Benelli Motobi Club GB
This month we start an occasional series which champions the many thriving owners’ clubs that provide such a valuable service for the owners and fans of individual marques. Whether you’re looking for parts, people with the same interests, dating information or just a good local get-together, an owners’ club should be your first port of call. We begin this series with the Benelli Motobi Club GB.
Welcome to the Benelli Motobi Club GB. So, who are we and what do we do? Well, for a start we don’t just cater for the famous Italian marques of Benelli and Motobi; we also cover Moto Guzzi-badged Benellis, the US brands of Wards Riverside and Montgomery Wards, European joint ventures with Triumph such as Co-Uno, and the racing interests of Benelli through co-operative ventures such as MBA with Morbidelli; not forgetting of course that Benelli goes from strength to strength and that there is a wide range of models on sale today, courtesy of significant
Chinese investment.
I’m sure almost everybody is familiar with Benelli, but, just in case you’re not, here is a very short history of the marque. Six brothers founded the Benelli concern in 1911 in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast. It all began as a service garage which also made some spare parts for both motorcycles and cars and then, in 1921, motorcycle production started with the introduction of lightweight motorcycles in the shape of the Velomotore. Of the brothers, Giovanni and Guiseppe were the engineers, Filippo and Domenico the accountants, Tonino the racer while Francesco concentrated on his car business.
In 1926 Giuseppe Benell designed a new motorcycle with a 175cc fourstroke ohc engine. In the hands of Tonino Benelli it was very successful and clocked up many victories establishing Benelli as a force with which to be reckoned. By the mid 1930s Benelli was one of the top five Italian motorcycle manufacturers, but, like most factories, their attention was soon turned to military supply during the Second World War. The Pesaro factory was destroyed by Nazi bombing during the war but the Benelli brothers refused to give up. After the war many small capacity machines were made, most notably the two- and four-stroke versions of the Leoncino.
The Motobi marque emerged in 1950 as a separate concern when Giuseppe left to form his own company (‘Moto’ is the Italian word for motorcycle, and ‘b’ was for Benelli, hence Moto-B). Motobi produced a range of two-stroke lightweight motorcycles with horizontal engines, and then the familiar horizontal (eggshaped) four-stroke engines which remained in production for almost 20 years.
Meanwhile Benelli was very active on the racing scene and famous riders included Renzo Pasolini, Mike Hailwood, Tarquino Provini, Silvio Grassetti and the 1969 250cc world champion Kel Carruthers, who is now the honorary president of the club.
During the 1960s, Benelli, by now merged with Motobi, started exporting considerable numbers of machines to the US, namely the 250 Motobi-inspired egg singles, vertical singles in two- and four-stroke versions, and finally what many regard as the last real Benelli before the Tomaso takeover, the
650cc Tornado.
As the 1970s dawned, the Argentinian Alejandro De Tomaso bought Benelli and also Moto Guzzi who were both in financial trouble. A range of bikes was produced to supplement the existing range of smaller bikes, from the four-cylinder 250 to the iconic 750cc Sei six-cylinder model.
The 1990s saw Benelli concentrate on smaller capacity models once again but the era brought more financial uncertainty until, in 1995, Andrea Merloni took over Benelli and the marque was revived as a producer of larger bikes with the
2002 launch of the Tornado 900 Tre supersport bike.
The 2010s saw Benelli as part of the QianJiang group. In 2011 Benelli celebrated its centenary in Pesaro, and the future looks brighter than for some time. As you can see, Benelli has a varied history and this is very much reflected in the club which has members from around the world and caters for a huge variety of interests from 50cc scooters, multi-cylinder race bikes, two- and four-strokes, through to the latest generation. In order to support this thirst for knowledge, the club holds vast quantities of technical details, brochures, manuals, road tests and photographs, and even owns a significant quantity of spares available for the smaller machines of the 70s and 80s, notably the
125cc single two-strokes, mopeds and scooters.
