Cagiva History

- 1950
Giovanni Castiglioni founds CAGIVA, a company producing small metallic components. The name of the company partially holds both the founder's initials as well as the name of the city it's based in (Varese, Italy).

- 1978
CAGIVA enters the motorcycle business: the team is made of two motorbikes painted red/silver driven by Gianfranco Bonera e Marco Lucchinelli.

The former hobby of a keen family quickly becomes the most dynamic motorcycle industry in Europe: on October the 17th CAGIVA buys the factory in Schiranna (Varese) from AMF-Harley Davidson, Italy. An area of 8000 sq metres, the site hosts skilled technicians and keen engineers, inheriting the skills from Aermacchi aereonautics and the nearby MV Agusta. With such a rich human potential, the Castiglioni brothers ignite the next evolution by renewing the production cycles with investments in technology as well as founding a new technical office.
- 1979 The following data can sum up the importance of the investments held by CAGIVA: more than 150 employees, an annual production of 40000 motorbikes, a brochure of 8 models with two-strokes engines ranging from 125cc to 350cc sold under the HD CAGIVA brand.

- 1980 The entire production is branded under the CAGIVA name. The industry is now clearly known on the market as a fully operational factory capable of designing and building its own engines, frames and accessories.

The former hobby of a keen family quickly becomes the most dynamic motorcycle industry in Europe: on October the 17th CAGIVA buys the factory in Schiranna (Varese) from AMF-Harley Davidson, Italy. An area of 8000 sq metres, the site hosts skilled technicians and keen engineers, inheriting the skills from Aermacchi aereonautics and the nearby MV Agusta. With such a rich human potential, the Castiglioni brothers ignite the next evolution by renewing the production cycles with investments in technology as well as founding a new technical office.
- 1979 The following data can sum up the importance of the investments held by CAGIVA: more than 150 employees, an annual production of 40000 motorbikes, a brochure of 8 models with two-strokes engines ranging from 125cc to 350cc sold under the HD CAGIVA brand.

- 1980 The entire production is branded under the CAGIVA name. The industry is now clearly known on the market as a fully operational factory capable of designing and building its own engines, frames and accessories.

- 1981-1982 The success immediately obtained on the market by CAGIVA is a result of sound marketing politics first carefully thought after and then thoroughly implemented by the Castiglioni brothers. The idea is to build good quality products that anticipate the competitors, fixing prices to a moderate level while assuring a good level of servicing. At the beginning of the eighties, this strong belief lets CAGIVA be the only Italian manufacturer to fight back the invasion of the Japanese brands.

The CAGIVA models are innovative, they develop new segments in the market and surely dominate the small displacement area. The range spans from Cross to Enduro and Street bikes with sales distributed internationally. The Italian retailers are more than 400.

- 1983
CAGIVA enters the big displacement sector through an exclusive deal with Ducati obtaining engines from 350cc to 1000cc four strokes.

- 1985-1986
The escalation of CAGIVA goes on with success and strategic buyouts of competitors that either face difficult times or are not yet fully developed: Ducati, Moto Morini, Husqvarna. In particular, it's important to highlight the strength of the Husqvarna brand, started in 1903 and clearly a company with no competitors for the off-road bikes. In 1986 a new commercial company is founded, CAGIVA COMMERCIALE S.P.A. in Bologna, with the purpose of selling motorbikes from CAGIVA, Ducati, Husqvarna and Moto Morini. This society sells in more than 50 countries including Brazil, India, Argentina, Taiwan.

- 1987
In the Republic of San Marino the CAGIVA Research Centre (CRC) is founded: the centre, a leader in technology and style research for the entire motorbike sector becomes reality thanks to the friendship between Claudio Castiglioni and Massimo Tamburini, the latter being the director of the Centre and father of many ingenious solutions still circulating today.

- 1990
In Morazzone (Varese) a new factory is built to produce both steel and aluminium frames: subsequently in 1996 it will host the Crimson Design Centre, directed by the Argentinian Miguel Galluzzi.

- 1991
The latest investment from CAGIVA: the MV Agusta brand is bought. In the motorcycling history, MV Agusta can't be compared with the rest. Absolute victories record, a legendary brand, an inexplicable emotion that never leaves their models. The buyout is the onset of a radical plan of investments aimed at polishing and renewing the myth MV.

- 1996
Strategic reasons bring CAGIVA to sell Ducati and Moto Morini brands.

- 1997
Milano international Salon hosts the official presentation of the new MV Agusta with a model that immediately shocks the entire world: F4 Serie Oro.

- 1998
The success of the new MV Agusta is a premiere in motorcycle industry. Everywhere in the world the enthusiasm of journalists and fans is bold, even reaching beyond the motorcycle world. In the "The art of motorcycle" exhibition in Guggenheim museum in New York, the F4 Oro is shown in a central stand.

