1932 to the beastly 1000cc Kohler-Escoffier with which he broke a slew of
1930s speed records, encompassing brands from Gilera and Moto Guzzi

manufacturer: the Griso 8V, Bellagio,

tion of the Battle of Twins at Dayto-
na. With three new model launches,
previous year, winning the 2007 edi-
MGS-01, repeats his success of the
to AJS, Velocette, and Puch. (Even the world of speedboats did not es-

2007 Guareschi, again riding the

and Stelvio all make their debut.

its a busy year for the Mandello
cape him: after a mere half hour of practice, he conquered the prestigious
Spreckels Trophy in 1936 against the Baron Alain de Rothschild and other
rivals, only to be disqualified on a technicality.) In France, it was thanks
to the efforts of a Velosolex and Renault dealer, tablissements Galtier,
that the Vespa underwent full-scale distribution in 1951. The company
was no slouch when it came to placing scooters in the public eye: it pa-
raded Renault panel trucks crowned with giant Vespas around the streets
of Grenoble. In 1953, a custom model with a continuous caterpillar-track

2005 The compact Breva 1100, Moto

the same year, the Griso 1100 power

a number of unique technical and

cruiser is also launched, featuring
rear was built to climb the slopes of the French Alps under the glare of

makes its debut. In September of

Guzzis new naked touring bike,
reporters flash bulbs. But no more brilliant Vespa evangelizer could be

2006 In March, Gianfranco

imagined than the speedster Jojo, who dreamt up a series of raids to
keep the media abuzz. The first was the Paris-lAlpe dHuez Raid, whose

stylistic elements.
aim was to show the Vespas superiority to trains from the standpoint of
economy and speed. At midnight on February 26, 1952, Monneret and his
passenger, the American jazz singer Jenny Miller, departed the French cap-
ital. Twelve hours later they arrived in lAlpe dHuez, beating the train, at
one-fifth of a train tickets price. The second was the Paris to London Raid,

capable of delivering over 140 horse-

2000 Aprilia acquires Moto Guzzi.

cooled engine called the VA10 and

becomes a standard feature in all

covered by newspapers worldwide. In this case, Jojo set off solo for Calais

in Mandello, a new 1000cc liquid-

power, is presented to the press.

1999 At the Moto Guzzi plant

2001 Electronic fuel injection

at midnight on October 8, 1952. A purpose-built aluminum raft, equipped
with pontoons, a tiller, and a drive shaft running from the rear wheel to a
nautical propeller, was coupled to the scooter upon his arrival five hours
later. He set off into the Channel with (seasick) reporters on a companion
vessel tracking his every move. But the drive shaft broke, forcing a return
to Calais for some remedial welding. The journey recommenced the next
morning and, five hours later, Monneret disembarked in Dover, decoupled
his scoot, and reached London after lunchtime. The so-called Raid Ptrole

a substantial share in the company

1992 The Daytona 1000 IE, a road
came third. An act of nationalist showmanship, its mission was to travel to

version of the race bike that won

Guzzi S.p.A. Finprogetti acquires

changes its name back to Moto
Twins, is placed on the market.
1996 Guzzi-Benelli Moto S.p.A
the 1987 Daytona Battle of the
the Algerian oilfields of Hassi Messaoud, pick up a full jerry can of gasoline,
131 - Georges Monneret and return it to Paris in the shortest time possible. Monneret accomplished
gives the message

Moto Guzzi Timeline

of the Lord Mayor of his mission in a mere five days and was welcomed like a hero upon his re-
London to the President
of the Council of Paris
turn. The Algerian Civil War was raging at the time, but bullets and bombs
couldnt put the brakes on Jojo la Motos scooter invasion. [ JTS ]
and, subsequently, assumes control
over De Tomaso Industries Inc.,
transforming De Tomaso into the
Trident Rowan Group, Inc.
The Moto Guzzi V10 Centauro,
designed by Marabese Design,
is presented to the public.
for the Ciao, 1970
132 - Advertisement
to the Ciao, 1974
133 - Background
Piaggio dedicated
Cover of the Rivista
Guzzi motorcycles.
2004 Moto Guzzi, together with
Aprilia, joins the Piaggio Group, the
European leader in the two-wheeled
vehicle sector.
Guareschi (Italy) rides the MGS-01
race bike to victory in the Battle of
Twins race at Daytona International
Speedway. Two models are launched
during the year: the 1200 Sport, a
stylish naked bike, and the Norge
1200, which marks Moto Guzzis
return to the grand touring segment
of the market.
This years celebration of Moto Guzzi V12LM, V12 Strada, and V12 X which
World Days is enhanced by the pres- are awarded the Motorcycle Design
ence of the actor Ewan McGregor. Associations award for the best
Present in Mandello del Lario to pick motorcycle designs of the year.
up a California, McGregor will go on
to become a Moto Guzzi spokesman
starting in 2013.
 Ciao

earlier products as the 1967 Stornello

limited edition bagger first present-

2016 Two major product unveilings
take place. An offroad scrambler

Scrambler America. At its side, the

is launched, recalling such prized

MGX-21 Flying Fortress, a unique,

version of the V7 II, the Stornello,
The line between bicycles and motorcycles has always been blurry. All
of the earliest production motorcycles, from the 1898 Orient-Aster to the
Douglas thumpers of the 1910s, were motorized bikes equipped with pedals
for the purposes of starting and hill-climbing. Improvements in engines,
transmissions, and clutch assemblies soon relegated pedals to the dust-
bin of motorcycle history. But pedals began to make their return at the
mid-century mark on simple, entry-level vehicles, dubbed mopeds, such

their motorcycles with contemporary

allow devoted guzzisti to personalize

parts whose design is informed by

as the Vlosolex and the Piaggio Ciao. The former was a French proletarian

2015 Four customization kits are

released for Guzzi products that

the history of the Eagle brand.

workhorse born in the trenches of World War II; the latter was an Italian
134 flower child, born in 1967 in the midst of the counterculture and student
protest movements. Simple to ride and available to riders as young as four-
teen, the Ciao was envisaged as the Vespas younger, lighter, larger-wheeled
sibling. Already anticipated by a prototype moped that Corradino dAscanio
designed in 1955, its 49cc single-cylinder, two-stroke engine and drive-train
were fully enclosed (much like a Vespa). Simplicity was the Ciaos hall-
mark. It was equipped with a leading-link front suspension and rigid rear.

proved ergonomics, a new six-speed

of Moto Guzzis beloved V7, the V7 II,
for the futuristic MGX-21 makes its
and Audace models, the prototype
2014 Alongside the new Eldorado

is launched. Characterized by im-

The clutch was automatic. The belt drive required little to no maintenance.

debut at EICMA. A second edition

gearbox, and the introduction of

It sipped its oil/fuel mixture at an ultra-thrifty rate of 115 miles per gal-
lon. Most of all, the Ciao was colorful and even cute: it came in red, aqua,
canary yellow, and lime green. The Italian word ciao means hi and bye at
the same time, so the salutation/valedictions two-wheeled namesake
was designed for young consumers seeking an inexpensive vehicle for local
135 comings and goings, for frolicking with friends, nimbly scything their way
through traffic and across sidewalks and narrow streets. He or she who
ciaosthe neologism was common in Piaggios early 1970s advertising

to the top of the sales charts in only

2013 The California 1400, available

in Touring and Custom versions, is
campaignstended to be a teenageroften a female teenagereager to

mid-range V7 motorcycles to rise

2012 A renewed high-efficiency
engine helps the Guzzi family of

powered by a brand new 1400cc

escape the familys moral-disciplinary regime of restrictions. The Ciao was
about new freedoms and pleasures. It was the vehicle for a sense of soli-
darity and camaraderie among youth. The Ciao endured until 2006, when
the final moped rolled off the Pontedera assembly lines to the sound of a

a few months.
melancholic ciao Ciao voiced chorally by generations whose passage into
the world of motorized mobility (and the collective and individual free-
doms that it made available) was unthinkable without such magic letters
as the SC, L, P, PX, and MIX. [ JTS ]

Guzzi California is produced to mark

the brands ninetieth anniversary. In
1200 NTX, and Norge GT 8V, all built

V-twin engine, are unveiled, along-

around the new eight-valve 1200cc

2011 A special edition of the Moto

2010 The Stelvio 1200 8V, Stelvio
136

Moto Guzzi Timeline

134/36 - Images from

side the V7 Racer.

advertising campaigns
for the Ciao, early 1970s
the same year, new premium Stelvio V-twin, the biggest such engine ever ABS and traction control, it is made ed at the 2014 EICMA, makes its
and Norge 8V models also make produced in Europe. available in three versions: Stone, debut at the annual Sturgis Motor-
their debut. Special, and Racer. cycle Rally.

1967

2015
1946
1949

1993
2015

1999

137 - Piaggio and

Piaggio Group Logos
2015
138 - Background
Piaggio Group Logo,
SNAPSHOTS Logotopia

Sakata (Japan) does the same in the

riders title in the 250cc class; Kazuto
1993 The Scarabeo, Aprilias stylish
and highly successful big-wheeled

Biaggi (Italy) secures Aprilias first

Riders World Championship: Max
1994 A double triumph in the
Logos tell the most compact and most succinct stories regarding an insti-
tution, a company, or a brand. There was a time when their importance

scooter is born.
as a mark of identity was secondary with respect to products and their
makers. That gradually changed in the course of the twentieth century as
both symbols and the typography of company names began to develop into
a shorthand to promote instant recognition in worldwide markets. In the
case of Piaggio, founded in 1884, the company name was associated with a

Aprilia Climber. Aprilia earns the first

Gramigni (Italy) wins the Motorcycle

the Trial World Championship on an

1992 Aprilia conquers three world

title. Tommi Ahvala (Finland) wins

variety of clean, sans serif modernist typefaces and fonts during the course

titles in a single year. Alessandro

World Championship 125cc class

of its many constructors titles.

of its evolution from ship outfitter to maker of railway cars and trams to
the producer of aircraft. The situation changed in the wake of World War II,
as Piaggio turned its attention away from military and municipal transport
to consumer markets. Two logos, developed side by side, bear witness to the
growing importance of brand recognition starting in 1946. Unlike the MP6
Vespa prototype (which bore only a streamlined label flanked by wings),
the Vespa 98 was festooned with the now familiar combination of company
badge and product signature. Each speaks its own language. The company

the Motorcycle World Championship

makes its debut combining on-road

1987 Loris Reggiani (Italy) notches

riding an AF1 at the Misano circuit.

with off-road handling character-

Aprilias first 250cc class victory in
badge emphasized Genoese seafaring authority and tradition. It consisted

1990 The dual sport Pegaso 600

istics. Aprilias first scooter with

of a heraldic shield split diagonally with a white Bodoni P profiled against
the dark blue upper triangle and PIAGGIO GENOVA, also in Bodoni, stretch-
ing across the sky-blue lower triangle. (In 1955, Genova was dropped.)
To the right of this icon swirled the dancing, curvilinear, cursive italic of
the word Vespa connoting speed, informality, and fun. With only minor
variations, this two-fold strategy remained a constant until 1967, when
the then-Piaggio CEO, Umberto Agnelli, the son-in-law of Enrico Piaggio,
commissioned the Turinese designer Emilio de Silva to redesign both badge

1981 The first experiments with the

and signature to mark a corporate restructuring that disjoined the mo-

1983 Aprilias first road bike, the

its first appearance in the World

motocross racing, Aprilia makes
factorys direct involvement in
1985 In the final year of the
tor vehicle, aircraft, and train divisions. De Silvas badge cleverly reworked

TL 320 trial bike take place.

elements from the prior shield. The P and G in Piaggio were flipped and

ST 125, makes its debut.

glued together along their spine to form a single bee- or wasp-like white
logoglyph (dynamic, modern, strong evocative of speed according to De
Silva). The sea-blue backdrop was maintained. A black hexagonal band
was added as the symbol of the factory qua beehive composed of six-sided
cells. As for the Vespa signature, it was straightened out and squared off
to the detriment of the vehicles bubbly personality. But theres no holding

1945 A factory for the production of

1960 Aprilia enters the field of mo-

province of Venice, under the brand

motocross race bike in 1975, Aprilia

bicycles is founded in Noale, in the
a bubbly personality back: by the turn of the new millennium, the original

peds with its Sport Uomo model.

1977 After launching its first
Piaggio shield and Vespa signature returned for good. [ JTS ]

139 - Graphical
elaboration of the

Aprilia Timeline
Piaggio logo 1967

name Aprilia.
wins the 125cc and 250cc classes
of the Italian Motocross Champi-
onships. The fame of the company
from Noale begins to spread beyond
Italys borders.
Milan, 1911
riding his VT 317,
140 - Giuseppe Gilera
Trial Championship with Philippe
Berlatier (France). It also launches
an inaugural foray into the 250cc
class of the Motorcycle World
Championships.
an all-plastic body, the Amico, is 1992 The SR50, the first of the 125cc class.
launched during the course of the sporty Aprilia scooters, is unveiled.
same year.
SNAPSHOTS Giuseppe Gilera

the 250cc class. Two more construc-

tors titles come Aprilias way in the
2003 Manuel Poggiali (Republic of
San Marino) wins the riders title in
Like words, images can be ambiguous, as in the case of a famous pho-

125 and 250 classes.

tograph from the 1952 Tour de France showing a water bottle being ex-
changed between two cyclists. Is Gino Bartali passing the water bottle for-
ward to the eventual race winner Fausto Coppi? Or is Coppi passing it back
to the former champion Bartali? There is a similarly ambiguous photograph
of the man born Giuseppe Gellera (18871971)a name that, due to the
demands of the motorcycle industry, would be retroactively replaced with

throttle, makes its debut on MotoGP

Cube racer, powered by a 3-cylin-
der engine with pneumatic valves
and equipped with a ride-by-wire
the more mellifluous Gileraastride his first creation, the VT 317. Much

racetracks. Though the Cube ini-

high-performance naked street
2002 The Tuono 1000, Aprilias

bike, is unveiled. The Aprilia RS

like other period motorcycles, the bike in question was hybrid in nature:
little more than a bicycle frame with pedals onto which a state-of-the-art
single-cylinder, four-stroke, 317cc engine of Gileras own devising and a
gas tank had been grafted. The confusion between bicycle and motorcy-
cle is heightened by the riders posture. His legs appear to be hard at work
spinning the wheels and propelling the object forward. Yet he maintains a
low center of gravity, with hints of a smile: a premonition of the pleasures
provided by motorized travel? The overlap between bicycle and motorcycle

Valentino Rossi earns the 250cc class

Riders World Championship; Aprilia
claims its third constructors title in
manufacturing played a formative role in the professional development

1999 Yet another double victory:

2000 Aprilia acquires the Moto

of the young Giuseppe, who worked as an apprentice at Bianchi as well as

Guzzi and Laverda brands.

