The
History of Gilera 1909-
The Gilera
company was founded in 1909 by Giuseppe Gilera in Milan.
His first machine was a 317cc overhead-valve engine which
had a belt drive. Subsequent engines were side valve until
1926. They then went back to over-head valves.
A 1921
496cc Gilera Side Valve(Left) The Famous San Remo (Right)
In 1935 Gilera
acquired rights to the Rondine four cylinder engine. This
formed the basis for Gileras racing machines nearly forty
years. From the mid thirties Gilera developed a range of four-stroke
engine machines. The engines ranged from 100-500cc. The most
famous of which was the 1939 Saturno.
Post war
machines were based on four-stroke singles and parallel twins.
From this came the famous World Championship winning San Remo.
It takes it's name from it's victorious debut at the 1947
Ospedaletti Grand Prix near San Remo.Gilera rode these fast
machines himself and broke many records with them.
Go
for it my son!!
In 1969 the
company was bought out by the Piaggio Group, constructors
of the Vespa scooter. It developed new 49cc-125cc two-stroke
bikes as well as continuing to develop the original Gilera
four-stoke range.
1966 Speciale
Strada
1972-75 150cc Arcore
1993 Nord West
1985 Brought
a new 350cc four-stroke single engine. Later this was enlarged
to 558cc and was used in the trail bikes and the cafe racer
style Nuovo Saturno. There was also a return to Grand Prix
racing in the 250cc class.
In 1993 Piaggio
unexpectedly closed the Gilera factory at Arcore bringing
to an end over 84 years of motorcycle manufacturing.
New
Gilera models were released by Piaggio in 1987 and traded
on its association with Gilera's sporting reputation. In 1992,
Gilera made a return to the Grand Prix arena and Piaggio continues
to produce small-displacement motorcycles with the Gilera
name.
Click
HERE
for our Classic Gilera Brochure Gallery
Please
note we will continue to add more information to these pages
in time. If you wish to add content to these pages that you
feel is interesting, important or write about your machine,
e-mail it or bung it on a fax to us.
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Gilera
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