- 1999
The new factory in Cassinetta di Biandronno (Varese) is opened. The Company now comprises:Schiranna Top Management, Mechanical production of strategic parts,Engine production and assembly, Painting of frames and components, Research and Development. Morazzon, Frames production, Crimson style centre. Cassinett Full assembly line, Parts warehouse, Technical assistance. San Marino, Cagiva Research Centre (CRC). The number of employees reaches 500, with 150 solely for Research and Development. For strategic purposes, the society gets restructured: MV Agusta Motor becomes the main brand now comprising CAGIVA and Husqvarna. In Milan international Salon new CAGIVA models are introduced showing the comeback of the brand in the big displacement sector: they are the Raptor, V-Raptor and Navigator. The models, both innovating and stylish, get a good response in Italy and world-wide, showing the creative potential that is in store for the new millennium. 2000 The new logo "CAGIVA elephant" is introduced. It holds both the glorious past together with a new dynamic design for the future.

Racing Success

- 1980
The CAGIVA brand appears for the first time in the 500 world championship: on the Nürburgring (Germany) Virginio Ferrari qualifies with the first CAGIVA motorbike.

- 1981 The CAGIVA model 2C2 introduces in the grand prix circus solutions never seen before: 118hp for an engine 4 cylinders in line with a rotating disc distribution system.

- 1982
CAGIVA gains points for the first time in the GP series.

- 1987
Randy Mamola (runner up for the world championship) races for CAGIVA and constantly gains points.

- 1988
In the Spa Grand Prix (Belgium) CAGIVA conquers its first podium with the C588: the bike hosts a new aluminium frame with a curved rear fork and a sealed fairing, a first in racing.

- 1988-1990
CAGIVA constantly gains points in the GP.

- 1991
Eddie Lawson, three times world champion, joins CAGIVA and immediately gives a podium at Le Castelet (France) and an overall 6th place in the championship.

- 1992
In Hungary CAGIVA wins its first race. It is seen world-wide a just reward for the dedication the Italian team put in all these years to compete against the Japanese teams. 1993 CAGIVA is always on the lead: Doug Chandler is on the podium on the first race of the season and John Kocinski, enrolled by the team manager Giacomo Agostini at the end of the season, wins the race at Laguna Seca.

- 1994 CAGIVA has its most exiting season reaching the chance to win the championship. Kocinski goes on the podium 7 times, wins the Australia GP and classifies 3rd overall. 1995 New strategies push CAGIVA to retire from racing. In the 500 class the Japanese competitors are almost reached and the MV Agusta project is becoming more and more important. The investments get bigger, the technology starts to be applied to the prototype model for the mainstream. CAGIVA decides to concentrate solely on the development on what will soon become a jewel between motorbikes.

CAGIVA has written unforgettable pages in the history of Motocross, both national and world-wide in the golden age of the speciality.

- 1979
The "reds" from Schiranna start racing in international series and in the world championship with Renato Zocchi, immediately obtaining results on the 125cc class.

- 1984 to 1988
CAGIVA halts the Suzuki monopoly, an all time winner in the 125cc class, with a victory of the Finnish Pekka Vehkonen in 1985 and the Dutch Dave Strijbos in 1986. CAGIVA is always in the lead group: in the last race of 1984 in Luxembourg Corrado Maddii breaks his tibia while having 30 points of leadership and similarly in the last race of 1987 Strijbos loses the championship against Bayle. In 1987 and 1988, Vehkonen becomes overall second in the 250cc series.

- 1988
The last year for CAGIVA into Motocross: during the season the transition towards the new brand Husqvarna is gradually done using the blue/white colours. Cagiva is leading in the market too with the WMX125 and WMX250 models, European bikes known everywhere, including Brazil, Canada, China, Japan and New Zealand.

CAGIVA has always been present in the African Rallies: from the mid eighties, it contributed for 10 years with bikes, drivers and marvellous adventures.

- 1985: the team made up by Hubert Auriol, Giles Picard and Giampaolo Marinoni gains the 8th overall position with Auriol, and three manche victories with Picard and Auriol.

In the following years, CAGIVA is always leading the race and the show. Ciro De Petri wins in a crazy way, Hubert Auriol breaks both ankles, Edy Orioli wins twice, once with CAGIVA official team and then privately.

All this glory in the races becomes an industrial advantage: CAGIVA uses the Dakar experience promoting the Elefant model in various displacements continuously for 10 years. In various editions of the Rallies, CAGIVA wins 3 times the Pharaohes Rally and 2 times the Tunisia Rally: furthermore, it’s the frequent victories in the single manches that grant CAGIVA a record difficult to beat.

The evolution of Cagiva logo

- 1978
In the spring of 1978 the Elephant, lucky symbol Giovanni Castiglioni chose for CAGIVA shortly after the second world war, enters the motorbike world superimposed on the N.1 with the Italian colours inherited from the Aermacchi-HD.

- 1985
The Elephant takes all the attention in the new logo removing the Italian colours.

- 1987-1994
A new version is introduced highlighting the racing activities by putting a chequered flag on the Elephant's back to differentiate the Racing Division from the normal production.

- 2000
The Crimson centre designs a new logo based on the Elephant to better match the new models like Raptor, V-Raptor and Navigator.