Motobi
MotoBi was an Italian motorcycle manufacturer . Motorcycles were produced under this brand name between 1950 and 1974.
In 1950, Luigi Benelli , one of the six Benelli brothers who had separated from the parent company in the dispute, started his own motorcycle production in Pesaro under the “Moto B” brand .
The first model, the B 98, already had a box frame, which Luigi Benelli had patented. The vehicle was powered by a horizontal, rotary valve controlled single-cylinder two-stroke block engine with a displacement of 98 cm³ and a three-speed gearbox. In 1951 the "B 98 Super" followed with 115 cm³. The two-cylinder model "B 200" from 1952 showed the "egg shape" of the engine ("power egg") characteristic of Motobi for the first time.
1956 the displacement was increased to 250 cm³. Starting in 1956, were four stroke - single cylinder engine offered cc first with 125 and 175 cc from 1963 to 200 and from 1966, with the 250th The 175 cm³ Catria in particular was used very successfully in sports. The models, available in various designs, from street models to scramblers, were exported to America in large numbers . Road racing machines with 250 cm³ built by the tuner Zanzani were even used in the motorcycle world championship .
In 1962 Motobi returned to the Benelli headquarters. Until 1974, single cylinders were produced there under the two names Motobi and Benelli. The following models then had nothing in common with the "power eggs".
literature
- No brainer: the motorcycle tested . Motobi Catria 175. In: Carl Hertweck (Ed.): Motorcycle . No. 6 . Motor Presse Stuttgart , Stuttgart 1957, p. 143–145 ( online ( memento from June 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.5 MB)).