Bucher and Moto-Rve. From humble beginnings in Zelo Buon Persico in
the province of Lodi, Giuseppe made his way to Milan, and it was there, in

the same class.

one of three capitals of Italian motorcyclingthe others were Tradate and
Turinthat he had the opportunity to attend evening classes at the Brera
Fine Arts Academy while establishing himself as a racer. The Gilera compa-
nys first plant was located in the periphery of Milan, on Corso XXII Marzo,
and its original logo featured Milanese emblems: a shield bearing a cross

the high-displacement bike segment

by launching the RSV Mille, powered
1998 In a bold move, Aprilia enters
125cc class constructors title goes
as well as the traditional heraldic viper known as the Biscione. But it was

125cc class riders title; again, the

1997 Another double triumph:
Valentino Rossi (Italy) wins the
only when it relocated to a new production facility on Via Cesare Battisti
in the town of Arcore in 1925 that the company truly left behind its artis-
anal origins and established itself as an industry leader in the performance
motorcycle sector. Many models that are the stuff of legend followed, from
the Sport and Gran Sport models of the 1920s to the planetary series of the

to Aprilia.
1930s through the 1950s (Urano, Mercurio, Marte, Saturno, Nettuno, and
even a star: Sirio) and off-road classics like the 1970s and 1980s two-stroke
125 singles and twins. Fourteen world championships were won in the

a row, Biaggi triumphs in the 250cc

the worlds attention. In that same
1995 Mot, a bold new single-cyl-

is launched. For the second year in

successful sports bikes of all time,
process: eight riders and six constructors titles. Acquired by the Piaggio

inder bike designed by the French

designer Philippe Starck, attracts

year, the RS 250, one of the most

group in 1969, Gilera is still associated with scooters like the Runner and a
no less (brilliantly) bivalent vehicle than the VT 317: the 500cc Gilera Fuoco,
141 - Early Gilera a performance version of the Piaggio MP3. [ CC/JS ]
models, 1910s

Aprilia Timeline
class of the Riders World Cham-
pionship, with Aprilia winning the
constructors title in the same class.
1996 Biaggi wins his third consecu-
tive 250cc class riders championship.
Aprilia earns the Constructors World
Championship in the 125cc class.
by a 1000cc Rotax V-twin. Loris Ca-
pirossi (Italy) wins the Riders World
Championship in the 250cc class;
Kazuto Sakata (Japan) does the
same in the 125cc category. Aprilia
claims the 250cc constructors title
for the second time.
tially struggles to fulfill its promise,
Aprilia wins the constructors titles
in the 125cc and 250cc classes of the
Motorcycle World Championship.
Riders Arnaud Vincent (France) and
Marco Melandri (Italy) are crowned
as world champions in the 125 and
250 classes.

142

Lario plant
March 15, 1921
142 - Certificate
of incorporation

144 - Mandello del

of the Moto Guzzi S.A.,
143 - Background
G.P. prototype, 1920
144
SNAPSHOTS GP (Guzzi before Guzzi)

2009 The RSV4, powered by Aprilias

RSV4 wins its first race in the World

market. Ridden by Max Biaggi, the

secures the 125 class Riders World

Superbike Championship in Brno.
potent 1000cc V-4 engine, makes
its debut on the track and on the

In MotoGP, Julian Simon (Spain)

In the words of the noted sociologist Bruno Latour: Technology adds a
multitude of non-human agents to the perpetuation of one race alone: the
human race. But who or what are these non-human agents? They are best
understood as objects or, better yet, quasi-objects: as man-made products
that embody the presence of a creator even when that creator is absent.
GP is one such quasi-object. Its tale begins on January 3, 1919 when the
young Giorgio Parodi wrote to his father, the shipping magnate Emanuele

again earns top honors in the 125cc,

categories as well as the Construc-

motorbike, is unveiled. Aprilia once
Vittorio, seeking a loan to secure the fulfillment of a dream shared with

250cc, and Supermoto (S1 450cc)

tors World Championships in all

2008 The Aprilia Mana 850, an
innovative automatic-shifting
his friend Carlo Guzzi: the prototype for a new kind of motorcycle. GP was
meant to equal Guzzi + Parodi, not to mirror Parodis initials alone. So two
thousand lire and two years later, their joint project was rechristened the
Societ Anonima Moto Guzzi. GPs importance as the rootstock of the Moto

three classes.
Guzzi family tree is underscored by the remarkable fact that, technically
speaking, it was born an adult. It immediately established some of the
trademarks of Moto Guzzis subsequent identity: among them, the sin-
gle-cylinder 500cc four-stroke engine featured in numerous models from

a ride-by-wire throttle, is launched.

produced within the Piaggio-Aprilia

and the Hungarian Gabor Talmacsi

duction motorcycle to make use of
2007 The Shiver 750, the first pro-
the legendary 1921 Normale series through the 1950 Falcome and the ubiq-

group. Jorge Lorenzo (250 class)

It is powered by a twin-cylinder
engine entirely developed and
uitous chrome-ringed external flywheel designed to limit the thumpers
vibrations. GPs four-valve design and twin spark ignition system, both de-
rived from aeronautics, were motorcycle firsts. But considerations of cost
kept them from finding their way into early production models. GPs legacy
remains evident, all the same: a clear sign that the very same engine Carlo
Guzzi had begun to imagine during World War I, even before meeting his
future partners Parodi and Ravelli, managed to convey not only its consid-
erable technological innovations but also a sense of passion and vocation

ship in the 125 class. His compatriot

in the Supermoto World Champion-

Bosch (France) wins the riders title
wins the Riders World Champion-

the 250 class, and Thierry van Den

Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) triumphs in
in a word, its spiritdown through subsequent generations. [ CC ]

triumphs. Alvaro Bautista (Spain)

2006 An extraordinary year of

S2 125cc constructors title as well as

immediately earning the Supermoto
2004 Aprilia returns to the off-road

ensuring Jerome Giraudos (France)

championship. In MotoGP, Aprilia

innovative twin-cylinder SXV 4.5,

triumph in the Supermoto riders

segment of the market with its
Aprilia Timeline

145 - Moto Guzzi Normale, 1923

scores its fifth Constructors World
Championship in the 125 class.In
December of the same year, to-
gether with Moto Guzzi, Aprilia joins
the Piaggio Group, giving birth to
Europes largest company in the light
mobility sector.
ship (S2 450cc). Aprilia also tops the
Constructors World Championship
in the 125, 250, and Supermoto (S2
450cc) categories.
(125 class) triumph in the Motorcy-
cle World Championship, as Aprilia
collects another three constructors
titles: in the 125cc, 250cc, and Super-
moto (S2-450cc) categories.
Championship; Aprilia wins the 125cc
and 250cc class Constructors World
Championships.

Umberto Todero
Enrico Cantoni, and
Giulio Cesare Carcano,
146 - Moto Guzzi racing
team: from left to right,
SNAPSHOTS The Guzzi Triumvirate

premiere class of the MotoGP World

Championship, while renewing its

debut in the MotoGP. It is the first

where the RSV4 crowns its season

2016 The Aprilia RS-GP makes its

commitment to World Superbike,
2015 Aprilia competes in the

with a double win in Qatar.

The term racing divisionreparto corse in Italianevokes a world that is
usually imagined at a distant remove from the factory, even when racing
serves as a testing ground for innovations eventually destined for the mar-
ketplace. There was no such gap at Moto Guzzi where advanced research at
the frontiers of speed and finding engineering solutions to everyday trans-
portation needs were intimately intertwined through 1957 (after which
time the Mandello factory turned its full attention to production vehicles).

2014 Twin victories in the Superbike

World Championship: Aprilia claims

year ahead of schedule, in 2015. Its

family of V4 sport bikes is updated
Sylvain Guintoli (France) earns the
Three figures set the pace during those years: Giulio Cesare Carcano, Enrico

riders title. Aprilia announces its

return to MotoGP competition, a
its fourth constructors title and
Cantoni, and Umberto Toderothe so-called Guzzi Triumvirate. Under the
trios leadership, the companys mission was the relentless pursuit of tech-
nical excellence, above and beyond a concern for markets or profits. Their
consummate achievement was one of the most technically refined rac-
ing machines of all times: the Guzzi V8. Developed in 1955 as an effort to
surpass its Gilera 4-cylinder rivals (the winners of nearly every 1954 grand
prix race), the V8 featured a one-of-a-kind 500cc, 90 degree transversal,
liquid cooled, 8-cylinder engine with a dry-sump lubrication system and a

manufacturers title in the Superbike

Damping and the Aprilia Multimedia
Platform, the Caponord 1200 makes
its debut on the market. During the
same year, Aprilia secures its third
distributor ignition. Records and victories were not long in coming: among

innovations like Aprilia Dynamic

2013 Equipped with patented
them, a world speed record at the Montichiari airport (1956) and conquest
of the Imola gold cup (1957). The V8s successes were ultimately limited by

World Championship.
reliability issues. But the projects focus of state-of-the-art engineering
fulfilled the dream of an earlier triumvirate: the one that initially founded
Moto GuzziCarlo Guzzi, Giorgio Parodi, and Giovanni Ravelli. The trio was
reduced to a duo because of Ravellis premature death in a flying accident
(commemorated symbolically on the companys eagle logo). But their
feverish nighttime conversations paved the way to Mandello in the late

its ART project, a turnkey solution for

2012 Aprilia returns to MotoGP with

RSV4 Superbike. Just as in 2010, Max

Biaggi triumphs in World Superbike
non-factory teams based upon the

second World Superbike construc-

1910s, directly shaping the ambitions of men like Todero (who worked for

on the RSV4 and Aprilia earns its

Moto Guzzi for sixty-six years). If the founding triumvirate built the road
that led from dreams to reality, the second triumvirate built a no less
memorable path from Mandello into the realm of motorsports legend. [ CC ]

tors trophy.
and Aprilia its first constructors title.

year in which the Tuono V4, a naked

2011 Aprilias racing-derived APRC
(Aprilia Performance Ride Control)
system is patented. This is also the
Max Biaggi earning the riders title
World Superbike competition, with
2010 The Aprilia RSV4 triumphs in
147 - Guzzi V8, 1955

Aprilia Timeline
version of the RSV4, is introduced on thanks to the launch of the 1100cc MotoGP prototype entirely designed,
the market. Nico Terol (Spain) wins Tuono and RSV4 RF. developed, and built by Aprilia,
the 125cc class world championship featuring a narrow V-4 engine with
and Adrien Chareyre (France) wins pneumatic valves, putting out over
the riders title in the Supermoto 250 horsepower.
World Championship (S1-450cc).
Aprilia also earns the constructors
title in the Supermoto (S1- 450cc)
category.

149
148

mountains
Mule at work in the
148 - The Mechanical
149 - Guzzi 3x3, aka
The Mechanical Mule

Mechanical Mule
150 - Background

performance of the
alpine troops tests the
A member of the Italian
SNAPSHOTS The Mechanical Mule

1968 Barry Smith (Australia) wins

Derbis first victory in a Grand Prix

the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy race

event. Smith comes in third place

in the ultralight class, notching

1969 Derbi secures its first 50cc

in the 50cc class riders world
Most Guzzis soar like eagles. Others emit light clucking sounds (like the
galletto, or cockerel). But a long lineage of beasts of burden forms one

championship.
entire branch of the brands family tree. Some were small like the Ercolino
(or Little Hercules), weighing in at a mere 265 kilos and powered with a
Gallettos 192cc four-stroke. Smaller still were two-stroke utility trikes like
the Aiace (or Ajax) and Dingotre (or Dingothree). Others were 670-kilo
workhorses like the Ercole (or Hercules) pickup trike, made between 1946

(Spain), its 50cc single-cylinder two-

1962 Derbi commits to road racing.

the Spanish Grand Prix and tenth in

and 74 GS models. Despite its small

stroke race bike comes in second in

1964 Derbi launches the 49 Junior

Ridden by the Jose Maria Busquets
and 1949 and equipped with a 500cc engine to support Italys postwar re-

the Riders World Championship.

construction efforts. But by far the most badass beast in the Guzzi bestiary
is a 3 x 3 known as the Mountain Vehicle (or Autoveicolo da Montagna). It
was commissioned by General Ferruccio Garbari in 1959 to replace the mule
trains used by Italys alpine infantrymen. The 3 wheel drive Mulo Meccan-
ico was designed by Moto Guzzi engineer Giulio Carcano, the trikes front
wheel is shaft-driven and designed to accommodate snow chains. The rear
wheels, laterally adjustable to adapt to the varying width of roadways, can
be mounted with caterpillar tracks, allowing for astonishing climbing angles

1955 The 125 Super makes its debut.

1961 The rapid growth of the auto-

capable of reaching a top speed of

tition in the medium displacement

motive market and heavy compe-
of close to 100% (or 45 degrees). A differential built around a planetary gear

75 miles per hour thanks to its 16

151

horsepower engine, is unveiled.

1957 Derbis twin cylinder 350,
distributes the engines power asymmetrically, with 1/5th going to the front
and 4/5ths going to the back. The 750cc V90 four-stroke power plant can
pull over 570 kilos of cargo (about the weight of a grand piano or a grizzly
bear). After extensive testing on the Dolomites, several hundred were man-
ufactured between 1960 and 1963. Despite their remarkable climbing and
pulling prowess, the Mountain Vehicles intimidated more than they per-
suaded the Italian military authorities. When operated with excessive zeal
and unlike their quadruped rivals, they had a marked propensity to flip over

The technically advanced 250cc DER-

Martorelles, 15 miles from Barcelona.

two-stroke engine, the bike remains

BI (DERivats de BIcicletes) makes its
1950 Nacional Motor Rabasa S.A.

debut. Powered by a 9 horsepower

backwards, apparently costing the lives of several soldiers. But it was their

in production for over a decade.

is founded with headquarters in
mechanical complexity that proved their ultimate undoing. The nickname
Orgy of Gears (or Orgia di Ingranaggi) soon found its place alongside the
vehicles preferred nickname: the Mechanical Mule. [ JTS ]

a group of financiers found Bicicletes

1944 Rabasa, his brother Josep, and

the SRS: a 48cc moped capable of

a maximum speed of 28 miles per
bicycle shop in Mollet del Valls in

Rabasa, with which they produce

1922 Simeon Rabasa opens a
151 - The Mechanical
Mule, Garbaris

Derbi Timeline
prototype, 1959

Catalonia.
hour. The moped was equipped with
a telescopic front fork, two manual
gears, and drum brakes.
1953 In addition to the SRS and 250,
Derbi also produces an innovative
95cc two-stroke twin piston engine
with a single shared combustion
chamber.
motorcycle market lead Derbi to
concentrate its efforts on vehicles
with small displacement engines,
like the 49 Sport and Gran Sport.
Both are 49cc mopeds equipped
with three-gear transmissions, drum
brakes, pedal gear shifters, and
hydraulic suspensions.
displacement engine, the latter was
a light sport bike capable of top
speeds of over 62 miles per hour. It
remained in production until the end
of the next decade.
class riders title in the World Motor-
cycling Championship with ngel Ni-
eto (Spain). Thanks to Barry Smiths
third place at the end of the season,
it also wins its first constructors title
in the same category.

