Garelli Motorcycles

Garelli was founded in 1919 by Italian engineer Adalberto Garelli, who began building motorcycles at a factory in Sesto San Giovanni, near Milan. Garelli had already spent years perfecting a distinctive split-single two-stroke engine design after leaving Fiat in 1911 over the carmaker's lack of interest in two-stroke technology, and that 350cc split-single engine set a long-distance record in 1919, covering the roughly 840km from Milan to Naples at an average of 38.29 km/h. After the Second World War, Garelli pivoted toward mass-market mopeds, launching the bicycle-mountable "Mosquito" engine in 1946 and the three-speed Mosquito 315 moped a decade later, alongside small-displacement motorcycles in 70cc, 98cc, and 100cc sizes. Garelli became one of Italy's best-known moped brands through the postwar decades, and later found further success in Grand Prix road racing before the brand passed through various ownership changes in more recent years.