Benelli Motorcycles

Benelli was established in Pesaro, Italy in 1911, which makes it maybe the oldest of all European motorcycle factories in operation. After losing her husband, the widow Teresa Benelli invested all of the family capital into the business in the hope that it would offer stable work for her six sons: Giuseppe, Giovanni, Francesco, Filippo, Domenico and Antonio. She also sent Giuseppe and Giovanni to study Engineering in Switzerland. Initially the business had 6 employees in addition to the 5 brothers working -Antonino didn’t work because he was too young.