A Loss to the Motorcycle Industry and the World
Giancarlo Morbidelli died in a hospital in Fano, Italy, after battling a long illness. He was 85 years old. Morbidelli has left a legacy in the motorcycling world that will not be forgotten. He is best known for Morbidelli Grand Prix motorcycles, which have been piloted by the likes of Paolo Pileri, Pier Paolo Bianchi, and Mario Lega who all won races on his bikes.
Morbidelli wad still building bikes well into retirement age. In the 1990s, according to Visordown, he built an 850cc V8 motorcycle engine that he put on a sport-touring motorcycle. He was called “an absolute genius of mechanics,” according to Matteo Ricci in La Gazetta Dello Sport.
Morbidelli was also a motorcycle collector. He accumulated over 350 motorcycles and opened a museum called Museo Morbidelli in Persaro, Italy. The museum closed aver decades of operation and was eventually liquidated in 2019. Many of the motorcycles in that collection had been reassembled and restored by Morbidelli.
Needless to say, he was an important figure in the motorcycle world, and he will be missed. And our thanks for his work in the industry, and our condolences go out to his family.