Morbidelli rises from the ashes

In an ideal world, all the great old defunct bike brands would be resurrected by well-funded, smart business people from a similar background. The Hinckley Triumph project is probably the textbook example: a local businessman takes on the British brand and sets it up again with a factory not far from the original site.

But we don’t live in an ideal world, so we often have to accept the next best. That generally means a factory in China or India taking on a dead brand and putting in the funds needed to revive it. Norton and Benelli are recent examples, of this and now there’s another. The legendary Italian Morbidelli marque has been acquired by MBP Moto – a subsidiary of the Keeway Group, which also owns Benelli. Keeway is itself a Hungarian-based sub-brand of QJ Motor: the Quianjiang Motorcycle Group, based in Zhejiang province in China. Quianjiang is in turn owned by parent firm Geely, which also owns car brands like Lotus, Polestar, Proton and Volvo. So – a long chain, with a £10bn turnover Chinese multinational at the top and the new Morbidelli owned by MBP Moto, at the bottom.

The Italian marque has a long history – it grew out of a woodworking machine tool firm set up by Giancarlo Morbidelli in the years after the Second World War in Pesaro. Bike racing was Morbidelli’s passion though, and he entered a team in the 50cc GP world championship in 1969, growing in success all through the 1970s, with a 125GP title in 1975, plus another six 125 and 250 constructor and rider world titles in the following few years.

The brand never made an effort with road bikes until 1992, when it released a prototype V8 sport touring bike with a 120hp 848cc transverse engine, shaft drive, and a $60,000 price tag. A few examples were built in 1994, but the brand then disappeared from view.

MBP Moto plans to set up a new production and R&D centre in Bologna, the Centro Stile Morbidelli, which will produce a new line-up of bikes, presumably aimed at the higher end of the market. Keeway’s previous work with Benelli focused on smaller, cheaper bikes, rather than high-performance products, and there’d be little point in doing the same thing here. The MBP brand currently offers three bikes, a 1000cc V-twin cruiser, a 500cc naked roadster and a 125cc scooter, although it will be expanding that range soon. The firm says the new Morbidelli range will consist of road and crossover motorcycles from 125cc to 1000cc and scooters between 125cc and 500cc. It also promises a range of electric motorcycles and scooters starting from early 2025.

Dante Bustos, CMO of Keeway Group, said: “This acquisition is testament to MBP Moto’s aspiration for excellence in the motorcycle industry. We are thrilled to welcome a historic premium brand like Morbidelli into our family. It will allow us to blend the legacy of racing and made in Italy craftsmanship with our vision for the future of motorcycling. Our passion for innovation, combined with Morbidelli’s rich heritage, will lead to the creation of motorcycles with an unrivalled blend of performance, design and history”.