Aprilia - full throttle on and off the road

Aprilia is an Italian family business in the best sense: although today part of the large Piaggio family (brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilia, Puch, Derbi, Moto Guzzi, Gilera and Laverda), the company was founded in 1945 as a bicycle factory by Alberto Beggio, the father of the current Aprilia boss Ivano Beggio. The name Aprilia is a reference to a car – the Lancia Aprilia, which Beggio considered to be the best car in the world.

The Small Beginning

Ivano Beggio took over the company in 1968 and began to construct an off-road motorcycle with 18 employees. The first 50 cm3 two-wheelers were called Colibri, Daniela and Packi. In 1970, the Scarabeo motocross model was a permanent torch, which was produced as a 50- and 125 cm3 version until the end of the seventies.

In the 1980s, Aprilia launched other enduro, trial and road bikes with 50 to 600 cm3. Aprilia has always been involved in off-road and racetrack sports with breaks and is thus the sporting flagship of the Piaggio Group. It also explains the astonishing range of models of the Italians, which to this day consisted largely of off-road or road racers. In addition, there are various scooters.

A like no

6,000 employees produce 600,000 scooters and motorcycles annually, generating 1.5 billion sales.

In addition to the sports machines, there was a very special motorcycle to admire in 1995: the Moto 6.5 model, a simple single-cylinder naked bike, which was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Designer Philippe Starck was responsible for the unusual look.