152 - Sport Uomo, 153 - A4X, 154 - Daniela Mini, 155 - Amico,
Aprilia, 1960 Aprilia, 1962 Aprilia, 1968 Aprilia, 1969

156 - Colibr, 157 - Scarabeo, 158 - Partner, 159 - MX125,

Aprilia, 1970 Aprilia, 1970 Aprilia, 1975 Aprilia, 1975

1970
160 - Colibr, Aprilia,
SNAPSHOTS Aprilia A1

1989 Manuel Herreros (Spain) wins

the 125cc class of the riders world

expands with the unveiling of the

Predator, designed by the Italian

1999 The decade ends with the

1998 The Derbi scooter range

stylist Giorgetto Giugiaro.

The history of objects is a history of transformations. One thing engen-
ders another is how the designer Bruno Munari sums it up in the title of
his celebrated 1981 book, Da cosa nasce cosa. Accordingly, we might think

championship.
of familiar, everyday objects as points of intersection where lines of devel-
opment crisscross in the process of becoming. Excavating the past of the
motorcycle qua object, we inevitably come upon the bicycle: at the dawn
of the post-World War II period, Aprilia, like Derbi and so many other motor-

secures the riders title and Derbi the

cycle World Championship: Martnez

third title in the 125 class, with Jorge

1987 A repeat of 1986 in the Motor-

constructors title in the 80cc class.

title in the 80cc class, as well as its

1988 Derbi doubles down: it earns
its third consecutive constructors
cycle makers, was born as a bicycle factory. Launched in the Veneto region,
where it is still headquartered today, Aprilia subsequently conquered the
world of speed with its racing division and fired the imagination of enthu-
siasts with its RS race-replica models. But the sense of an unbridgeable
gap between Aprilias origins as a bicycle maker and its destiny as an iconic
manufacturer of sport bikes shouldnt discourage the motorcycle archae-
ologist from speculating about missing links in the evolutionary chain. An
Ovidian sensibility is required to imagine one such missing link. And its a
key one: the Aprilia A1, the first moped ever made by the company from

80 CXS and Variant Caballero. Other

models from this period include the

World Championship, competing in

the newly established 80cc class, in
1980 Derbi debuts the new Diablo

1984 Derbi rejoins the Motorcycle

Sport Coppa 80, 125 Cross, 1001-74
Noale. Legend has it that, in 1962, three craftsmen were working with com-
ponents fabricated by outside suppliers in order to cobble together a pair
of mopeds that, at that time, were strictly intended for local use: this as the

Sport Coppa, and SC50.

production of bicycles in the Aprilia factory was flanked by the manufac-
ture of kitchen appliances and toys for immediate sale on Noales adjacent
piazza. Not a single photograph survives of the A1s design. So one is left to
summon up such a portrait in the mode of the first-century Roman poet,
with his prodigious gift for seeing invisible origins beneath visible forms,
continuities in the discontinuous. Perhaps, when gazing into the old and fa-

constructors title for Derbi: the first

1972 The 50cc Carreras racer enters

production: a sleek little red bullet
of a grand total of five in the 125cc
Angel Nieto also locks up another
1971 By winning the riders world
miliar form of the bicycle, those three craftsmen espied the ghostly appari-

championship in the 125cc class,

tion of a future space-frame moped: a vehicle so light, agile, and fast that,
by its very nature, it could leave few tangible traces of its passage through
the world. Instead, the A1 was destined to merely flicker before the eyes of
an observer, to rumble and vibrate in the imagination of subsequent gener-
ations of Aprilia devotees. [ CC ]

class.
that doesnt require a driving license,
vehicle with an automatic transmis-

and the Scootmatic, a small moped

1970 Derbi enters the enduro mar-

sion and the look of a touring bike,

ket with the Coyote, Correlaminos,

1969 The Derbimatic, a small city

make their debut on the market.

Derbi Timeline
and Cross 50 models. In the same
year Nieto secures a second riders
title in the 50cc class, finishing
second in the 125cc class. Derbi
secures its second constructors title
as a result.
selling for a mere 35,000 pesetas
(equivalent to around $600 1972
U.S. dollars). Nieto completes the
season as champion in both the 50cc
and 125cc classes of the Motorcy-
cle World Championship. For the
second year in a row, Derbi wins the
constructors championship in the
125cc class.
which it will soon obtain an impres- Martnez securing the riders title in launch of the Atlantis model. Derbi
sive string of successes. both classes. Derbis founder, Simen returns to the Motorcycle World
1986 Jorge Martnez (Spain) wins Rabasa, passes away. Championship with Youichi Ui
the world championship in the 80cc (Japan) in the saddle of its 125cc
class, helping to earn Derbi the class racer.
constructors title.

161

167
164

164 - Max Biaggi

166 - Jorge Lorenzo

167 - Loris Reggiani

169 - Marc Mrquez

165 - Loris Capirossi
162 - Valentino Rossi

168 - Manuel Poggiali

163 - Marco Simoncelli
161 - Alessandro Gramigni
162

165

168
163

169
166

engine
170 - Background
Aprilia 1000 V2 RSV
SNAPSHOTS Aprilia RS

the premire MotoGP class, wins the

rising star and future champion in
MotoGP thanks to Mike Di Meglio
2008 Derbi wins its penultimate

125cc class and helps to secure a

2010 Marc Marquez (Spain), a
world title in the 125cc class of
Stock examples have enabled many generations of students to cut their teeth
on the basic figures of rhetoric. Ask for an instance of metaphor and the usual
answer will be Achilles is a lion. Ask for a metonymy and you will get drink
a glass or read Homer (Shakespeare or Dante). Ride an Aprilia belongs

(France).
to the family of metonymies of the producer in the place of product variety,
abundantly documented in rhetorical manuals. But good luck explaining the
inner workings of the figure to an Italian sixteen-year-old whose only craving

single cylinder engine, it is also made

water-cooled 125cc twin, developed

displacement market segment: the
motorcycle in the medium-to-high

Mulhacn 659. Powered by a 659cc

is an A-license: his or her passport to the world of motorcycles. Their dream? To

available with a new four-stroke

entirely in Spain. The new on/off

2006 Derbi premieres its first
ride an Aprilia and, in particular, an Aprilia RS. The history of this young but leg-
171 endary model can be traced back to 1991, when the AF1 model gave way to the
RS Extrema: a replica of the Aprilia RS 125R Grand Prix race bike that propelled
Alessandro Gramigni to a world championship in 1992. The Extrema followed in
the tracks of the first of Aprilias remarkable lineage of race replicas: the AF1
125 Project 108 which had included race-derived features like a single-sided rear
suspension (1987 model year), double headlights and full racing livery (1988),
and the aluminum frame that later became the signature of Aprilia street bikes

plant. The GP1 is added to the stable

of Derbi scooters; it is equipped with
2004 The GPR product line expands

a motorcycle-type frame and with a

two-stroke (later 4-stroke) power
(naked) and Racing (faired) each
available with either a 50 or 125cc
to include four new models: Nude
(1989). 50cc and 125cc RS street bikes were quick to follow, mimicking the livery,
feel, sound, and smell of the race versions. High-horsepower variants like the
RS 125 full power narrowed the gap even further, closely followed by a detuned
172 15hp version (to keep the bike legal for sixteen-year-olds). But the decrease in
power did little to tarnish its aura or capacity to make its rider feel like a Max
Biaggi or Valentino Rossi, particularly given the RSs racetrack successes. The
history of Italian motorcycling was written, in large part, from the saddle of
an RS: from Max Biaggis 19941996 three-peat in the 250cc class to Valentino
Rossis 125cc championship in 1997, not to mention the many victories by Ros-

motorbikes: the Senda Black Edition

Design Associations award for the

production) and the GPR 50 Nude

best design in the small displace-

si, Capirossi, Melandri, and others in the 250cc class. In a scant twenty years,

2003 A turnaround year marked

(sold out even before it goes into

by the launch of two acclaimed

Look, winner of the Motorcycle

the RS racked up nineteen riders (ten in the 125cc class and nine in the 250cc
class) and nineteen constructors' world championships. This prompted the
commercial launch of a streetable RS250, an elusive thoroughbred that proved
173 the first member of the RS family to succumb to the whims of the marketplace:
it ceased production in 2003 just eight years after its launch and even as it was
becoming celebrated thanks to the prominence gained by the Aprilia Cup bike
mono-marque series. New EU regulations would soon push two-stroke engines
to the side, prompting Aprilia to apply the same racing-centered approach

2001 Derbi joins the Piaggio Group.

Two new models make their debut:
crosser confirm Derbis position as
adopted in the RS series to the development of its first large displacement, four-

Europes leading producer of 50cc

2000 Sales of the Senda moto-

motorcycles. Ui places second

171 - Aprilia RSV Mille, 1998
172 - Aprilia RSV4, 2009
in the 125cc class riders world
stroke motorcycle, the RSV Mille (which immediately established itself as the
performance benchmark for open class bikes). Nostalgic feelings for the two-
stroke era asideeven the RS replicas successor, the RS4 125, would be powered
by a four-stroke engineits easy enough to recognize in the RSV4 a full-bore

championship.
Derbi Timeline
173 - Aprilia RS250, 1995

piece of racing machinery that has been transformed into a street bike with
only minimal compromises. After all, Aprilias slogan is #BE A RACER. [ CC ]
the GP1 scooter and the race-in- ment category. range of 50-250cc engines. road Terra Adventure also features ninth constructors title for Derbi.
spired GPR 50cc motorcycle. Ui the latter engine.
once again earns second place in
the 125cc class of the riders world
championship.

174 - Aprilia SXV

175 - Background

the Aprilia SXV engine

View in transparency of
SNAPSHOTS Aprilia Supermotard

Genius is exceptional. It enchants and inspires awe. It also unsettles ordi-

nary mortals because of its transgression of established norms. So, like the
heroes of ancient epics, genius inspires ambivalence: it is admired for the
very same godlike qualities that make it a source of tension and unease.
Every component of the Aprilia SXV Supermotard speaks of a deliberate
pursuit of the exceptional. Supermotard bikes had always been single-
cylinder machines. Yet here was one equipped with a refined four-stroke
450cc twin wrapped in a frame made of the same ultralight aluminum-
steel alloy employed in its state-of-the art forks. The brilliance of Aprilias
design was confirmed by the Supermotards debut at the 2004 World Cham-
pionships, where Jerome Giraudo rode an SXV 450 prototype to the title. Two
years later, it was the turn of Thierry van den Bosch whose victory, com-
bined with a second-place finish by Giraudo, secured a constructors cham-
pionship for Aprilia. Van den Bosch, the first Supermotard champion (2002)
and its most prolific and award-winning racer, was promptly honored by
Aprilia with his own signature production line offered with two different
engine packages (450cc and 550cc). Technically a street bike (alongside
the less successful enduro RXV and MXV dirt bike), the SXV VDB Replica was
supplied with a complete racing kit. It was mounted with slicks and came
without headlights, a license plate bracket, or a side-stand. The absence
of everyday comforts and amenities contributed to an ever-narrower focus
on racing at the expense of street use. When production ceased, the SXVs
small but passionate cohort of admirers was left persuaded that its poten-
tial had never been fully appreciatedeven by its creators. Was this Aprilia
akin to one of those literary creations that escape and transcend authorial
intention? Perhaps so. But, after all, it is the tale of Achilles that has taught
us the lesson of a certain tragic incompatibility: the parable of a hero un-
able to combine glory and long life, unable to wed feats of greatness to the
routines of everyday life. [ CC ]

176 - Background
Aprilia SXV engine
177 - Aprilia SXV
178 - Logo for the 70th
anniversary of the
Vespa, 2016
 ROP
TH
 IES
LOG
PO
fi neve ,oS .etsat doog rieht rof denwoner era snailatI
gnihton tnaw yeht ,ylgu sti fi ,lacitcarp si gnihtemos
fo srotaerc eht hcihw no sisab eht stahT .ti htiw od ot
yldneirf a ,tcejbo lufituaeb a efil ot thguorb apseV eht
.ecnagele etammusnoc fo tnemurtsni na ,elcihev
)9491 ,inangaM oniG(
esnes evitcelloc ,tsav a ot esir nevig sah apseV ehT
eht thguorb sah ti ,pag laicos a gnisolc ;ssenippah fo
gninwo mohw rof elpoep ot ytilibomotua fo stfieneb
eht dekram sah tI .maerd elbissopmi na saw rac a
gninnuts ssel on htiw( daorba dna ylatI ni htob ,tnevda
)0591 ,idlauL renaM( .elims dezirotom eht fo ,)sseccus
179 - Vespa 98, 1946,
lateral view
ANTHROPOLOGIES

A product is never born whole, as if from the brow of Zeus. As soon as it

enters the world, a product ceases being a concept sketched out on a
drafting table, a model or prototype sitting in a machine shop or styling
studio, a mechanical device undergoing assembly in a factory, or a floor
sample found in a dealer showroom. It transmutes into a new creature:
a social and cultural actor that is the object of manifold interpretations,
uses, and meanings, both foreseen and unforeseen. Every product is pro-
duced and shaped anew through patterns of actual usage and adapta-
tion, patterns that sometimes drive its subsequent evolution.
The following anthropologies of the Vespa explore the generative
power of its design from two viewpoints: that of designers and engi-
neers and that of consumers, from the time of its debut to the present.
It surveys how an iconic vehicle like the Vespa was lived, experienced,
and animated in the course of its creation and circulation.
Hovering beneath the surface of the page are entomologies:
dissections of details, appendages, stylemes, specifications, technical
features, gestures of invention or deflection. Entomology is the science
of studying insects through recourse to methods that involve cutting
them up into sections. Here the insect placed under the scalpel is the
most celebrated of Piaggios hymenoptera.

