Italia Connections' Magni page

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Magni ....
Those who have a motorcycling memory of the 1970's and before will recall MV's engineer - Arturo Magni. He and his son build beautiful cafe racer styled bikes in their workshop near Milan.

The History

The name Magni is well known to the motorcycle community. In 1947, Arturo Magni began his distinguished career in the racing department of Gilera working under the guidance of world famous Ing. Piero Remor. Remor was the designer of the famous four cylinders double overhead cams Gilera racing engine.

In 1950, Arturo Magni joined a newly formed MV Agusta racing department, where he remained until MV retired from racing in 1977. Under Magni's management as chief of the famed MV Reparto Corsa, the team won 75 world championships and over 3,000 races. A record still untouched by any other manufacturer. Famous motorcycle racers riding for MV included John Surtees, Mike Hailwood, Provini, Ubbiali, and the most famous of modern times, Giacomo Agostini with 15 world championships.

After MV retired from racing, Magni and his sons set up shop to build special versions of production motorcycles. First bikes the Magni's redesigned was the 750cc and 788cc MV Sport & MV America road bikes. With all of the engineering expertise developed over 25+ years of racing, Arturo and sons performed complete transformations of the street version MV's including chain drives, new frames, tanks seats, etc. When complete, a Magni MV looks and sounds very much like a racing MV. A Magni MV is a beautiful piece or motorcycle sculpture. Unfortunately for motorcycle collectors, there were not many street version MV Agustas produced. And the Magni MV's are even fewer, with these masterpieces in the hands of a fortunate few.

In the early 1980's Magni expanded into building Honda 900 Bol d'Or replicas, named MH1 without fairings and a completely faired and full featured bike called the MH2. About 300 of these models were produced.

[MH2] MH2.

In 1982-1983 Magni turned to BMW boxer 1000cc. engine, designing an all new frame and components. Like the Honda, the bikes was produced in two versions - MB1 and MB2, the MB2 being completed with every imaginable accessory.

In 1985, driven by market demand, Magni went Italian all way beginning a long relationship with Moto Guzzi which continues today.
The first Magni model LeMans incorporated a full fairing, contemporary lines and a new rear suspension system designed by Magni called the parallelogrammo.
This new suspension system eliminates the reactions normally induced with shaft drive motorcycles. The parallelogrammo suspension enables the bike to perform much like a chaindrive unit.
Since inception, similar systems have been developed by others, Dr. John Witner in the USA springs to mind.

The Bikes


Links


Any suggestions or mutual links are welcome.
If you'd like to see a photo of your bike on this page, then please email me to arrange it :-)
You can email me at webmaster@italia.co.uk This website is designed and maintained by Bob Williams.