Battle of the bugs

Having fought hard for their freedom, it’s fair to say the citizens of post Second World War Europe wanted to make the most of it. Personal mobility was high on their list of priorities, but even more pressing – for themselves and the shattered industries, infrastructure and economies the conflict had left behind – was the need for cost-effective transportation to and from their places of work.

For the moment, motorcycle manufacturers would have to forget the race for road and track supremacy and instead focus on the cheapest possible way to get workers to the factories.

Mosquito

Few countries had been hit quite so hard during the conflict as Italy, or had quite as much work to do to rebuild and renew, so it’s no surprise that it’s there the first of our duo was conceived.

The idea for the Garelli Mosquito – or rather the engine that powers it – came to Milanese engineer Carlo Albero Gilardi in the mid-1930s.