htiw nrob era sapseV niatrec taht mialc strepxE

180 - Vespa 98, 1946,
view from above ylbmessa lanoitar a fo desopmoc elcycrotom a meht sedivorp taht tcnitsni laiceps a ,tfig euqinu a
htiw ,emarf a otni tliub stnenopmoc dna snagro fo fo tnevda eht fo snoitinomerp ylrae htiw ylno ton
lacinahcem lla gnirevoc gniriaf a dna srednef syadnuS etaitnereffid ot ytiliba eht osla tub gnirpS
)6491 ,tnetap lanigirO( stnemele )9491 ,inagreV oirO( .keew eht fo syad rehto eht morf
 and reassembly.
Exploded view

parts destined for gravity

Euphoric flotation of hanging

181 - Vespa 150,

exploded view of
driveshaft and clutch,
yldcatalog
spare parts uorp dna yltcnitsid sa si taht elcihev a dnfi oT hsivar ot llub a otni flesmih demrofsnart evoJ fI
ot kcab og ot evah duoy ,apseV eht sa nailatI .apseV a otni flesmih mrofsnart deh ,yadot :aporuE
)6691 ,tsilanruoj suomynonA( .toirahc namoR eht )9491 ,inagreV oirO(
 apseV a gnidir ;xes gnivah ekil si atterbmaL a gnidiR gnidael sapseV htiw ,sretoocs taht tbuod elttil serehT
).d.n ,suomynonA( .evol gnikam ekil si )9491 ,inangaM oniG( .ytinamuh ezirotom lliw ,egrahc eht

182 - Vespa 150, 183 - Background

exploded view Vespa, mechanical
of gearbox and hub, parts
spare parts catalog
 Anthropos as rider
Heart power is better than
horse power. ( Henry Heinz )

184 185 186

187 188 189

ecaf sih dna em ta dekool eH ".mih dlot I nailatI mI"

retoocs sih evag eH elims gib a otni denedaorb
:detuohs dna ti ta regnfi sih detniop ,tap yldneirf a
)3102 ,ihccubaT oinotnA( "!apseV"

190 191 192

193 194 195 196

197 198 199 200

nehw ,eldi eht tes dna sroterubrac sti enut I nehW

deppots mI nehw ,sdnuos citsiretcarahc sti raeh I
gnorts fo egrus a leef llits I ,snoitseuq rewsna ot
evisneherpmoc fo dnuor a detelpmoc tsuj I .snoitome
,gniht y reve gniluahrevo mI :y regrus t raeh nepo
eb ot tiaw tnac dna ,st rap nrow eht lla gnicalper
tsael ta rof taebt raeh sti raeh ot ,elddas eht ni kcab
).d.n ,aittaM( .sraey 05 rehtona
201 202
selcihev eht fo ffo ylbixefl segnih rotom desolcne ehT
.esacknarc edis-hctulc eht fo snaem yb emarf
noissimsnart eht ot dehcatta si leehw raer ehT
.niart evird eht fo dne raf eht ta
)6791 ,3TE 521 arevamirP eht rof launaM srenwO(
203 204
 .og ot tnaw I erehw em sekat syawla retoocs ehT

shroud of the wasps cowling.

Though combustive, gracefully
Engine

concealed under the metallic

mI nosaer eht ro noitanitsed eht wonk ton yam I
a eb ot smees syawla ereht tub daor eht no
thgir eht ta ecalp thgir eht ta lavirra suoiretsym
.yaw eht gnola sdaor latnem ykcor eht etipsed emit
)6102 ,smailliW evetS(

rotom a no hsiw uoy reverehw og ot eerf era uoY

205 - Vespa 150,
ot section
1963, cross eerf eb
ot elpoep tnaw tnod srotatciD .retoocs
of the engine
tnod yeht ;ecidujerp emocrevo ot ,teem ot ,evom / emoh uoy ekat llI ,apseV ym no edir a ekaT
,nosrep ni sgniht etaroborroc ot elba eb ot meht tnaw .meop a uoy daer dna wodniw ruoy ot pu bmilc llI
)2591 ,kcebnietS nhoJ( .seil revocnu ot )6991 ,xPxM(
 ,seidal yb neddir sapseV ees ot nommoc sti yadoT
reven tuB .tuoba gnippiz gnuoy eht dna ,stseirp
tlik( namow gnuoy a dettops enoyna dah erofeb
)f racs telracs a dna ,t rihs etihw ,elprup dna yarg ni
206 - Vespa,
cross section nam gnuoy emosdnah a htiw apseV a gnivird
nat thgit niks a ni debrag ,dniheb detnuom saw apseV a fo elddas eht mohw rof esoht era eW
.tleb kcalb hgih reh ot gnignilc ,enidrabag .ssik laitini na ecneirepxe ot ecalp tseb sdlrow eht
)2591 ,inovoG odarroC( )0102 ,itnoC olraC(
A stage for living bigger; built for one,
two, or even three; sprung, padded,
sloped for the rider to straddle.
Saddle

207

sseldne ylgnimees a ta em edisgnola pu dellup yehT

seugaelloc evitaerC gnorts si edir ot erised ehT ni si enigne fo t ros tahw :deksa dna thgil der
209 - Evolution of
latn
the saddle em eht
from fi rednow I .evird dna noissap ebircsed fo tol a evah ot smeeS ?sruoy fo apseV elttil taht
1945 to 2016
yllaer si daor eht no eb ot gnignol lacisyhp dna elip a sti :elims daorb a htiw deilper I noisserpmoc
?eciohc fo em sbor taht enigne suoirepmi na :knarc a dna ,daeh rednilyc dlo na ,sraeg lacigolli fo
208
)6102 ,smailliW evetS( )6002 ,ateop( !!!!doirep
1945 1945 1946 1946 1947 1947 1948 1949

1950 1951 1951 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955

1955 1955 1956 1956 1956 1957 1957 1958

1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1962 1962 1963

1963 1963 1963 1963 1964 1965 1965 1965

1965 1965 1965 1965 1966 1966 1968 1968

1969 1969 1969 1972 1975 1976 1979 1981

neddir eb neve dluoc ti taht tcepsorp taht htiw desaelP

1983 1985 1994 1996 1998 2000 2003 2005
sebor ni desserd nem dna nemow yb thgirpu gnittis
dna dethgiled saw oiggaiP rotcoD ,)stseirp daer(
eht sa elibomotua dezis-lluf a ot si apseV ehT eb yllaer ti lliw :tsaeb eht dezitpab yltnetrevdani
gnikcit ylision ,kcolc rehtafdnarg a ot si hctawtsirw ?tsiaw ekil-psaw elttil taht htiw sredir owt yrrac ot elba
)9491 ,inagreV oirO( .moor gnivil yffuts a ni yawa )5491 ,oiggaiP ocirnE(
2006 2007 2009 2011 2011 2013 2014 2016
 The Vespas perfect ergonomics:

body shapes and their variable needs.

One body fits all

a remedy for the imperfections of human

210 211

212 213
210/213 -
Advertisement pics
for Indonesia, 1960s
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,lanoitidart raew llits ynam esuaceb elddasedis .dnuorg eht no detnalp ylmrfi stoob kcalb ni
)4102 ,rengaW ylloH( .siras htgnel-elkna )2102 ,idrangiB airaD(
 tndluoc dna kcuts saw I nehw snoisacco esoht nO
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kcab ti tup )3 ;egaggab lla evomer )2 ;edis sti no
;latem teehs emos fo pot no dnats retnec sti no
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tnuomer )6 ;egaggab eht daoler )5 ;ecafrus yawdaor
latem teehs eht tuo llup dna ,ti rewol ,retoocs eht
,sdroc eegnub eht dniheb ni ti edils )7 ;gnirts a htiw
)4002 ,illenitteB oigroiG( ffo ekat dna

.eno hcihw wenk I dna apseV a tnaw I did yoB

,wodniw erots eht ni gnidnats ,saw ti erehT
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posture (if not with moral rectitude).
Center stand
Endows the insect with an upright
215
hctam ot ]desived saw[ noitisop gnivird ehT
,riahcmra na ni detaes nam a fo scimonogre eht
tndluow gnivird deniatsus taht erusne ot sa os
).d.n ,aidepikiW( .gnirit evorp
217
216
syawla lliw dna egnahc reven lliw gniht eno
ehT .dniknam :srac fo ngised eht enimreted
detaerc tcejbo na si ,apseV eht ekil tsuj ,elibomotua
.mrof namuh eht dnuora tliub ,esu namuh rof
)2102 ,oraiguiG ottegroiG(
218
 sapseV eht fo eno dedne rewohs niar eht sa tsuJ

waiting to master the world.

Lounging
Along any curbside, after swarming
and scooting; the indolence of youth
hsalps ot elddup thgir eht tsuj dnfi ot deganam
)9491 ,telaC irneH( .tfituo wen dnarb ym

219 220

221 222 223

ees I nehW !em htiw gnidir fo diarfa eb ot deen oN

sti ni thgiarts tniop syawla I ,htap ym no elcatsbo na
.snoisilloc diova ot yaw tserus eht staht :noitcerid
dleihs gel eht elihw dna ,dnalt roP ni tol a sniar tI ym gnitarepo naht em rof reisae si apseV a gnivirD
ylkciuq saw ydob reppu ym ,y rd ydob rewol ym tpek loots tfos a no detaes ,ihcceN nosmirc
)8002 ,ekarD t reblA(.dekaos )2591 ,inovoG odarroC(
224 225
 detaes emit erom tneps sah izzuiL oettaM ni ,ti no detaeS .klawedis eht no apseV a serehT

Provides a sanctuary from the elements,

a barricade against dirt, debris, and water.
Legshield
.ksed loohcs sih ta naht apseV sih no goD nalyD gnidaer reganeet a sereht swodahs eht
hguorht ni kcaB thgiR semoC eH ,loohcS morf dellepxE( )8002 ,illeucaI ordnasselA( .dlo sraey neetffi tuobA .scimoc
)0102 ,wodniW eht

226 227

229

228
 gnidloh fi sa srabeldnah sapseV eht depsarg I devolg-ecal reh ,elddas eht ni ydaerla nnA dnuof eH

a Vespa headlamp or horn.

Necktie
The brace of every legshield and case for
every steering column; never far from
ylmrfi ttub ym htiw ,ffo gniyfl fo diarfa ,flesym otno ylsuov ren dna srabeldnah eht gnippirg ylmrfi sdnah
sdrawkcab tsurht saw daeh yM .elddas eht no detnalp ,klawedis eht no eohs der etaciled reh gnippat
esnes lufhtuoy taht fo stnemom gniviler fo sepoh htiw )2591 ,inovoG odarroC( .t raped ot ydaer
)7002 ,niloangS ocirnE( .modeerf fo

1945 1953 1958

1963 1965 1976

231 - Evolution
of the necktie ,kcol eht ni yek eht ecalp :gnireets eht gnikcolnU mm 511 a ,slortnoc lanretni htiw ,yolla thgil a ni tsaC
from 1945 to 2015
gnireets eht nruteR .gnillup elihw tfel eht ot ti nrut si erehT .retemohcat/retemodo na dna ,pmaldaeh
.noitisop lanigiro sti ot .)lanoitpo( neercsdniw a rof noisivorp
)6791 ,3TE 521 arevamirP eht rof launaM srenwO( )6791 ,3TE 521 arevamirP eht rof launaM srenwO(
1983 2005 2015
 Handlebar

235/236

in competition
The innocent haptics of scooter travel begin
here, at arm's length, the elbows slightly

The racer Giuseppe Cau

bent, opening up the riders waistline.

232

235
234

236
233
 slrig ytterp fo erneg elohw a eb ot smees erehT
dlrow fo t ros tahW ?sret ratskcik tuohtiw dlrow A sretoocs gnitratskcik sleeh hgih dna striks trohs ni
)6002 ,teop( ?eb taht dluow )8002 ,kaertS revliS( .ereht tuo soediv hsitef
 238 - Vespa in Tahiti,

foot and the engines horsepower;

the creature abuzz.

Kickstarter
Threshold between the force of the

a suite of downward thrusts sets

early 1960s

239 - Background
Detail of the Vespa 98
pedal crank, 1946

240 - Evolution
of the "flanks"
from 1945 to 2016
1945 1945 1946 1946 1947 1947 1948 1949

1950 1951 1951 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955

1955 1955 1956 1956 1956 1957 1957 1958

1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1962 1962 1963

1963 1963 1963 1963 1964 1965 1965 1965

1965 1965 1965 1965 1966 1966 1968 1968

1969 1969 1969 1972 1975 1976 1979 1981

,troffe lacisyhp seriuqer ecitcarp uoy trops ehT

namuh eht fo elohw eht gnivlovni troffe suoinomrah a
1983 1985 1994 1996 1998 2000 2003 2005
ni tnerappa yllaicepse semoceb ygrene esohw ,ydob
,apseV a no edisaes eht ot tnew ohw esoht era eW ecnetsixe denilpicsid dna deniatsus a fo esruoc eht
taes eht no rehtorb elttil ym dna ,mom ,dad htiw eb noos lliw taht ezirp a ton reuqnoc ot kees uoY
!dleihsdniw a ekil tnorf pu gnidnats em dna elbitcurtsedni na tub renniw txen eht ot gnola dessap
)0102 ,itnoC olraC( )9491 ,IIX suiP( .nworc
2006 2007 2009 2011 2011 2013 2014 2016
 sgnileef euqinu esoht fo eno si apseV a tratskcik oT

for movie star acrobatics.

Workout bench
Rock solid, 70 x 30 inch gymnasium
and stage, ideally suited
ecno tsael ta ecneirepxe dluohs enoyreve taht
)6002 ,ulava( .seveiht fo noitpecxe eht htiw ,si taht

241 242

241/243,246 - Giuseppe
Cau and the Piaggio
acrobatic team

244/245 - Celebrities on
the Piaggio calendar:
Romina Power (1967)
and Stefania Sandrelli
(1964)
reven tsum apseV a :kcik dnoces eht fo wal ehT
,niar eht ni tuo tfel gnieb ot desu tnsaw apseV ehT tneve elbaknihtnu siht fI .kcik tsrfi eht no pu trats
247 - Background
owtacrobatic
The Piaggio ylno retfadetrats dna ynop doog a saw ti tub ni raet a stciderp sthgiT .J.H .forP ,rucco ot erew
team in action
,lausu sti otni ecno ta gnilttes ,enigne eht fo sknarc somsoc eht fo cirbaf laropmet-oitaps eht
)8002 ,gniK nehpetS( .rrup derutan-doog ).d.s ,aidepolcicnoN(
243
 gninrevog snoitaluger on erew ereht ,yltnecer litnU
ylno ehT .sretoocs no sronim fo t ropsnart eht
ylreporp detaes eb dlihc a taht saw tnemeriuqer
.draobroofl eht no detnalp teef sti evah dna
)6102 ,anoreV fo eciloP lapicinuM(

244

245

246
interrupted by the labors of rear braking.
Floorboard
A generous space of repose for the lower
limbs of Vitruvian man; sometimes

248 249 250

hpargotohp a werd eh ,tnemelzzup reh was eh nehW

deraeppa aiggomacS hcihw ni tekcop sih morf
248 - Vespa 98
kcab125,
249 - Vespa em lowoheadlamp
c ot erew ht ym tneicna fo shpmyN eht fI ,sllarevo fo tes thgirb a ni tsubor dna hsigguht
250 - Vespa 50, long saddle
h s erf
251 - Vespa GTS f o sknab eht nrups dluow yeht ,yadot efil ot ,denialpxe eh ",retoocs a si sihT" .apseV a gnilddarts
252 - Vespa Primavera
.apseV a no edir a rof sm251
aerts niatnuom ".dnuora gnitteg fo snaem ralupop ts253
252
om s'dlrow eht"
253 - Vespa 946 Emporio Armani
)9491 ,inagreV oirO( )8491 ,ihcserauG oninnavoiG(
 Fitting a home into a glove compartment:

additional racks to the bodywork.

