Malaguti is an Italian bicycle, scooter, and motorcycle manufacturer based in San Lazzaro di Savena that was founded in 1930 by Antonino Malaguti. After making bicycles until 1958, they ventured into the motorcycle market. They are notable for using small engines in their motorcycles. Malaguti laid off its remaining employees in Bologna, Italy, in October 2011, as the company filed for bankruptcy.

The Austrian firm KSR Group GmbH purchased the brand name in 2018.

Born in 1930 in Bologna as a bicycle resale and repair shop thanks to Antonino Malaguti, a twenty-two year old who had been a promising young cyclist in his mid-twenties, Malaguti quickly became a manufacturer of cycles with an appreciated production, albeit limited to the Bologna area.

After escaping the bombings of WWII, the company immediately resumed production, and in 1949, in response to the enormous demand for post-war means of locomotion, it began to build an economical two-engine with a central beam frame of clear cycling derivation, equipped with traction. roller with Mosquito motor. In a slow and steady evolution, the same frame was outfitted with front and rear suspensions, drum brakes, a large tank, and a 49 cm3 two-stroke engine from the German Espress Werke, culminating in the 1957 release of the “Express” and “Express Sport” mopeds.

The 50’es

Until the first half of the 1960s, Malaguti production was solely focused on economic mopeds designed for transporting goods and people, but the economic boom and mass motorization compelled the company to build mopeds for fourteen-year-olds to use for recreation. After signing a supply contract with Motori Franco Morini, the 50 Gransport sports moped was introduced in 1963, and it was a big success, especially in France, where it was sold as the 50 Olympique. The 50 Roncobilaccio, one of the first Italian off-road mopeds, joined the renewed version of the 50 Gransport in the second half of the 1960s, complete with a striking double bilateral exhaust pipe.

Other models with good commercial success appeared in the following decades, such as the Fifty of 1974, one of the most successful mopeds, followed by the Malaguti Track, Drop, and Dribbling, and in 1985, the Malaguti Runner 125, an enduro motorcycle.