Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126610
Visiting the MBA road racer factory By Alan Cathcart (Bottom) The MBA 126 disc-valve twin produces 43 hp at 14.200 rpm and costs about $7000. (Below) This ~rt of the factory housed lots of 260cc parts. (Above) A worker carefully plies his craft on a set of 260cc ceses. (Above right) The MBA 260 won the 1980Italian 260CCchampionship. San Angelo in Vado, a sleepy little town high up in the Appenine hills 50 miles from the Italian Adriatic coast, seems an unlikely location for the largest manufacturer of road racing motorcycles in the world outside of Japan to be based. But that's exactly where 90%of the field in any 125cc World 26 Road Racing Championship event have come from, for San Angelo is the home of Morbidelli Benelli Armi - the makers of the MBA. Most racing enthusiasts have long ago given up trying to work out the exac t difference - if any ! - between an MBA and a Morbidelli. Explained 10 me by th e genial boss of the MBA bike division, Dr. Francesco Ponsele, it seemed only slightly less complicated than the family tree of the Borgia family. " When Gianclaudio Morbidelli won his first 125cc World Championship in 1975 with the bike that Jorg Moller designed for him, he had many requests to build replicas for private owners. Remember then that there were no current I25cc production racers being made - the fields consisted mostly of elderly Yamahas plus a lot of 'artisa na l' machines like the Bender, AGV Condor, Bultaco (the former Piovaticci) and so forth. "But the trouble was that Morbidelli isjust a racing enthusiast with a large woodworking machinery business, and no desire or facilities to make motorcycles except in limited quantities for his own team. Thar's , where we came in." As the name suggests, MBA have a family connection with the old Benelli marque, on one of whose machines KelCarruthers - now Kenny Roberts' team manager - won the 250cc world title in 1969. Shonly after, Benelli got into financi al difficulties, and were purchased by Alessandro de Tomaso, the flamboyant Argentine-Italian exracing driver whose em pire also in- eludes MOIO Guzzi, Maserati and Innocenti. But the Benelli family hung on 10 a branch of the business, called Benelli Armi, which in addition to making a range of rifles and small automatic pistols, also manufacture all the frames for Guzzi, Benelli and Maico bikes ; it's an Italian version of BSAI When Morbidelli decided to yield to the pressure to build replicas of Pileri's '75 title-winning bike, he arranged a deal with Benelli Armi to make them for him; that's how Morbidelli Benelli Armi came into being. The move to San Angelo came later, when the success of the bikes became such that more space was needed. It's a development area, so a healthy government grant was obtained with one interesting proviso: the company has 10 make street bikes as well, which is why you can also buy an MBA for the road. Only thing is -it's a 50cc Sachs-powered moped rather than a cafe version of the race bikel The new company retained the world title in 1976 with Pier Paolo Bianchi, who won again in '77 but this time riding for Morbidelli alone, as the latter had now relinquished his interest in the company, now known as MBA. In this guise they won the world crown again in '78 . when Eugenio Lazzarini defeated the mighty Minarellis, a team now guided by the MBA'soriginal designer, Jorg Moller. Since then the title has see-sawed, with Nieto and Minarelli winning in 1979and 1981, and Bianchi and MBA victorious in 1980. Meantime the San Angelo factory has been steadily producing this year' s version of last year's works bike, incorporating the latest improvements 10 th e original Moller design of 1975 which has