Storage

an invitation to inventiveness and to attaching

254 255

256 257 258

edir ylerem naht erom hcum enod syawla evah sdoM

sknab edulcni sretoocs defiidoM .sapseV y ranidro
,seirossecca ,stocsam ,emorhc dna sthgil gnirettilg fo
259 - Giorgio Bettinelli
during the Rome- s0691 eht gniruD .srab hsarc dna ,skcar ,segdab
Saigon rally (1992-
1993) gninihs :rebmemer ot elcatceps a erew seillar apseV
etalucammi ni seorehrepus sseltops yb neddir sdeets
)5102 ,enotsdloG etaK( .detcelloc dna looc ,gnihtolc
259
gnihton si ossaB oraF a no ecneirepxe gnidir ehT
tcurtsbo ot thgildaeh on htiW gnimrahc fo trohs
eht revo gniyfl era uoy ekil tib a leef seod ti ,weiv ruoy
rehtona ot detcennoc leef uoy ,gnidir nehW .camrat
efil nehw ,are tnereffid a ni tliub erew eseht emit
)5102 ,suomynonA( .ecap rewols a ta devom
260
 lartneC eht hcaer ot setunim net ylerab em sekat tI fo tsaeht ron eht ot sretemolik derdnuh owt

of the handlebar; always on the move.

atop the wheel; later, elevated to the prow
Headlight
The eye of Cyclops; initially low, riding
niart a yub ,taes eht rednu temleh ym pop I noitatS dlefi a ni gnidlofnu ynomerec a yb yfl I ,nabruD
.nwod tis dna ,nogaw tsrfi eht otni pu pets ,tekcit a llup ot em stpmorp taht daor eht fo edis eht yb
)0102 ,assamiR ordnasselA( ,dnats retnec sti no apseV eht worht ,nrut-U kciuq
egarots eht morf aremac ym tcartxe ylideeps dna
)5002 ,illenitteB oigroiG( tnemt rapmoc

261 262 263

264 265 266

261/266 - Evolution 267 - Vespa GTV 250

of the first Vespa 98
models (1946-1948)

268 - Background 269 - Evolution

5298
Vespa 1 awiring
pseV
eht no ofyuthe
g headlight
ehT dias ohw seno eht era eW
diagram from 1945 to 2016
ni detnuom reyalp ettessac-oidar a htiw arevamirP kcab teg dna mom ruoy rof seirecorg pu kcip nac uoY
!mih deirram I os !looc os si tnemt rapmoc evolg eht .ekibt rops a no taht gniod yrT .edis doog reh no
267
)0102 ,itnoC olraC( )2102 ,gaM xelpmoC(
1945 1945 1946 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950

1951 1951 1951 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955

1955 1955 1956 1956 1956 1957 1957 1958

1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1962 1962 1963

1963 1963 1963 1963 1964 1965 1965 1965

1965 1965 1965 1965 1966 1966 1968 1968

1969 1969 1969 1972 1975 1976 1979 1981

1983 1985 1994 1996 1998 2000 2003 2005

ruoy steg tlahpsa eht no rebbur fo dnuos ehT
eht ni kool uoY .spots gnikniht ;noitnetta etaidemmi .liava on ot tub ,erehwyreve segassem mih evael I
kool ot flesruoy ecrof dna rorrim weiv raer sapseV rorrim weiv raer eht no tsud eht ni uoy evol I etorw I
tnorf ni rac eht dna gnitagliat st rats navinim a nehw tuohtiw yawa ti depiw ylbaborp eH .apseV sih fo
)1102 ,lrigcitsale( .sekarb eht no smaj )9002 ,anna(.gniciton
2006 2007 2009 2011 2011 2013 2014 2016
 for perils and opportunities.
Rearview mirrors
The wasps prickly antennae, scanning
the world the rider is leaving behind

270 - Nicole Kidman

in The Interpreter
by S. Pollack, 2005

271 - Cover of the

Rivista Piaggio, apseV tsetal eht ro enihcam cissalc a rehtehW
n. 6, 1949
fo elgna eht ,ydob eht fo ev ruc eht ,omsirutnarG
era thgildaeh eht fo epahs eht ,srorrim gniw eht
)4002 ,yerhpmuP alegnA( ...apseV ylbatimini syawla
 eht tub ,revo ti yal tsuj dluoc I elcycrotom a nO .buh eht morf stun gul eht ffo ekat ,lavomer leehw roF
tnereffid a deriuqer retoocs eht no sleehw rellams stun eht nethgit yllaudarg ,meht gnitnuomer nehW
.gniiks fo sdnik niat rec ot ralimis ,lortnoc fo dnik .nrettap lanogaid a ni
)8002 ,ekarD t reblA( )6791 ,3TE 521 arevamirP eht rof launaM srenwO(

eht fo kcab eht tsniaga pu delttes ylerab dah eH

ecnahc ynA" .yawa deps apseV eht nehw leehw eraps ,leets ni depmats smir 01.2 htiw ,elbaegnahcretnI
"?dedaeh er'ew erehw em llet nac uoy .serit 01 X 00.3 detnuom era hcihw no
)2591 ,inovoG odarroC( )6791 ,3TE 521 arevamirP eht rof launaM srenwO(
 steel or cast in aluminum alloy.
Wheel
Small enough to be nimble, large
enough to be stable at speed; spun in
273

272 274

275 276 277

272/278 - Images from 279 - Background

Vespa instruction Pirelli white strip tire
manuals in use on the Vespa 98

.raeppa yeht naht resolc era rorrim eht ni stcejbO

280 - Evolution
y refront
of the ve twheel
aht
esarhp siht etirw ot detnaw evI skeew roF rorrim weiv raer sapseV eht ot deulg era seye yM
from 1945 to 2016
ym fo rorrim weiv raer eht ni em steerg gninrom lliw nam ym hcihw fo tuo rood nori eht hcihw ni
eht fo esruoc eht gnirud flesym ot ti taeper I .apseV ees I .snepo rood ehT .demarf ylesicerp si gnitixe eb
)8002 ,ailutep anele( .yad )4002 ,oihcroM onurB( .mih stI .mih
278
1945 1945 1946 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950

1951 1951 1951 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955

1955 1955 1956 1956 1956 1957 1957 1958

1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1962 1962 1963

1963 1963 1963 1963 1964 1965 1965 1965

1965 1965 1965 1965 1966 1966 1968 1968

1969 1969 1969 1972 1975 1976 1979 1981

detniap otno dekac dum dna t rid pu nesool oT

1983 1985 1994 1996 1998 2000 2003 2005
yeht ecnO .ecruos retaw erusserp-wol a esu ,secaf rus yarg a si apseV eht ,flesti fo dna ni deredisnoC
eb dluohs emirg dna dum eht ,pu kaerb ot nugeb evah .elbarised ylhgih dna ,depahs yltnagele ,ecived
detarutas ,egnops ydob otua laiceps a htiw devomer y ranidroartxe na si ti taht tsisni sruessionnoc eurT
raelc htiw yldetaeper esniR .oopmahs dna retaw htiw lev ram lacinahcem-inim a :tnemeveihca lacinhcet
)6791 ,3TE 521 arevamirP eht rof launaM srenwO( .retaw )9491 ,telaC irneH( .t rohs ni ,eceipretsam a
2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2011 2014 2016
 effervescence and adventure.
Skin
A matter of rider predilection
and self-fashioning, but within
a universe of colors that connote
1978 1966 1966 1973 1967 1977

325 723 850 908 302 375

verde ming grigio azzurro rosso giallo karakiri verde mela verde

1978 1968 1974 1965 1965 1977

328 802 870 909 305 380

verde rosso rosso tenerife avorio acqua marina verde

1978 1973 1974 1964 1970 1970

440 806 875 910 306 385

azzurro chiaro rosso corsa rosso katmandu giallo verde azzurro chiaro

1978 1977 1975 1978 1973 1969

765 808 880 916 307 394

grigio azzurro rosso corsa rosso corallo giallo arancio verde ascot verde

1978 1970 1977 1974 1969 1969

825 811 895 919 315 399

rosa rosso corallo rosso arancio verde paraggi verde

1978 1974 1963 1972 1968 1966

830 835 902 921 333 400

salmone amaranto giallo positano rosso canyon verde azzurro chiaro

1978 1967 1974 1970 1970 1973

900 840 905 933 340 402

rosso grigio celeste avorio giallo cromo pastello verde amazzone azzurro cina

1978 1977 1977 1976 1977 1974

281 - Vespa chromatic 282 - Background
chart Vespa chromatic chart
911 847 907 935 365 450
giallo rosso arancio giallo texas verde blu

283/284 - Examples 285 - Vespa used

of Vespa customization by Giorgio Bettinelli
for his famous rallies
 won dna ,cissalc ngised a flesti ni si ogol apseV ehT
gnilbane seirossecca dna gnihtolc no dnuof eb nac
)6002 ,giaH ttaM( .dnegel apseV eht otni yub ot enoy reve
283 284
285
eht ekil smees ti :tnof apseV eht rof gnikool mI
ohw elpoep ,ti tuoba klat fo stol ,em ot liarG yloH
)4002 ,nOd( ti nees evah
ot denoissimmoc saw izzanurB innavoiG 3991 nI
s ynapmoc eht fo noitcnuf a sa ogol eht ngiseder
sti pu gninethgil no dekrow eH ytitnedi dewener
eerged rehgih a erusni ot redro ni gnimarf dna ssam
.elacs llams a no neve ytilibigel fo
).d.n ,sdnarB nailatI fo muesuM(
oiggaiP eman lagel eht morf devired stnanosnoc ehT
eno ylluferac meht gninibmoc yB .g dna p eht era
ehtapseV-epA eht fo ytitnedi dezilyts eht serutpac
deeps sekove ti :tneiliser ,nredom ,cimanyd si egami
)7691 ,avliS ed oilimE( .mutnemom dna
 name in its flowing mid-century cursive;
the other a heraldic pairing of Piaggio blues;
the united Piaggio fonts.
Logo
A badge of tribal identity in two flavors
comingled on the legshield: one the Vespa

286 287
286 - Vespa 98 287 - Vespa GTS 70

288 - The Piaggio

logo on the Vespa 98
legshield produced
in 1948 ytic retnec maor / ,s06 eht morf / ,sapseV pu detraT
sworra fo / ecnad eht / der emafl / ,06 ylraen gniog
)9991 ,popanuL( .snigeb dehcatta etalp esnecil a htiw
AD OCCHI CHIUSI / ALCE / APE / AP / APE BES
/ BISILURO TARF / BITUBO / BREVA / CALENDA
CAROSELLO / CARROMOTORE EDILE / CENTOPO
SI PU) / DERBI / DOUGLAS-VESPA / EMMINA
FELLINI / FRENATA INTEGRALE / FURGONCINO (

IO
/ GIUBILEO / GRISO / GUZZINO / GUZZNE / HAN

T
LIGURE / LAMBRETA / LAPA / LAVERDA / LOD
MONTLHRY / MOSCA BIANCA / MOVIBILIT / M

C
/ OPRA / OTTO BULLONI / PA PA PA PA PA PA
/ PIANALE / PIANETI / PIGLIALO, PIGLIALO, V
QUATTRO BULLONI / REGOLARIT / RIBALTABIL
SCOOTER / SEVENTY YEARS YOUNG / TIPO 107 /
VESPA LASTENROLLER / VESPARE / VESPINA / V
 Y
STELLSCOOTER / APRILIA / AQUILA / BIMODALE

R
RS / CALESSINO / CALIFORNIA / CARDELLINO /

A
RTE / CHALET BIRRERIA ERHARDT / CON VESPA

N
/ ERCOLE / ERCOLINO / EUROVESPA / FEDERICO
MINIVAN) / GALLETTO / GIARDINETTA / GIGANTE

O
NGAR SPERIMENTALE DELLA PIAGGIO DI FINALE
OLA / MAS / MELE / MOD / MONOFORCELLA /
P3 / NETTUNO / NIBBIO / (NON UN) PROBLEMA
/ PAPERINO - MP5 / PENTAR / PIAGGISTA
A AL CANCELLONE / PIUMA / PRIMAVERA /
E / RONDINE / ROSE / SARDOMOBILI / SCIAME /
U / VESPA / VESPA 400 / VESPA COMMERCIAL /
ESPISTA / VESPONE / X-SCOOTERING / ZIGOLO