However, the reason for the club to exist at all was about keeping the bikes on the road, and, as such, it was founded by Steve Peace and Mike Schofield in 1997, from whence it has grown into a large community of members who enjoy owning and using their machines. There are branches active across the UK providing regular meetings (in normal non-Covid times, anyway), events, runs out and social occasions, as well as appearing at bike shows to fly the Benelli flag and helping to keep our membership in touch.
Well, that’s all well and good, but the club has also maintained a tradition of holding its famous Benelli Festival each year for members from all over the world for a long weekend of activities, games, run outs, barbecues and just good fun. The venues used to change location around the UK to try and be as inclusive as possible, including locations in Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, but are now slightly more firmly attached to other events such as the Festival of 1000 Bikes at Mallory Park, and Oliver’s Mount Cock o’ the North, providing the opportunity for the club to not only put on displays but also for members to take part in parade laps around the circuits.
You can ride and camp at these events, bring the family in the car and trailer a bike, or even stay in a nearby B&B if camping is not your thing. If you do camp, you will find the Benelli Club hanging out together – just look out for the flags and the bikes. You’re sure of a warm welcome.
Many UK members also travel widely to events and rallies hosted by our friends and neighbours, such as Benelli Club Netherlands, Wilfred Blothes (Benelli Bauer, a major spare supplier in Germany), the French Club at Montlhery, and the Swedish gathering at Varberg, to mention just a few. These events are more than just a chance to renew old friendships, they also provide opportunities to meet and chat with some of the key suppliers and supporters in Europe who maintain an excellent spares supply, and who are willing to chat and discuss individual problems, parts supply and future developments.
Of course, we should not forget that Benelli remains in production to this day and maintains its Pesaro connections. In 2011 the Benelli Week held in Pesaro celebrating 100 years was a great success, and events are run each year during the Benelli Week gatherings at Pesaro. This is an excellent opportunity to give your bike a good run and really blow out the cobwebs, with the advantage of excellent weather, beautiful scenery and excellent Italian food.
Naturally there are some club members whose persuasion is wielding the spanners to bring back to life some fine examples of engineering that have fallen by the wayside through years of use and abuse. The local branches attend some of the smaller shows around the country, providing an opportunity to display the fruits of hard labour, but perhaps the foremost opportunity for this is attending the International Classic MotorCycle Show and Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show in April and October at Stafford. These are the largest shows in the country attracting thousands of visitors and it’s an excellent opportunity for the Benelli Motobi Club to advertise itself and its services, as well as for individuals to challenge for a wide range of awards.
Benelli has perhaps been overshadowed by some of its Italian stablemates over the years but, with the efforts of the club members, recent years have seen some success at the show with a number of placings and commendations. The iconic 750 Sei is always popular at the events, along with the exclusive 250 quattro, and every 17-year-old’s favourite, the 250 2C – how many times do we hear that phrase: “I used to have one o’them”.
Well, that covers a little of what the club can do for those that like to socialise, those that ride and those that spanner. However, we all know that there are some who prefer a comfy armchair and a glass of something of an evening, and for those people the club produces a quarterly magazine containing technical articles, reports on events and runs, anecdotes from club members, test drives and reprints of material from the huge library held by the club. There are also the usual wanted and for sale adverts, opportunities to purchase club spares, and last but not least our excellent value club regalia.
UK membership is just £20 which includes access to:
• a dating service accepted by DVLA (free to members)
• a quarterly magazine, Il Leone Ruggisce
• a huge archives library
• regalia sales and spares
• technical advice.
More details about the club and membership can be found at www.benelliclubgb.net or for membership just email membership@benelliclubgb.net or call 07624 433629.
Come and join us and be part of a true enthusiast’s family that is the Benelli Motobi Club GB. We look forward to seeing you as everything starts to get back to normal and we can all start enjoying our passion that is motorcycling.
If you want to let the world know about your club, please get in touch with us at obmeditor@mortons.co.uk