The Imperiale was originally a 125cc, single cylinder motorcycle with styling based on a cafe racer
Renowned Italian motorcycle maker Benelli has recently filed trademark rights for the Imperiale brand. The name is not completely unknown as Imperiale was used on a MotoBi motorcycle and it appeared for the first time in 1957. MotoBi was set up back in the year 1949 by Giuseppe Benelli, who was one of the six brothers that laid the foundation of Benelli industries in 1911.
Later on, Giuseppe was made to move out of the family business and hence, he created the MotoBi brand on his own. After his death in 1957, the two companies Benelli and MotoBi got merged and they sold motorcycles with mutual interest for a while. Benelli is currently under the ownership of the Japanese brand QianJiang that has filed for trademark rights for the Imperiale.
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Originally, the Imperiale had been equipped with a 125cc, single cylinder engine but the upcoming new model is expected to come powered by a bigger capacity mill.
Benelli possessed the rights of the MotoBi until last year when the latter’s registration got cancelled over a trademark dispute. With this, the rights of the MotoBi are currently under Demharter GmbH that sells scooters under the said name.
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The Imperiale in its native form, used to come somewhat like a cafe racer. This brings to light the possibility that the company might be working on a big capacity cafe racer to establish its presence in the said territory.
Besides the Imperiale, Benelli is working on many more motorcycles that will be launched in the coming months. One of them is a 350cc to 400cc KTM Duke rival that is expected to hit Indian shores at the 2018 Auto Expo. The company will also be bringing the Leoncino Scrambler here sometime towards the end of this year.
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The Benelli Imperiale will likely be showcased by the company at the 2017 EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, Italy. At the same event, the company is also expected to bring the 750cc parallel twin motorcycle to challenge the Ducati Monster 797.