Ad occhi chiusi (With closed eyes)
289
= 1949 advertising poster by the graphic
artist Gino Boccasile (19011952) show-
ing a buxom, blindfolded female rider
and her eager male companion riding
on the back of a Gilera 125. The poster
emphasizes the ease and effortlessness
of driving a light motorcycle. File under
Dont try this at home, kids! [ JTS ] in the process so as not to sound chim-
Alce (Moose)
290
= in the bountiful bestiary of Moto Guzzi
models, this robust 500cc air-cooled
land mammal, known as the moose,
was developed in 1939 and became a
significant weapon in the Italian armys
arsenal. In continuous production until
1945, it was followed by the V (Veloce)
and SA (Superalce) models. A trike ver-
sion, the Trialce, was also made during
World War II. [ JTS ]
Ape (Bee)
291
= two years after the Vespas 1946 de-
but, Corradino dAscanio lopped off
a Vespa front end and grafted a two-
wheeled independent chassis onto its
midriff. The Ape was born: born not
as a queen bee but in the guise of an
infinitely flexible worker bee designed
for shopkeepers and farmers. Vespas
swarm, Apes build hives. (A note to En-
glish speakers: theres no monkey busi-
ness here; the correct pronunciation
is h-pey.) [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Ap
292
= already present on the Indian market
as an import, the Ape is reincarnat-
ed on the Indian subcontinent in 1999
thanks to the establishment of Piaggio
Vehicles Private Limited (PVPL) and its
manufacturing unit in Baramati, Maha-
rashtra. The Ape gains an acute accent
the early post-World War I era just
panzee-like. New avatars of the worker
bee arise: the Ap Truk, Ap Truck Plus,
and Ap City Pax. See also Vespa Com-
mercial. [ JTS ]
Ape Bestellscooter
(Ape transport scooter)
293
= what do you call a worker bee in a
market where the word ape refuses
to deliver? The word Ape is devoid of
meaning in German, so it had to be
accompanied by a descriptive term like
Bestellscooter, literally a scooter for
orders. See also Vespa Lastenroller and
Vespa Commercial. [ JTS ]
Aprilia
294
= the name Aprilia has been selected
dipping not into a Latin dictionary
but into the history of the mid-1930s
when Latinizing names such as Litto-
ria, Pontinia, and Aprilia were coined
to designate the fascist regimes new
towns and inspired, in turn, vehicle
model names like the Lancia Aprilia. In
the 1970s Aprilia was transformed into
a powerhouse producer of everything
from scooters to superbikes. [ JTS ]
Aquila (Eagle)
295
= founded in Mandello del Lario in 1921,
the Societ Anonima Moto Guzzi built
its identity around the notion of soar-
ing on two wheels, choosing as its logo
the eagle, the symbol of the Italian Air
Force, and attaching bird names to its
models. Pilots were flyers and bikers in
like Giovanni Ravelli, who would have
been the companys fourth founding
partner had he not died in a wartime
test flight. [ JTS ]
Bimodale (Bimodal)
296
= a switch-hitting Vespa prototype
that pioneered the notion of a hybrid
propulsion system for a two-wheeled
light vehicle. First presented at the 1990
Cologne Moto Show, it combined a con-
ventional two-stroke engine with an
electrical motor. The formula was later
reprised on the 2006 Vespa 50 LX HyS
and 125 4-stroke X8 hybrid scooter pro-
totypes. [ JTS ]
Bisiluro Tarf (Tarf Twin Torpedo)
297
= a four-wheeled missile fired squarely
at the world speed record for a natu-
rally aspirated 500cc vehicle. Powered
by a Gilera power plant, designed and
piloted by the fearless Piero Taruffi, the
twin torpedo reached a top speed of
202 kilometers per hour (125 mph) at
the Montlhry speedway on October 14,
1954. See also Montlhry. [ JTS ]
 295

292

289

296

293

290

297

294

291
298 - Background
Ape B 150 metal flatbed,
1954

Bitubo (Twin tube)
299
= the nickname of the legendary 1934
Gilera 500 VT with its two tubes in
the form of twin exhaust ports. As it
turns out, two is not always twice as
good as one when it comes to market-
ing: the single port VT won out, remain-
ing in production between 1935 and
1941, and winning just about every race
in sight. See also quattro bulloni and
otto bulloni. [ JTS ]
Breva
300
= Moto Guzzi models are usually named
after birds of prey, however this line of
750s, 850s, 1100s, and 1200s draws its
inspiration instead from an afternoon
wind. Characteristic of the region where
the Guzzi factories are located, the
Brevas abilities to whip up the waters
of Lake Como are enshrined in Antonio
Fogazzaros 1895 novel The Little World
of the Past. [ JTS ]
Calendars
301
= the Pirelli calendar was a latecomer,
arriving twelve full years after the first
Piaggio calendar. Initially, the Piaggio
calendars featured drawings (by Franco
Mosca) of curvaceous maidens on the
move. Photographs took their place
starting in 1955 and, by the 1960s, ac-
tresses like Jayne Mansfield and Raquel
Welch were draped around the Vespas
curves. [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Calessino (Mini-gig)
302
= among the many metamorphic vari-
ations on the Ape, one of the most
beloved is the Calessino. The name is
the diminutive of calesse or gig: a ref-
erence to the light, two-wheeled sprung
carts pulled by a lone horse in which
the well-to-do went cruising during the
coaching era. Born in 1948 and inspired
by the American woodies of the prior
decade, the Calessino substitutes the
Apes cargo flatbed with a bench for
two passengers and a folding canopy,
making it the perfect vehicle for seaside
resorts and warm climates, not to men-
tion an ideal motorized rickshaw, taxi,
or tuk-tuk. Though production ceased
in the late 1970s, the Calessino was is-
sued anew in 2007; the Calessino 200
went into production in 2013. [ JTS ]
California
303
= a mythical place on the North Amer-
ican west coast where all motorcycles
mutate into cruiser bikes. Case in point:
the air-cooled V7 Guzzi developed in
1971 for the Los Angeles Police Depart-
ment that was later adopted by the
California Highway Patrol. The Califor-
nia model has remained in nearly con-
tinuous production through the present
day with power plants almost doubling
in heft from the original 750cc to the
current 1400cc lateral v-twin. [ JTS ]
Cardellino (Goldfinch)
304
= after many years of reliable service,
how might one possibly improve upon
the Guzzi Motoleggera 65? Perhaps
by adding a passenger seat, compass
shock absorbers, a parallelogram fork,
and a redesigned gas tank? How about
an actual pair of wings? Transformed
into the Cardellino in 1954, this little
Guzzi would later graduate to 73cc
(1957) and 83cc (1963) power plants.
With final production topping out at
87,158, the Cardellino made a signifi-
cant contribution to the overall size
of the Mandello del Lario flock. [ CC ]
Carosello (Carousel)
305
= during the 1960s, Piaggio was a fre-
quent advertiser on this enormously
popular Italian television advertising
show, broadcast between 1957 and
1977 on Italian public television. In its
ads, the Vespa is the vector of color-
ful, classless, carefree fun: a vehicle of
youthful escape from the gray world of
work-bound commuter-elders packed
into trains like sardines. See also con
Vespa si pu, mele, sardomobili, and
Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa [ JTS ]
Carromotore edile (Three-wheeled
construction microtruck)
306
= the construction industry provided a
major clientele for Moto Guzzis early
microtrucks, and during the period of
post-World War II reconstruction the
sector assumed ever greater impor-
tance. The result was a purpose-built
heavy-duty hauler propelled by a single
cylinder, two-valve engine but made in
19461947 alone. [ JTS ]
 304

299 302

300 303

305

306

301

307 - Background
Models on the Vespa
calendar, 1956

Centoporte (One hundred doors)
308
= among Piaggios production lines
during the second half of the 1920s, a
period of rapid growth in Italys railways,
were hundred doorcentiport rather
than centipedewagons that allowed
passengers to directly enter and exit
their cabin, instead of rubbing elbows
and shoulders with other passengers
down the wagons corridors. [ JTS ]
Chalet Birreria Erhardt
(Erhardt beer chalet)
= Piaggio was born as an outfitter
of passenger ships and had a timber
business at its core. So when the 1892
Esposizione Italo-Americana was held in
Genoa to mark the 400th anniversary
of Columbuss journey, the Piaggio
company qua ship outfitter was there
in the guise of a Swiss chalet. Located
on the western edge of the fairgrounds,
the chalet contained displays of door
locks, wood flooring, and bathroom
fixtures. But the highlight was Herr
Erhardts beer hall. [ JTS ]
Con Vespa si pu
(With a Vespa you can)
309
= you can flirt, travel, go to work, hang
out with your friends, picnic, cruise the
streets: these are but a few of the ac-
tivities enabled by the Vespa according
to an advertising campaign launched in
the mid-1960s in the midst of the new
freedoms promised by the countercul-
ture. See also mele and sardomobili. [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Derbi
310
= the name might appear to be based
on the English derby (as in Kentucky
Derby), which is used in Spanish to de-
scribe matches between soccer rivals
such as Real and Atletico Madrid. Not
so in the case of the noted brand of
small-engined motorcycles founded in
Barcelona by the Rabasa brothers in
1949 and acquired by Piaggio in 2001.
Simen and Josep Rabasa were bicycle
builders. When they made the transition
to motorcycles, they placed the accent
on bicycle-derived. Derbi is an acronym
for DERivats de BIcicletes. [ JTS ]
Douglas-Vespa
311
= otherwise known as the British Vespa.
Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy
after four decades of motorcycle pro-
duction, the Douglas company bought
the license to manufacture Vespas in the
United Kingdom in 1949. Its first products
reached the market in 1951, largely made
up of Douglas-fabricated parts. 126,230
units and sixteen years later, production
ceased (even though Mods were scooter-
ing about the seaside resort towns of
southern England in ever larger swarms).
Douglas remained Britains primary im-
porter of Vespas through 1982. [ JTS ]
Emmina (Little M)
= the baby sibling of the larger and
heavier M2, the M1 was Piaggios entry
into the bus on rails category: a modest
short-distance vehicle for twenty-nine to
thirty-five passengers manufactured out
of stainless steel. Not the fastest Italian
Streamliner (but speedy enough to get
from point A to point B along the regional
train lines of Italys south). [ JTS ]
Ercole (Hercules)
312
= Moto Guzzis foray into three-wheeled
microtrucks dates back to the 1920s,
continues through the war years with
military models such as the Trialce, and
resumes in the postwar period with this
Herculean 500cc utility trike equipped
with a five-speed transmission and
gated shifter. The labors of this son
of Zeus involved not the slaying of
Nemean lions, but rather heavy hauling
of up to a maximum load of 1,500
kilos (3,300 lbs). The Ercole remained
in production through 1980, spawning
the spritely Ercolino in 1956. See also
Tipo 107 and Ercolino. [ JTS ]
Ercolino (Baby Hercules)
313
= like its progenitor, this little mus-
cleman shouldered labors of every kind
but on a scale of 350 to 590 kilograms
(770 to 1,300 pounds). Made between
1956 and 1970, it was powered by a
192cc Galletto engine. See also Ercole
and Galletto. [ JTS ]
Eurovespa
314
= This annual gathering of the Vespist
tribe took place between 1954 and 2007,
migrating from city to city and featur-
ing events such as the fleet of Vespa
flying saucers mounted by Martian
riders that traversed the streets of Paris
in 1954. In 2007, Eurovespa metamor-
phosed into Vespa World Days. [ JTS ]
 310

308

312

313

309

315 - Background
Ercole and Ercolino
Moto Guzzi

311 314

Federico Fellini
316
= the Piaggio two-wheeled fleet is well
represented in the films of the director
Federico Fellini (19201993). Among the
cameo appearances, theres a Laverda
750S in Fellinis Roma (1972), a Gilera
Saturno sidecar in The Clowns (1970),
and a Guzzi Alce in City of Women
(1980). Of course, its the ubiquitous
Vespa that proves the true camera hog,
whether in the works of Fellinilike
when Anita Ekberg escapes a swarm of
paparazzi in La dolce vita (1960)or the
films of Hollywood peers like William
Wyler, the director of Roman Holiday
(1953). What was the paparazzos vehi-
cle of choice? A Vespa, of course. [ JTS ]
Frenata integrale (Integrated brakes)
317
= long before the advent of ABS, Gilera
experimented with interlinked front
and rear brakes in models such as the
Gran Sport 500 (19291931). The prin-
ciple came to fruition when, in the
1970s, Moto Guzzi secured the patents
for linkage systems that simplified the
coordination of front and rear braking.
According to this system, the pedal
ordinarily reserved for the rear brake
simultaneously actuated one of the two
front disk brakes: a fine idea for inex-
perienced riders on road bikes, prone
to braking miscues. But racers on sport
bikes were galled by the loss of preci-
sion stopping power (much as today
they resist ABS). [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Furgoncino (Minivan)
318
= dating back to the 1940s, this stan-
dard configuration of the Ape remains
in production. The original wood-
framed enclosure eventually gave way
to the metal-stamped successor found
on contemporary Piaggio worker bees,
from Italy to India. See also Giardinetta,
Pianale, and Ribaltabile. [ JTS ]
Galletto (Cockerel)
319
= a combination scooter and motorcy-
cle, the Galletto was hatched by Moto
Guzzi in 1950 as a comfortable utilitari-
an vehicle suitable for female as well
as male riders. The initial 150cc motor
soon grew to 160cc. The definitive 192cc
edition was introduced in 1954. An elec-
tric starter was added in 1961. In addi-
tion to its simple, highly reliable four-
stroke engine, the Cockerels defining
attribute was a spare wheel bolted to
the front end of the fairing. Two proto-
types of a Gallinella (or young hen)
variant were incubated but neither
quite managed to break out of its shell
to peck away at the burgeoning market
for light and inexpensive forms of mass
transportation. [ CC ]
Giardinetta (Station wagon)
320
= another standard configuration of the
early Ape, built along similar lines to the
Calessino, the station wagon model was
launched at the Milan Trade Fair in 1949.
It combined a woodie-style enclosure,
a convertible canopy, and a bench seat
for passengers in the back. See also
Calessino, Furgoncino, Pianale, and Rib-
altabile. [ JTS ]
Gigante (Giant)
321
= this muscular three-wheeled titan
towered above its Gilera brethren in
the 1930s and 1940s. While the latter
were quick and nimble two-wheeled
creations destined for racetracks, the
Gigante VT 500 and 600, like Guzzis
Ercole and Trialce, were built for heavy
hauling. They did battle in support of
Italys troops in a no less daunting arena:
the Mediterranean battlefronts of World
War II. See also Ercole and Alce. [ JVW ]
Giubileo (Jubilee)
322
= jubilee years are semicentennial years
during which sins are forgiven to those
who embark upon pilgrimages to the
Holy See. Founded in 1909, Gilera is the
oldest still-active Italian manufacturer
of motorcycles, and on its 50th anniver-
sary it atoned for any past sins by issu-
ing an anniversary bike: a 98cc, four-
stroke, four-speed thumper dubbed
the Jubilee. Gilera joined the Piaggio
group a decade later. [ JVW ]
Griso
323
= this Guzzi model draws its name from
the leader of the Bravi, the sixteenth-
and seventeenth-century mercenaries
hired to enforce a masters demands
for respect. Featured in Alessandro
Manzonis The Betrothed, perhaps the
most celebrated novel in Italian literary
tradition, the Grisoboth character and
bikeaugments [the masters]
actual and perceived power always
eager to take on even the most perilous
endeavors. [ JVW ]
 321

