Beta Motorcycles

"Societa Giuseppe Bianchi" was founded in Florence, Italy in 1904 for the building of handmade bicycles.  Near the end of the 1940s, the company switched to motorcycle production.  The two men who ran the company, Enzo Bianchi and Arrigo Tosi, joined their initials to form the name Beta and the company's bikes have been sold under this name ever since.  Read more ...

In the 1970s, with the emergency of the off-road sector, Beta began to specialize more and more in the production of off-road vehicles.  This specialization has always been accompanied by a matching commitment in the area of competition.  Beta's close involvement with motorcycle sport has been marked over the years by a series of successes.  There were the early victories in motocross in the late 1970s and early 1980s, followed more recently by the four World Trials Championships won by Jordi Tarres and the three consecutive world titles awarded to Dougie Lampkin.  Then there were the six Indoor World Championships, including the one which Albert Cabestany won in 2002, and finally five European titles.

In 2004, Beta returned to four-stroke enduro with a major investment both in product development and in its presence on the competition track.  In this new field, Beta remains faithful to its mission, that is to inspire in motorcyclists a natural and instinctive riding style.  Highly technical and sports-oriented the DNA of its bikes may be, but they still need to transmit optimum feel and deliver maximum fun.

Alongside its specialization in enduro, Beta is increasing its presence in trials.  2006 saw the launch of the first four-stroke engine created for and dedicated specifically to this sport:  the four-stroke trials motors on offer from the competition are in fact adaptations of lumps designed for other applications, principally motocross.

Since 1972, the production plant has been located at Rignano Sull'Arno near the Italian city of Florence, where it occupies an area of 116,000 square meters, 15,000 of which are covered and it employs 111 people.  Out of every 100 bikes manufactured, over 70 are distributed abroad and the remaining 30 in Italy.  The marketing network runs direct sales operations in Italy, France, Germany and Benelux, and works through importers in the rest of the world.

Visit Beta's website at www.americanbeta.com.