Book Review

by


A-Z of Italian Motorcycle Manufacturers
Author: Greg Pullen
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire SN82H
E-mail: [email protected] www.crowood.com
Tel.: 016725232
Hardback, 220 x 285mm (portrait); 175 pages with over 200 photographs and illustrations.
ISBN 978-1-78500-487-2
£35 (UK), $54.95 (US), $65.95 (Canada)

Italian motorcycles have a place in history – and in many enthusiasts’ hearts – out of all proportion to the number that have been built.

From Moto Guzzi becoming the first non-British marque to win a TT through to Ducati’s achievements in MotoGP, they have also been at the forefront of motorcycle sport, despite being far smaller than at first the British and later the Japanese manufacturers.

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If the number of motorcycles built by Italian manufacturers is small, I was surprised to read of the sheer number of Italian motorcycle factories that had existed, past and present.

Almost 600 marques were identified in researching this book, and there may have been thousands.

Post Second World War, Italy’s demand for cheap transport far exceeded the supply, so new manufacturers (or assemblers), found it easy to set up shop, with so many engines available off the shelf – many of them English – as well as a thriving accessory and component industry.

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