Cycle News

FIRST RIDE P66 MOTO MORINI REBELLO 1200 MEET SANDRO CAPOTOSTI Since rescuing Moto Morini from bankruptcy, Granpasso 1200-riding Sandro Capotosti has thrown himself full time into learning the motorcycle business from the ground up – even down to assembling a 1200cc V-twin CorsaCorta motor himself from scratch. The chance to talk to 60-year-old Italian revealed his and his partner Ruggeromassimo Jannuzzelli's plans for Moto Morini's comeback. Q. How is its relaunch proceeding? Firstly, we've invested in the production line by installing new machinery, and we have recommenced production of three existing models - the Corsaro, Granpasso and Scrambler. Then, we have made an important investment to create the new Rebello Giubileo model, which celebrates Moto Morini's 75th anniversary last year. But above all we've invested in our website www.motomorinimotorcycles.eu because the internet is our shop window – it's our sales outlet, our strategy for reaching out to our future customers, and staying in contact with them. The web is the core of our future business plan, so we're investing heavily in this technology. Q. You've also created Moto Morini World - what is this, exactly? Here in the Moto Morini factory we needed to demonstrate to our customers the values of the brand, to show that what we have here is something fantastic, which they can be a part of. It's important to remind them that Moto Morini is now the second largest Italian-owned motorcycle manufacturer, after MV Agusta – and that like them, we have a glorious sporting history that many people are unaware of. MV Agusta is the but no less muscular power delivery - especially from low down, making what was already an impressive bike even nicer to ride. Compared to the Corsaro, they've reduced the amount of engine braking dialed into the engine management system and that makes the Rebello easier to ride through a series of sweeping turns. This flexible, forgiving and fluent engine character means you don't have to use the gearbox nearly as much as you might expect with that short of an engine stroke, since the CorsaCorta mo- Ferrari of motorcycles – but Morini must be the two-wheeled Maserati, both in terms of the kind of bikes we build, and the commitment to traditional Italian values and heritage that our company embraces. So we've created a showroom where visitors can view the different products, activities and merchandise of Moto Morini on display here, and can test ride the Corsaro, Granpasso or Scrambler models. Q. These are the three existing models you've restarted manufacturing – but what about the Rebello? This uses the same mechanical platform as the Corsaro, but has fresh and innovative styling by our young designer, Matteo Ciuti. This is a very important model for us because it epitomizes an important strand of the Moto Morini family history. We looked at the old production Moto Morinis from 50, 60 or 70 years ago, and we discovered that this history wasn't represented in our present range, so we ought to produce a new model like that which also marks Moto Morini's last 75 years of activity. The Morini Rebello was the most up-to-date real-world racing motorcycle of its day, with a unique and innovative blend of styling and engineering. It won the 1955 Milano-Taranto and the 1955 and 1956 editions of the Motogiro – so it was an important and significant model in our history, and we designed this new bike with that in mind. While respectful of Moto Morini's glorious past, it's also designed to appeal to a more youthful audience, a younger audience than the existing Moto Morinis, and also to have more modern styling. Matteo Ciuti, who designed it in-house here at Moto Morini, previously worked at Kymco in Taiwan, where he was tor is especially happy to operate in the 4000-7000 rpm area. There's an average of 1200 rpm between each of the evenly spaced top three gears, and indeed with this kind of engine performance there's really no need for closed-up ratios in the six-speed extractable cluster – just point, and squirt, which is a pity in a way, considering how smooth and precise the Moto Morini's Japanese-quality gear change is. Moto Morini has also notably improved the clutch action on the Rebello compared to the slipper clutch on the new Corsaro I rode a year ago. This had seemed stiffer than on my older bikes, with a rather sudden bite towards the end of the lever travel that made it easy to stall the engine while maneuvering the Corsaro at low speeds. On the Rebello, Tarroni & Co. have completely resolved this with the adoption of a Ducati-style APTC servo clutch, the same as used on the Diavel and all Monsters. This not only includes what Alberto describes as "the anti-hopping function of a slipper clutch," it also delivers a much lighter and more positive

• Cover