Over the past few years we have seen old motorcycle brands return to the market and more to come including little-known 80-year-old Italian brand Malaguti.
Brands that have returned include Bultaco, Brough, Hesketh, Levis, Matchless and Norton and there are several more to come including Jawa, Cagiva and BSA.
Now Austrian KSR Group has announced at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan that they have bought Italian brand Malaguti.
They will launch next year with six models, five being single-cylinder 125cc road and trail bikes and a 300cc scooter.
Malaguti Montepro125Malaguti was founded in 1930 by Antonino Malaguti in San Lazzaro di Savena, a suburb of the traditional university town of Bologna, as a bicycle dealership and repair shop.
The passionate cyclist began to make his own bicycles soon afterwards. From 1949 onwards, he built bicycles with auxiliary engines, soon after that also small motorcycles, finally also scooters.
In contrast to other manufacturers, he refused to participate in the “arms race” of motorcycle manufacturers with increasingly larger and more expensive models.
He concentrated on smaller bikes for younger riders.
Similarly, this new breed are small bikes.
KSR Group has partnered with an unidentified production partner, but claims the bikes are equipped with “reliable and proven Italian technology”.
The models presented in Milan are powered by water-cooled injection engines developed by Aprilia.
Their 125cc engines have 11kW of power for use in Europe by riders with novice A1 licences.
The Supermoto XSM 125, cross-country XTM 125, naked Monte Pro 125, RST 125 and Dune 125 will be made from February 2019.
Madison 300 will be the Italian company’s first scooter and will be available from April 2019.
Malaguti Madison300 scooterThey will hit the European market at €2999 for the XSM and XTM models.
There is no word on other prices or whether they will be exported outside Europe.
The Austrian owners say they will also produce Malaguti motorcycles with larger displacement and a three-wheeled scooter.
As a supplier of electric two-wheelers, KSR will also develop electric Malaguti motorcycles and scooters.