Magni Motorcycles

2017 Magni MV Agusta Filo Rosso

Arturo Magni was born on September 24, 1925 in Arcore, a small town close to the Monza Autodromo which until 1993 was the home of Italy's most historic motorcycle manufacturer, Gilera.

Bikes were originally of little interest to Arturo, who as a boy liked building model aircrafts, later designing and constructing full-size gliders with which he became a star at pre-WW2 air shows.

In 1942, he won the Italian powerless endurance title in his own self-made glider with a three-meter wingspan, and one of his gliding team colleagues, Ferruccio Gilera, son of company boss Giuseppe, found Magni a job working in the Gilera motorcycle factory in Arcore after WW2.

Arturo Magni followed Pietro Remor to work for MV Agusta in 1950

When Giuseppe Gilera decided in 1947 to re-enter 500cc Grand Prix racing, Magni was chosen to help develop Gilera designer Pietro Remor's all-new four-cylinder racebike, which would win six 500cc world titles during 1950-57 in the hands of Duke, Masetti and Liberati.

In 1950, Count Domenico Agusta hired Remor away from Gilera to design the first four-cylinder MV Agusta GP racer - and Magni went with him as the MV Agusta team's chief mechanic.

John Surtees won MV Agusta's inaugural 500cc World title in 1956, and with the retirement of both Gilera and Moto Guzzi from racing, 1958 saw the start of an unparalleled 17 years of successive World title victories in the 500cc class by the MV Agusta team under Arturo Magni's direction.

Arturo Magni with Carlo Bandirola MV Agusta 500/4 at the 1951 Belgium GP

In 1959 he was appointed head of the entire MV racing department under Count Domenico Agusta's guidance leading Arturo to be called commander by his teammates and the Italian press.

Magni pursued that role until MV Agusta retired from GP racing at the end of 76, after registering no less than 270 Grand Prix race victories en route to 75 World Championships, including 37 Rider's titles won by Sandford, Provini, Ubbiali, Surtees, Hocking, Hailwood, Agostini and Read.

The MV Agusta team also won 28 Italian National championship titles, and no less than 35 Isle of Man TT race victories. During all this time, Magni was in sole charge of MV's racing department.

Dustbin MV Agusta Racers

Count Agusta paid the bills and Magni ran the racing team and supervised the entire technical operation, including the development of legendary designs like the title-winning triples, the later fours, the six-cylinder prototypes, and the abortive, uncompleted Boxer flat-four.

When MV pulled out of racing after 1976, Arturo founded his own company, EPM, Elaborazioni Preparazioni Magni, in nearby Samarate, northwest of Milan, together with his two sons, Carlo and Giovanni.

To begin with, they concentrated on producing special parts for the shaft-drive four-cylinder MV Agusta 750S street bikes, including chain-drive conversions and big bore kits to bump engine capacity up to 832-861cc.

Arturo Magni working on a MV Agusta

EPM was also one of the world's first suppliers of aftermarket cast aluminium wheels, and in due course eldest son Carlo took over this side of the business, leaving his dad Arturo and younger brother Giovanni to concentrate on bike building under the Moto Magni name.

Inevitably, the first Magni frames built from 1977 onwards housed the four cylinder engines powering the MV Agusta 750 Sport streetbike manufactured close by at Gallarate, for which EPM was commissioned to build the chassis.

But the end of MV Agusta motorcycle production in 1980 forced Moto Magni to find another source for engines, so around 300 Magni FZ900 Hondas were built in two years of production in 1980/81, followed by 150 examples of the BMW Boxer-based cafe racer which appeared in 1982.

MV Agusta's winning duo: Arturo Magni & Giacomo Agostini

But this bike's debut coincided with the launch of the Flying Brick K100 range, and the temporary suspension of Boxer production, so Magni next created an all-Italian motorcycle.

The first Magni Guzzi Le Mans appeared in 1985, and over 900 Guzzi-engined Magni V-twin motorcycles were constructed thereafter, carrying the company's trademark parallelogram rear end which eliminated the handling problems of a shaft-drive sportsbike. Various retro-styled variants followed over the years, as well as the Daytona-engined eight-valve Magni Australia 8V.

Magni enters the one of a kind Magni Experience in the Bol d'Or 24 hour Classic at Magny Cours, France, in 2011 and finishes 7th out of 65 teams on the grid.

Genius engineer Arturo Magni

2012 Magni creates the R3, the first Magni motorcycle with an English engine. An ultra light Cafe Racer built in cooperation with Triple Tecs, a factory that is well known in the USA for tuning BSA and Triumph 3 cylinders engines.

This motorcycle was ordered by Brent Lenehan, who wanted a special bike equipped with a classic Italian chassis and a BSA Rocket 3 engine. The unveiling took place during the fourth edition of The Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel Valley, California. Magni R3 won the Spirit of the Quail Award.

2014 sees the introduction of the Filo Rosso powered by an MV Agusta 3-cylinder 800cc engine.

MV Agusta's closes racing department in 1976 and Arturo Magni starts EPM

In 2015, Arturo Magni, the legendary master and manager who led the MV Agusta Racing team to 270 Grand Prix race victories and 75 World Championships, died at the age of 90.

His son Giovanni and his team continue to create motorcycles of the famous Magni brand. To date, Magni has produced 1.600 bikes in the past 35 years.

We are looking for the following motorcycles. If you do have any of the below listed vehicles - and you are ready to sell - please Contact Us.

MV-Agusta
832
860
861
862
Moto-Guzzi
Arturo
Classic
LeMans
Sfida

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Contact us when you are serious about buying a fine Magni Motorcycle or to arrange a free and confidential valuation with a view to selling.