Morbidelli Motorcycles

Morbidelli, which was a producer of woodworking machinery, built a trio of 50cc GP bikes in 1969 for the Italian championship. In 1971 they built their first (and unique) 125cc GP machine, a twin patterned after the 1966 Suzuki GP. In 1972 and 1973 that machine won a few GPs, but the death of the rider Parlotti put the brakes on this. In 1974, Dutchman Joerg Moller was hired to design and build real winners, and he did. In the hands of Paolo Pileri and Pier-Paolo Bianchi, these 125cc twins won 3 world championship in succession, while a larger 250cc won the 1977 title in the hands of Mario Lega. In 1977, Jorg Moller was fired and joined MBA-Benelli Armi, now at political war with Morbidelli.

Morbidelli then built a 4-cylinder 500cc that raced until 1982, when Morbidelli quit racing due to economic pressure.

In the late 1990's, a V8 was conceived and built by an outside company with the blessing of Giancarlo Morbidelli, bearing his name. This was not followed by production and now resides in the Morbidelli museum in Pesaro along with hundreds of other italian racing machines.

An unrelated division of Benelli called Benelli Armi built Morbidelli 125cc replicas under license for private racers to purchase. They were not called Morbidelli but MBA .

After Giancarlo Morbidelli retired his son Gianni, who raced in 4 Formula One seasons with Ferrari, Arrows and other makes, continued to race sedans in Italian and international championships.

Thanks to tsrf24 at tsrfcars dot com of Los Angeles, CA for the history above. (Minor revisions Dec '23, June '24)

The writer, PdL, is the engineer who devised the 1978 Morbidelli 250cc GP bike that finished in third place in the world championship in 1979 ridden by Graziano Rossi, the father of the current world champion in MotoGP, Valentino Rossi. You may see a bit of this here and here.
 

Len Carr from Earl Shilton in Leicestershire was the first rider in the U.K to ride Morbidelli. He was 1977 British champion A C U East midland champion B M C R C Champion british formula champion and rode in the 1977 and 1978 Silverstone G.P.s, Len now has a hotel in the Isle of man.
Sat Oct 13 2007
carrlen at hotmail.com

Sat Jun 25 2016
ecavallaro at qinvesments.com.ar
Enrique
Sell Morbidelli 125 1975
I have for sale engine Morbidelli125
Argentine

Fri Dec 18 2009
art.ala.cart at hotmail dot com
50cc mba morbidelli
unknown 50cc
would like to know some info about my 50cc mba
emmen

30-Jul-2018
npbka at hotmail.com
"Morbidelli MBA 50c"
Hello,
that bike you are showing is neither a Morbidelli nor a MBA. In fact, not a single part is from a motorcycle built by either company. Looks like a home built job with a Sachs or a Minarelli engine, and someone plastered stickers on it that have no relevance to the actual bike.
later.....
What is that thing? It has absolutely nothing to do with either Morbidelli, Benelli or MBA. Someone's dream of the real thing?
The only real 50cc Morbidelli bikes (only 3 were ever built in 1969 and all 3 are accounted for in museums) had a 6-speed, dry-clutch water cooled engine, and the real MBA built bikes are called UFO and again, all are water cooled, nearly horizontal cylinder engines with disc valve.
All had "Baby Ceriani" 28 mm forks and Fontana 4-cam front brakes, then the UFO had disk brakes and 5-spoke mag wheels from about 1978.
So this leads to question, what is the motive behind that contraption, if you know?
Regards,
Philippe de Lespinay
USA

Mon Sep 01 2008
bigfoot15aaa at bellsouth.net
V-8
M 19??
I saw this one at Barber Motorsports Museum in Birmingham AL
Birminhham AL
English

Tue Sep 25 2007
parsons.c at btinternet dot com
UK 50cc
Morbidelli 50
I recall a friend of mine owning a morbidelli 50cc here in England, but can find no trace of pictures anywhere. Can you help.
UK

Fri Jun 29 2007
jtrexler at hawaii.rr dot com
Morbidelli V8
1994 V8
Do you have a video of a Morbidelli V8, running?

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