Moto Morini’s origins began with a partnership between Mario Mazzetti and Alfonso Morini, who built a highly regarded two-stroke 125cc race bike as their first motorcycle in 1924 under the marque Motocicli MM. MM bikes were remarkably successful in the 1920s and 1930s, with their 125cc establishing six world records at the Monza racetrack in 1927, and their 175cc setting a new record for its class with a speed of more than 100 miles per hour in 1933. Morini, wishing to expand the business and increase production, broke with Mazzetti in 1937 and established a rival business under his own name. This was a significant gamble, as the motorcycle industry was in considerable turmoil while Italy’s economy was mobilizing for war. Morini’s fledgling factory produced lightweight trucks and then military equipment during World War II, prior to the plant’s partial destruction in Allied bombing raids in 1943.
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