The thousand square meters of the "Officine Benelli" in Viale Mameli 22, are the latest example of industrial archeology in Pesaro, the historic headquarters of the company that contributed to writing the history of the city. In the premises of the old Benelli factory, 150 Benelli and MotoBi motorcycles are on permanent display today.
The tour starts from the Tonino Benelli room where photographs of riders riding Benelli and MotoBi motorcycles, trophies from every era and Benelli, MotoBi and Molaroni engines are exhibited. It continues in the large room dedicated to Giuseppe Benelli where in addition to the first motorcycle that passed through Pesaro in 1897, a De Dion Bouton tricycle, two very rare Molaroni motorcycles from the twenties and even thirty Benelli built before the Second World War and absolutely protagonists for technical and aesthetic refinement in the thirties.
In the second salon all types of the Leoncino model, a motorcycle that marked the rebirth of the Benelli brand after the ruins of the Second World War. In the same hall, the six and four-cylinder multi-cylinders built in the seventies, when the Pesaro brand was acquired by the Argentine industrialist Alejandro De Tomaso, are highlighted.
Then the exhibition continues on the mezzanine floor, a fascinating structure of about 250 square meters completely made of wood, where all the models produced by Motobì "the aristocratic among motorcycles" from 1950 to 1970 are on display, and the whole fantastic series of Benelli mopeds and Motobi. A space on the mezzanine floor is also dedicated to an unattainable starting point for racing bikes built in the province of Pesaro between the sixties and eighties: MBA, Morbidelli, Piovaticci, Sanvenero and MotoBi. All motorcycles protagonists in various competitions worldwide.
The extraordinary story of the six Benelli brothers is told by the members of the two clubs that manage the museum, and they involve visitors in a unique setting of its kind, thanks to the fact that the motorcycles on display were designed and built in the very premises where they are exhibited. Then the amazing events of the riders, from Tonino Benelli to Valentino Rossi (both born in Pesaro), the first and last of a generation of centaurs who have thrilled thousands of fans, contribute to enriching a pleasant visit to the motorcycle world of a geographical area indisputably rich in history.
The Benelli museum and the Marchigiana motorcycle museum, for which the name of Mototeca Storica Marchigiana is adopted, must be understood as an important and integral part of the overall project, which takes the name of Officine Benelli.