318

316

319

317

322

320

323

324 - Background
Sketches for the logo of
the Galletto Moto Guzzi

Guzzino (Little Guzzi)
325
= aware of the need for an entry-level
mass-market vehicle to complete his
product line, Carlo Guzzi began devel-
opment of the Colibr (Hummingbird):
a 38cc bicycle/motorcycle hybrid whose
eventual descendant became the Guzz-
ino (1946). In the process of shedding
its wings, the Guzzino shed its pedals
and the suffix ino in order to become
the full-fledged 65cc motorbike also
known as the Motoleggera 65. [ CC ]
Guzzne (Big Guzzi)
326
= a slang term used for the largest of
the Moto Guzzi cruiser bikes (like the
California) and, in particular, for the
highway patrolmen who ride them.
Model phrase: Be on the lookout for
the guzzone. Repeat three times. [ JTS ]
Hangar Sperimentale della Piaggio
di Finale Ligure (Piaggio Experimental
Hangar in Finale Ligure)
327
= a touchstone in the history of proto-
rationalist architecture, this pioneering
hangar was built for purposes of per-
fecting the shape of seaplanes but was
subsequently used for a variety of tasks.
It was designed by Giuseppe Momo,
whose entrance to the Vatican Muse-
ums is thought by some to have inspired
Frank Lloyd Wrights Guggenheim in New
York City. [ JVW ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Lambreta
328
= one of the words (along with moto-
neta, motinha, and scooter) that Bra-
zilians use to designate the Vespa, even
though derived from the Vespas great
rival, the Lambretta. [ JTS ]
Lapa
329
= a deformation of lApe, the phrase
la Lapa or Lapino (for baby Apes) or
Lapone (for jumbo ones) became per-
vasive in various Southern and Central
Italian dialects, always with affectionate
overtones. [ JTS ]
Laverda
330
= test word for determining the quali-
fications of every Italophile gearhead.
Say Lavrda with the accent on the e
and you flunk; say Lverda with the
accent on the first a and you join the
exclusive club of individuals knowledge-
able about one of the great brands of
the 1960s and 1970s, famous for race
bikes such as the 750 SFC. First acquired
by Aprilia in 2003, Laverda joined the
Piaggio family in 2004. [ JTS ]
Lodola (Skylark)
331
= divided between large birds of prey
(like the Falcone, or Falcon) and smaller
fowl like hummingbirds, the Guzzi avi-
ary was enriched in 1956 through the
addition of a mid-sized 175cc songbird.
The power plant grew to 235cc with
the launch of a Gran Turismo model
three years later, but the Lodola never
enjoyed the commercial success that
market research had predicted. With
only a few key modifications, howev-
er, it went on to achieve many wins in
enduro racing. For once, serendipity
trumped the Mandello factorys modest
intentions. [ CC ]
MAS
332
= the protean acronym for a category
of fast boats used by the Italian Royal
Navy in World War I and II, with Piaggio
as one key supplier among others. The
acronym MAS was variously decoded
as motoscafo armato silurante (tor-
pedo-armed motorboat), motobarca
armata SVAN (armed SVAN motorboat:
SVAN stood for the early manufacturer
Societ Veneziana Automobili Navali),
and mezzi dassalto (assault vehicles).
But the poet and leader of the Occu-
pation of Fiume (19191920), Gabriele
dAnnunzio, would also prove to be the
MASs decoder in chief. For him, the
name stood for memento audere semper
or remember always to be daring. [ JTS ]
 331

ewan mcgregor for

328

325 the myth is back.

332

329

326
new moto guzzi eldorado.
The iconic moTo Guzzi desiGn remasTered To ensure comforT,
performance and leadinG TechnoloGy. GeT ready To ride hisTory.
theclan.motoguzzi.com my bike, my pride.

330

327

333/336 - Background
Piaggio Plant,
Finale Ligure

Mele (Apples)
337
= according to the influential adver-
tising campaign devised by Gilberto
Filippetti for Vespa in 1969, apples were
available only to chi Vespa: the care-
free scooter-riding youths featured in
Piaggios ads. There was also the variant
pun mela comproIll buy myself one. may have been the Vespa, whose forks
Filippetti imagined the scooter (and
sometimes also the Ciao moped) as the
once forbidden fruit now available to all,
thanks to the transgressive spirit of the
late 1960s. See also sardomobili. [ JTS ]
Mod
338
= the label applied to the clans of
scooter-riding, working-class British
youth, who cultivated a fashionable,
unisex look consisting of tightly fitting
suits, pointy shoes, and slim trousers.
The Mods scooter of choice was not
the smaller Douglas-Vespa, but rather
the Vespa GS 160, imported from Italy,
preferably tricked out with implausibly
dense arrays of mirrors and lights. The
antonym of Mod is Rocker, and Rockers
ride motorcycles (not scooters). [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Monoforcella (Single-fork tube)
339
= Gileras spirit of innovation was alive
and well in 1991 when it introduced the
CX 125 model, equipped with single-sided
forks on the front and rear such that the
wheels appeared to float when viewed
from the bikes right side. The inspiration
marine outboards, and even bicycles
had been inspired, in turn, by the suspen-
sions employed in aviation landing gears.
Two one-sided attachment points means
two direct points of access for purposes
of wheel removal. [ JTS ]
Montlhry
340
= site of the Linas-Montlhry auto-
drome, host to the celebrated 24-hour
motorcycle endurance race, the Bol
dOr, from the late 1930s through 1970,
Montlhry was the stage on which
Vespa and Gilera set out to break nu-
merous speed records. Among them, a
fully faired Vespa prototype managed a
10-hour run at an average speed of 134
kilometers per hour (83 mph) in 1950
and the Gilera Tarf Twin Torpedo topped
200 kilometers per hour (124 mph) in
1954. See also Bisiluro Tarf. [ JTS ]
Mosca Bianca (White fly)
341
= Gileras entry into the world of insect-
inspired models, this twin-cylinder 125
was one fast member of the Diptera
family. First built in 1955, it served as
Gileras world-class racer in the fly-
weight category through the end of the
decade, buzzing to victory in the 1956
Solitude Grand Prix thanks to Romolo
Ferris record-breaking lap carried out
at an average of 139 kilometers per hour
(86 mph). [ JVW ]
Movibilit (Movability)
342
= a Piaggio core value since its founda-
tion, movability means a full-spectrum
approach to the problems associated
with human mobility that encompass-
es ships, aircraft, trains, cars, buses,
trains, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds,
(from Bianchi, once under Piaggio own-
ership, to the Piaggio Wi-Bike). [ JTS ]
MP3
343
= launched in 2006, MP3 has revolution-
ized the concept of the scooter thanks
to the exclusive technology of the two
independent tilting front wheels, an
innovative project that has redefined
the canons of safety, dynamic stability,
and driving pleasure. [ JTS ]
Nettuno (Neptune)
344
= this junior 250cc edition of Gileras
Saturno 500 was introduced in 1946,
with Turismo and Sport releases in 1947
and 1950, respectively. Though half the
size of the ringed planet 500, the Net-
tuno shared many key features. It was
replaced in 1954 by the B300 after a de-
cade-long production run. [ JVW ]
 339 342

337 340 343

341 344

338

345/348 - Background
Vespa Montlhry, 1950

Nibbio (Kite)
349
= as its name implies, the Nibbio was
an agile ultralightweight raptor: a 50cc
starter vehicle for the Guzzista of to-
morrow. Introduced in 1974 together
with the Cross 50, it replaced the Dingo
Super Sport and mimicked the plumage
of the 125 Turismo. [ JVW ]
Non un problema /
Its not a problem
350
= according to another mid-1960s ad-
vertising campaign, Doctor Piaggio has
a miracle cure for such banes of mod-
ern life as traffic jams, running late,
and the lack of parking spaces: the
Vespa. As a collateral benefit for taking
his or her medicine, the patient receives
a paradise for two, untrammeled
apple-eating, and the joys of shedding
ones shellall were period slogans. See
also mele and sardomobili. [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
OPRA
351
= during the mid-1920s, the Officine
di Precisione Romana Automobilistiche
(Precision Automotive Works of Rome)
was responsible for the development of
an engine that would become the fore-
runner of modern transversely mounted
inline fours. Designed by Carlo Gianini
and Piero Remor, the engine served as
the basis for the CNA Rondine, which
won both first and second place at the
Tripoli Grand Prix of 1935. Sold to Gil-
era, the Rondine evolved into the much
feared supercharged, water-cooled,
dual overhead cam Rondine 500. See
also Rondine. [ JVW ]
Otto bulloni (Eight bolts)
352
= trick question 1: how many bolts does
a legendary 500cc thumper require?
Hint: the answer is a multiple of two.
Gileras groundbreaking experiments
with overhead, rather than lateral, valve
designs for their motors in the 1930s led
to the production of a VT model using
four bolts to anchor the cylinder head
to the crankcase, followed by the more
advanced eight-bolt VTE model in 1939.
See also quattro bulloni. [ JVW ]
Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa
353
= the pa at the end of Vespa became
the leitmotif for one of Ferry Meyers
commercials, where the syllable evokes
not just the put-put sound of its two-
stroke engine, but also such phrases as
parte subito (it starts right up), pare
di volare (its like flying), paradiso do-
menicale (a Sunday paradise), parsimo-
niosa (its parsimonious with gas), and
padrona delle strade (the queen of the
road). See also Carosello. [ JTS ]
Paperino - MP5 (Donald Duck - MP5)
354
= Fiat had its highly successful Topolino
(Mickey Mouse). So, during the late years
of World War II, two Piaggio engineers
dreamed up the Piaggio response:
Donald Ducka 98cc scooter pro-
totype with handlebar controls, a full
fairing, and small wheels. In the opinion
of Enrico Piaggio, the duck still quacked
too much like a motorcycle. So the proj-
ect was handed over to Corradino dAs-
canio. After a number of mutations, the
Vespa was born. [ JTS ]
Pentar
355
= if three wheels are good, then five
are sublime (when it comes to cargo
hauling). Such was the reasoning that
informed the design of the Ape Pen-
tar: penta being the Greek word for
five and ro referring to wheels (ruote in
Italian). Capable of carrying up to 700
kilos (1,543 lbs), this new vehicle type
came about by attaching an articulat-
ed 2.5 meter, two-wheeled trailer onto
a reinforced version of the standard
Ape three-wheel platform. The package
was just as appealing to clients such as
Olivetti, Michelin, and La Rinascente,
as it was to farmers and even firefight-
ers operating in spatially constrained
settings. But regulatory worries led to
a production run that endured only
from 1960 to 1968. [ JTS ]
 351 354

349

352

353

350

355

356 - Background
MP5 Paperino

Piaggista (Piaggio-ist)
357
= this ism was coined to designate Piag-
gio employees and became the title of
its Journal of Workers and Staff, found-
ed on August 23, 1943, in the midst of
Italian fascisms demise and the Allied
capture of Sicily. Il Piaggista would go
on to become a key tool for union activ-
ists within the Piaggio fold. [ JTS ]
Pianale (Flatbed)
358
= another of the standard configu-
rations for the Ape, the flatbed was
originally built around a wood frame. It
continues to be made today in stamped
metal. See also Furgoncino, Giardinetta,
and Ribaltabile. [ JTS ]
Pianeti (Planets)
359
= whereas Piaggio borrows its model
names from flying insects and Moto
Guzzi invokes birds, Gilera is a plane-
tarium populated by planets and stars.
The Sirio (Sirius), Urano (Uranus), Mer-
curio (Mercury), Marte (Mars), Saturno
(Saturn), and Nettuno (Neptune) carry
Gilera from the 1930s through the 1950s.
Jupiter is, of course, missing here: a
lack made up for by Piaggio who man-
ufactured an aircraft engine bearing
that name. In the Gilera (or, for that
matter, Piaggio) cosmos, there appears
to be no room for Venus or Pluto. See
also Nettuno. [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Piglialo, piglialo, va al cancellone
(Pick that one, that one,
hes at the gate)
360
= like its counterpart Beccalo, va da
Piaggio (Take him, hes going to work
at Piaggio), this phrase was voiced by
mothers in Pontedera, anxious to ensure
a good matrimonial pairing for their
daughters. Pontedera was the site of
factories where aircraft engines, like the
Stella, were being turned out in ever in-
creasing numbers during the 1930s. A job
there was considered stable and well-
paid employment. See also rose. [ JTS ]
Piuma (Feather)
361
= this 500cc Saturno race bike was
made by Gilera from 1952 to 1961, pop-
ular among both racers and non-racers
due to its speed and maneuverability.
Its nimble handling was the result of a
hydraulic suspension, which lightened
the bike by 4 kilograms (8 lbs). The fully
feathered (faired) version could reach
a maximum speed of 210 kilometers per
hour (130 mph); the roadster naked bike
topped out at around 190 kilometers per
hour (118 mph). [ JVW ]
Primavera (Spring)
362
= Wake up Vespa enthusiasts; its
springtime! Such was the advertising
ditty that accompanied the launch
of the 125cc Primavera model in 1968.
Though the springtime in question
was meant to evoke far more anodyne
forms of awakening, the winds of re-
bellion were blowing: the Primavera
quickly became the student activists
Vespa of choice. A higher performance
ET3 model (with Ducati electronics) was
added to the mix in 1976 and remained
in production until 1993, a decade be-
yond the Primaveras original produc-
tion run. Thirty years later, springtime
returns: the Primavera went back on
the market. Vintage models are highly
prized among collectors, irrespective of
whether they harbor nostalgic feelings
toward May 1968 or the Disco Era. [ JVW ]
Quattro bulloni (Four bolts)
363
= trick question 2: when is four nearly
the equal of eight? Answer: when you
are talking about the first Gilera 500cc
thumper equipped with overhead, rath-
er than lateral, valves. The four-bolt
version bore the initials VT and was
first made in 1935. As in the case of its
younger sibling, the number refers to
the number of fasteners required to fix
the cylinder base to the crankcase. See
also otto bulloni. [ JVW ]
 362

