PIAGGIO MUSEUM
Bikes from Gilera and Moto Guzzi are amongst the stars of the Piaggio Group’s museum
Classic Gileras and Moto Guzzis on display in this Italian temple
GIVEN A FACELIFT in 2018, the Piaggio Museum at Pontedera in north-west Tuscany is roomy and colourful. While it has a huge display dedicated to the Vespa scooter that made the longestablished Italian company famous on two wheels, there is also a large area filled by motorcycles of brands acquired by the company as it grew into today’s Piaggio Group.
Best represented is Gilera, acquired by Piaggio in 1969, with a superb collection of historic road, racing, record-breaking and military machines inherited when Gilera’s Arcore factory closed in 1993. They include fabulous pre-war Rondine (Swallow) supercharged fours, racers from 1950s dohc fours to 2000s two-strokes, plus road singles from the first 317cc overhead-valve Gilera of 1909 to the 560cc Nordwest supermotard of the ’90s. Also here are numerous Gilera offroad two-strokes developed after the Aprilia buy-out and sectioned small-capacity engines.
Moto Guzzi joined the Piaggio Group in 2004 and a mighty V8 Grand Prix racer of the ’50s stars in a small display of important machines. Aprilia, which owned Guzzi when it, too, was taken over by Piaggio, is represented by a long row of modern racers. Laverda, also acquired with Aprilia but now dormant, is acknowledged by a 750cc twin and 1200cc triple.
Piaggio’s 50cc Ciao belt-driven moped is shown in versions from five decades and, unexpectedly, there is an area containing six outstanding British classics. U Find the museum on Viale Rinaldo Piaggio, near Pontedera railway station. The nearest airport is Pisa about 20 miles away. Opening times are: 10am-6pm Tuesday-saturday, every Sunday in July and August, and on the second and fourth Sunday of other months. Closed Mondays.
Contact: museopiaggio.it/en
Gilera Quattro Cilindri outfit
A gorgeous 500cc air-cooled four-cylinder factory sidecar outfit of the type that won the Monza Sidecar GP in 1956 and ’57, driven by Albino Milano and passengered by his brother Rossano. They raised the lap record to 100.56mph. Works sidecar outfit chassis, clad in beautifully-crafted aluminium fairings, were purpose-built with shorter forks and a lower frame than the solos. Gilera won the FIM’S first four sidecar world championships from 1949-52.
Moto Guzzi V8
A technical masterpiece, the 1957 500cc Moto Guzzi V8 was designed by Giulio Carcano. The water-cooled dohc Otto, weighing 136kg (300lb) was timed at 178mph on the Belgian Spa Francorchamps circuit. First raced in 1956, it was showing real potential in 1957, producing 80bhp at 14,000rpm, winning an Italian national race and finishing fourth in the Senior TT despite a holed piston. Sadly an improved version and a planned 350cc V8 were dropped when Guzzi pulled out of GP racing in concert with Gilera and FB Mondial at the end of 1957 for commercial reasons. The FIM banned full-enclosure ‘dustbin’ fairings on solos in 1958.
Gilera Saturno Piuma
The ultimate racing version of Gilera’s Saturno overhead-valve single, called the Piuma (feather) because it was lighter than its predecessors. Raced by the factory from 1951-57 with a claimed 38bhp, it has an all-alloy unit construction engine with a wet sump and primary drive by gears to the four-speed gearbox. Conventional twinshock swingarm rear suspension replaces Gilera’s patented horizontal-spring system with friction dampers seen on earlier road and race versions of the Saturno.
Gilera Rondine
These are Gilera’s amazing water-cooled supercharged Rondine inline fours of the late 1930s. The naked machine is a road racer of the type on which Dorini Serafini won the 1939 500cc European championship, while the streamliner was piloted to 50 world records by Piero Taruffi, including the absolute motorcycle speed record, set at 170.27mph in 1937. Period film of Taruffi on the Bergamo-brescia autostrada used for records runs shows on a screen. Gilera took over the Rondine project from aviation company CNA in 1936 and made improvements, mainly to the chassis. The streamliner’s tail-fin was added to deal with instability above 155mph.
Gilera Saturno Cross
The motocross version of the Saturno made from 1952-56 has an engine in similar tune to the road racer, but with a large air filter for the 35mm Dell’orto carburettor and suitably modified suspension. Dry weight is claimed to be only 125kg (276lb). The Saturno Cross won four Italian championships from 1953-56 – three in the hands of Domenico Fenocchio, the last by Vincenzo Soletti. From 1954-56, French riders Charles Molinari and Remy Julienne took three titles in their national championship.
Gilera Saturno
Gilera revived the Saturno name for their half-faired café racer singles of 1988-90, with dohc 500cc and 350cc engines similar to that of the earlier enduro-style 350cc Dakota. This factoryprepared 560cc lightweight machine, built for Italian Supermono racing, sports twin Brembo front discs, twin exhaust pipes and slick radial tyres. The museum also has a 350cc road Saturno, from a batch built for the Japanese importer C Itoh, who originally mooted the café racer concept.
Classic Gilera race bikes from three decades
These racers from Gilera’s golden era are, from left: 1947-1952 500cc Saturno San Remo single; 1957-1967 125cc GP twin; 500cc four minus full fairing worn in 1957; and similar four as raced by Scuderia Duke in early 1960s.