Moto Morini’s Alberto Monni interview

The man charged with directing Moto Morini’s resurgence is General Manager Alberto Monni (right, aboard the new Calibro), a 14-year veteran employee of the Italian company. A Pavia University Economics graduate who’d worked in the nautical and banking industries, in 2009 Monni followed his passion for motorcycles by joining Moto Morini as Production Manager at its Trivolzio plant, where since late 2018 he’s been responsible for supervising the transition from Italian to Chinese ownership. The chance to speak with him at EICMA 2023 brought an update on the company’s ongoing ride along that comeback trail.

AC: Alberto, please bring me up-to-date on where Moto Morini is today.

AM: We have continued to build sales of our 650cc parallel-twin entry-level models, while preparing for the big step forward with the new models you see displayed here for the first time. We sold 6000 bikes this year in Europe, compared to 4000 in 2022, but we only had the X-Cape, and the Seiemezzo Naked/Scrambler duo in our range. We also began selling in the USA, although there Moto Morini is less well-known as a brand than it is in Europe, and for this reason we created the new 2024-model Calibro 650 custom that will be sold all over the world, but is especially targeted at the USA. This will be in dealer showrooms in June, and uses the same engine as the X-Cape and Seiemezzo Scrambler – but it’s the last bike for the moment with this kind of engine, because we are developing two all-new Moto Morini V-twin engines of our own which we will manufacture ourselves. One is the updated version of our trademark CorsaCorta

V-twin motor, which is now Euro 5+ compliant, and alongside this we have the totally new 90° V-twin 750cc engine.

AC: So the new 750 allows you to attack the middleweight sector, which Royal Enfield and others have demonstrated has a big potential for growth, but you’re the only guys with a V-twin.

AM: That’s right, and we believe that this will allow us to stand out from our competition, which almost uniquely has parallel-twin motors. But the V-twin engine is part of Moto Morini’s heritage, and we think that for the future it can make a big difference for our impact in the marketplace. We are very happy that for the moment no other brand is producing this type of midsize engine, and especially not such a sophisticated design as the one that Ing. Mariani has created for us.

Another key element is that both engines and the new models they power have been developed here in Italy – an Italian brand, Italian design and Italian engineering – everything is Italian, except the price! We believe that is a really strong point of our appeal – and a key element in obtaining that was to start collaborating with Adrian Morton.

AC: How long have you worked with him? AM: I contacted him right after he left his previous company in June 2020, and we spoke for a very long time about our intentions and our desires for Moto Morini. At the end of the call, we knew we were both completely on the same page – and it has been a dream to work together since then. So we have the first two motorcycles launched here at EICMA which he has designed around that new engine – but these are only the first two in a family of models, so we’re working with him on another project also. I think this is a perfect marriage between the two companies, his and ours.

We started working together 16 months ago to create these two models, the Sport and the Naked, and I think that for these two bikes, we had to look for a way to stand out, to make people take notice of Moto Morini. In my opinion Adrian has achieved this – I think that the signature of the bikes’ styling is completely individual. Nothing else on two wheels has ever looked like these bikes, and this is the great advantage of employing a progettista who has imagination, and flair.

AC: When do you expect to start producing the 750 models?

AM: The same time as the 1200s, so in October/November, at the end of 2024.

AC: Finally, on the new X-Cape 1200 and the Milano, what did you change on their CorsaCorta V-twin motor compared to before?

AM: Ninety per cent of the engine’s mechanical components are the same as previously, but what changed completely is the throttle body, because we passed from a mechanical one to an electronic ride-by-wire one. So it has the possibility to have the same torque and power as before, but with a very smooth behaviour at low rpm, which previously was not a characteristic of our engine. With RBW it means it also has four riding modes for the first time, and is also Euro 5+ compliant.

AC: So, you must be pleased with the way things are going for Moto Morini now?

AM: Yes, I’m really pleased with the new bikes, and also for the way they will allow Moto Morini to expand globally from 2025 onwards. We’re right on track to achieve our objectives established four years ago.