357

360 363

358

361

359

364 - Background
Workers entering
the Pontedera plant,
early 1960s

Regolarit (Enduro)
365
= in the mid-1960s, Gilera established its
supremacy as a brand by wedding speed
with durability. Already celebrated in the
World War II era, the Gilera 175cc dirt
bike became a postwar legend thanks
to victories in international off-road
motorcycle and motocross competitions.
1967 and 1977 were the models golden
years, marked by four gold medals at the
International Six-Day Enduro in Poland
and by victories at San Pellegrino Terme,
where the 124cc and 175cc models se-
cured Italian titles. [ JVW ]
Ribaltabile (Tipper)
366
= the direct descendant of the 1948 Ape,
the Ape B was introduced in 1953 with
an array of options that included the
pianale ribaltabile (or tipping trailer).
The Tipper version could be considered
the regal drone of Piaggios worker
bees, the strongest of the swarm, as it
was the only Ape B to offer an all-iron
loading bed, strong enough to support
even the heaviest of loads. Today the
feature is still offered for TM models,
which are capable of achieving speeds
of up to 60 kilometers per hour with
loads of up to 200300 kilograms (440
to 660 pounds). See also Furgoncino,
Giardinetta, and Pianale. [ JVW ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Rondine (Swallow)
367
= the flight of swallows is smooth
and fast. Likewise, Gileras futuristic
4-cylinder 500cc Rondine was endowed
with a full aluminum fairing and a sta-
bilizing dorsal fin. First built in 1936, this
aircraft on two wheels set numerous
world speed records, including a 274
kilometer per hour (170 mph) flying
runa world record that endured for
nearly twenty yearsand helped Dorino
Serafini to secure the 1939 European
Championship on an unfaired version.
See also OPRA. [ JVW ]
Rose (Roses)
368
= during the period of Piaggios inter-
war growth as an aviation manufac-
turer, the local community deemed its
workers ideal candidates for marriage.
Hence the jingle: Le rose fioriscono a
maggio, se vuoi marito cercalo da Piag-
gio: May is when roses flower; if its a
husband you are looking for, you will
find him at Piaggio. See also piglialo,
piglialo [ JTS ]
Sardomobili (Sardomobiles)
369
= the neologism was featured in a
second advertising campaign, devised
by Filipetti in the early 1970s for both
Vespa and Ciao, in which trains and
automobiles were dubbed sardomobiles:
sardine cans packed with perpetually
stressed-out passengers. Unlike their
tin-enclosed commuter counterparts,
Vespists were instead portrayed as
free-spirited youth, nature lovers, sexy
adventurers, and peace-loving flower
children. See also mele and non un
problema. [ JTS ]
Sciame (Swarm)
370
= entomologists have long been fas-
cinated by the propensity of flying
insects, such as bees and wasps, to
swarm. But it was Renato Tassinari,
Piaggios Head of Communications,
who first understood the spectacle
value of a swarm of scooters. The first
Vespa swarm involved several thou-
sand riders and was staged in concom-
itance with the Milan Trade Fair. It gave
rise to many such subsequent rallies.
Just as in nature, the prevalence of
imitative behavior ensures that swarm
leads to swarm leads to swarm. [ JTS ]
Scooter
371
= before the Vespa became ubiquitous,
the vehicle type to which it belonged
remained difficult to classify. What
became the motor-scooter was also
referred to by names such as two-
wheeled car or motor-driven bicycle.
Even the Vespas 1946 patent docu-
ments describe it not as a scooter but
as a motorcycle with rationally distrib-
uted parts and elements. The English
verb to scoot was coined in the early
nineteenth century and referred to the
action of darting about quickly. Later
transferred to childrens push toys pro-
pelled by means of rapid and repeated
impulses, it soon extended to motorized
light vehicles like the Vespa 98. [ JTS ]
 367

370

365

368

366

371

372/375 - Background
369
Piero Taruffi, holder of
the world record for
speed on the Gilera
Rondine

Seventy Years Young
376
= over seventy years Vespa has joined
young people from distant cultures.
It has led revolutions in fashion, music,
and youth culture. It has accompanied
people in their growth. And today it is
one of the most widespread and well-
known Italian products at every lati-
tude, a cult object, and the symbol of
timeless elegance. [ JTS ]
Tipo 107
377
= the very first Guzzi three-wheel
micro-truck went on the market in 1928.
It was made available in two versions:
one with a flatbed in back, the other
with an enclosed cargo bay. In the 1930s
the S, ER, and U models would follow.
See also Ercole. [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
U Vespa 400
378
= the U in this Vespa 125 stood for utili-
taria (or utilarian). And utilitarian
it was: stripped down and spartan, de-
signed to achieve maximum durability
and economy. Introduced in 1953 to
meet the ever-increasing demand for
mobility, the model never achieved the
success Piaggio had anticipated. Only
a few thousand were placed on the
market, making old U models hard to
come by and an enormous success in
the world of Vespa collectors. [ JVW ]
Vespa (Wasp)
379
= its a bird, its a plane no, its a wasp.
The identification of dAscanios re-
working of the Paperino (and of various
predecessor scooters like the Cushman
and Velta) as a member of the Vespula
family of Hymenoptera is usually traced
to Enrico Piaggio who was said to have
taken one look at the MP6 prototype
and opined: It looks like a wasp.
Whether or not this act of naming took
place as such, the wasp identification
is supported by a variety of attributes:
the buzz of the scooters 98cc two-
stroke engine, the stinger-like tail sec-
tion, its hourglass body, and its propen-
sity for swarming behaviors. See also
sciame. [ JTS ]
380
= can wasps swarm on four wheels?
Only in one exceptional case: the sole
Piaggio-branded automobile (made at
the Ateliers de construction de moto-
cycles et dautomobiles in France)the
Vespa 400. Powered by a rear-mounted,
393cc two-stroke twin engine, this mini-
car competed with the Fiat 500, the
Citron 2CV, and the Renault 4. Relatively
successful between 1957 and 1961, 30,000
vehicles were sold. [ JTS ]
Vespa Commercial
381
= evoking as it does the world of sim-
ians, the English word ape is not the
most felicitous designation for a robust
three-wheeler. So the brand name em-
ployed when the Ape was launched in
the United Kingdom (and in a few other
markets as well) was Vespa Commer-
cial. See also Ap. [ JTS ]
Vespa Lastenroller
(Vespa freight carrier)
382
= another of the German names under
which the Ape was marketed. See also
Ape Bestellscooter. [ JTS ]
 378

380

379

376

381

377

383 - Background
Advertisement for the
Vespa 400, late 1950s 382

Vespare
(To Vespa)
384
= a family of verbs featured frequently
in the advertising campaigns for the
Piaggio scooters of the 1950s through
the 1970s. During that period, a million
reasons to Vespa could be found on the
pages of magazines and newspapers: to
work, to play, to travel, to hunt, to eat
apples, to change the world, to move
about freely, to seek adventure. The op-
posite of to Vespa would be to willingly
thrust oneself in a cage, to passively
acquiesce to convention, to renounce
the new freedoms and mobilities of the
scooters golden era. [ JTS ]
Vespina (Little Vespa)
385
= technically speaking, a Piaggio scoot
equipped with a small access panel to
its engine compartment, but also the
affectionate feminine appellation often
employed to describe 50cc Vespa mod-
els that required no license plate or
drivers license. Continuously in produc-
tion between 1963 and 1991, the latter
wasplet was the vehicle of reference
for the two-wheeled apprenticeship un-
dergone by several generations of Medi-
terranean youth. Also widespread is the
masculine variant Vespino. Compare
Vespone. [ JTS ]
PIAGGIO DICTIONARY
Vespista (Vespist)
386
= a Vespa rider or practitioner of Ves-
pa-ism. In the 1960s and 1970s, the
term connoted fun-loving, adventurous
youth who sought to take the world by
the horns (or by the handlebars) so as
to freely traverse the city or the coun-
tryside, rather than being caged in au-
tomobiles stuck in traffic like sardines
in a can on the shelf of a supermarket.
Today, Vespists are most often asso-
ciated with members of Vespa Clubs
around the world, who travel alone or
in swarms, but always with the same
spirit of fun and adventure. [ JVW ]
Vespone (Big Vespa)
387
= a Vespas bigness may well lie in the
eyes of the beholder but, strictly speak-
ing, it's a matter of whether or not
your wasp is endowed with a fully re-
movable engine tail section (instead
of the mini-access panel found on Little
Vespas). But there are honorary mem-
bers of the Big Wasp family as well,
like todays state-of-the-art GTS 300.
See also Vespina. [ JTS ]
X-scootering
388
= the Vespa may have been designed
to soar over modest distances at mod-
est speeds, but that never curbed the
feverish imagination of early scooter
adventurers like Pierre Dellire and Ren
Mourier. In 1953, the former rode from
Vietnam to Paris in a mere fifty-one
days; Mourier followed him three years
later, shaving a full week off the trip.
Their descendants have been many:
among them Marc Simonot and Bernard
Tcherniavsky, who in 1980 completed
the Paris-Dakar race on P200Es. But
perhaps the all-time champion extreme
scooterista is the journalist Giorgio
Bettinelli, the rider-writer of Brum brum.
254,000 Kilometers (157,828 miles) on
a Vespa (2004). [ JTS ]
Zigolo (Bunting)
389
= this nimble 98cc songbird with a
monotube frame and partially enclosed
chassis was designed by Moto Guzzi in
1953 to slot in between the Motoleggera
and the Galletto. Designed, like the
Guzzino, by Antonio Micucci, it was a
small but relatively high performance
model with numerous technical innova-
tions. From 1957 on, the powerplant was
upgraded to 110cc. The Zigolo is living
proof that sometimes little ones teach
the biggest lessons. [ CC ]
 IA
ITAL

Luglio 1992

Ma
Mar Nero UZBEKISTAN
BULGARIA

rC
GEORG
IA

as
Istambul

pio
Roma Brindisi
Ankara
Napoli Salonicco ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN TURKMENISTAN
TURCHIA Tabriz
TAJIKISTAN
Patrasso Rasht CINA
GRECIA
Teheran
SIRIA Peshawar Ravalpindi
TUNISIA Mar Mediterraneo Qom
LIBANO IRAN AFGHANISTAN
IRAQ Esfahan Amritsar
ISRAELE Ludhiana
Kerman Lahore
GIORDANIA Ambala
Quetta
KWAIT Shiraz
Zahedan
Delhi NEP
Go Jaipur
AL
LIBIA lfo PAKISTAN Agra Kanpur BUTAN
Per Ajmer Benares
EGITTO s ico
Gaya BANGLA
ARABIA QATAR Jhansi Allahbad DESH
Udaipur
SAUDITA EMIRATI
Dacca

ARABI UNITI Chittagong

Ma
Calcutta Hanoi
ALGERIA

rR
BIRMANIA

AN
oss
Sittwe LAOS

OM
INDIA

o
Chiang Vihn
384 SUDAN 388 Mai
CIAD Vientiane
Hue
Mare
YEMEN Da Nang
Arabico THAILANDIA
SOMALIA
Golfo Quang Ngai
Ayurthava
del Bengala
386 Bangkok
VIETNAM
CAMBOGIA
Phan Thit
Chumphon
Surat Saigon

Marzo 1993
Thani
SRI LANKA Phuket

George Town

MALESIA

BORNEO

SU
MA
TR
A
385 389

Ocano Indiano GIAVA

387
MA
LES

Medan
IA

Bukittinggi BORNEO
SU

Padang
MA

390 - Map of Giorgio

TRA

Bettinelli's trip

Teltikbetung
391- Background Djakarta

Advertisement photo GIAVA

Pekalongan
Surabaja

for the Vespa P125X, Bandung

Semarang Bali

early 1980s Padangbai

392 - Vespa parade on

the film set of Fellinis
La dolce vita, 1960
Edited by
Jeffrey T. Schnapp
Texts by
Jeffrey T. Schnapp [ JTS ]
with contributions by
Corrado Confalonieri [ CC ]
Julianne VanWagenen [ JVW ]
Federica Pedriali [ FP ]
First published in the United States of America in 2017 by
Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
300 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010
www.rizzoliusa.com
Originally Published in Italian in 2016
by Rizzoli Libri S.p.A.
2016 Rizzoli Libri S.p.A., Milan

Art direction No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

Daniele Ledda system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior
Graphic design consent of the publishers.
xycomm
Daniele Ledda The trademarks
with Alessandro Tonelli
Fabrizio Cantoni
Filippo Ferrari

Editorial coordination
Laura De Tomasi
word and logo, are registered trademarks owned by Piaggio & C. S.p.A.
Translations Any unauthorized use is in breach of trademark copyright and other
Corrado Confalonieri applicable laws.
Sylvia Adrian Notini (Preface)
2017 2018 2019 2020 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Iconographic consultant
Catia Zucchetti ISBN 978-0-8478-5921-4

Technical coordination Library Congress Control Number: 2016955748

Sergio Daniotti
Sara Saettone Printed in November 2016 by Graphicom, Italy

Front Cover: Vespa 98, 1946, detail. Back Cover: Vespa 946 Bellissima, 2014,
detail. Front end pages:Vespa test track, Pontedera plant, early 1960s;
Vespa 90cc advertisement, 1965
Credits

All images Piaggio Group Archives, except the following:

Archivio Rivista Motociclismo: n. 146

Archivio Toscani/Gestione Alinari: n. 370
Atene Edizioni, Arma di Taggia (IM): n. 111
Carit Andersens Forlag: n. 204
Foto di Gianni Moreschi - Archivio Moreschi - Sanremo: nn. 108, 109, 110
INDOROMAN: n. 223
Istituto Luce/Gestione Archivi Alinari, Firenze: nn. 94, 386
Keystone/Getty Images: n. 214
Martin Puddy/Getty Images: n. 193
Museo Collezione Salce, Direzione Generale Musei, Polo Museale del Veneto: n. 289
Reporters Associati & Archivi, Roma: n. 392
Roger-Viollet/Alinari: n. 283
Terry Fincher/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images: n. 338
Courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing LLC: n. 270
www.secondo66.it: nn. 148, 149, 151
Acknowledgments

Thanks to: The author would like to gratefully

acknowledge and thank
Agency BBH London - Photographer Will Sanders Stefania Benini, Federica Pedriali,
Anna, Maria and Paola dAscanio, for Corradino d'Ascanio and John Welsh for their
Archivio di Stato di Pescara contributions to this book at various
Archivio Centrale dello Stato stages of its development.
Carlo Stellati
Carmen Biasci, for Natale Biasci
CARRSTUDIO - Roberto Carrer
Caterina, Paolo and Virginia Longanesi, for Leo Longanesi's drawing
CONTROCAMPO PRODUZIONI
Fabrizio Sbrana, for Ape on the streets of India
Fondazione Piaggio
4 Putt Productions, Inc., for Ewan McGregor
Gigi Soldano - Milagro
Giuseppe Cau
HUMANS Creative Agency - Paolo Zambaldi
Lorenzo Riccardi, for Giorgio Bettinelli
Luciana Soli, Soli & Associati, for Romina Power
Marco Magoga di STUDIO POINTER
Marco Stilci
Massimo Lucchini Gilera, for Giuseppe Gilera
Mauricio Parra from Museo Fangio, for Juan Manuel Fangio
Michele Gala - DIGIMEDIA
Monica Volpi
Morgan Pesante 42West, for Nicole Kidman
Motociclismo and Edisport
Otello Leggerini
Paolo Zanon and Roberto Donati
Philippe Monneret, for Georges Monneret
Prisca Taruffi, for Piero Taruffi
Saverio Ferragina Press Agent, for Stefania Sandrelli
Stefano Niccolai
STUDIO GIANNI SABBADIN

The Publisher remains at the disposal of claimants

for any sources not identified.
This book was printed in a limited
edition of 3,000 copies.

Copy / 3,000