Introduction
The enthusiasm for two-wheeled vehicles that had characterized the 1920s, finding in Bologna fertile ground with important production and sporting conditions, was put to the test in the period that followed by the choices made regarding national economic policy.
From 1928, until the Second World War, the attention of the state authorities towards the engineering sector was gradually increasing with a long series of legislative measures: cataloguing of the companies; control and direction of production, from 1935, with the Autarchia; imposition to uniform motorized vehicles and to limit the variety of components, 1937; creation of a National Unification Board, in 1938, whose tables directed the companies towards the creation of a homogeneous vehicle supply in view of military usage; finally, in 1941, severe and detailed directives about the typologies and the numbers of vehicles to be built, the permitted cylinder capacities, the details and building materials.
The Bologna motorcycle industry had to work in this difficult context and in particular the three makes whose productive and commercial organization operated on a national basis: Augusta-F.I.A.B., G.D and M.M. The first, already in difficulties due to technical shortcomings, went bankrupt in 1933. G.D, whose popularity among enthusiasts bore no comparison to the previous decade, in the early 1930s had come up with some interesting models, before then starting on a slow decline, despite their commitment to the three-wheeler sector. Only M.M., thanks to the fertile mind of Mario Mazzetti and the careful management of the lawyer Salvia, was able to maintain their prominent role with extremely well designed motorcycles both from a technical and aesthetic point of view. On the Bologna scene, where some expert engineers – Alfredo Bondi, Giulio Bonfiglioli, Luigi De Togni, Gino Maglietta, Adriano Amadori (O.M.A.), Aurelio Paselli, Walter Sita, Amedeo Zappoli – over the course of these years produced interesting if fleeting and episodical creations, two new makes entered the arena, created by well-known and affirmed technicians, whose credit probably was not unrelated to the commercial success of the vehicles they produced: in 1930 production began of C.M of Mario Cavedagni, who had left G.D with his brother Ildebrando and Renato Sceti; in 1937 Alfonso Morini left M.M. to found Moto Morini.
Bologna was however able to offer skilled work for all the components of the motorcycling sector, right from the designing of the engines, in particular with the firm Laurenti e Drusiani. This latter, in particular, produced all the engines for C.M and F.B. of Milan, to whom they also supplied gear changes and transmissions. It is not perhaps a coincidence that also Demm, founded in Milan by Daldi and Matteucci of Bologna, then transferred to our territory, to Porretta.
In the sporting field, where the Bologna motorcyclists Sandri and Martelli reigned victorious, C.M and especially M.M. found success, setting World Records for speed, Italian Makers Championships and Category Championships, National Championships in France and Belgium, both in the 175 class and the 350. In Bologna the long arm of the regime had embraced this sector too, trying to involve the best motorcyclists facilitating the activity with a special Stable – the Olindo Raggi – or to recruit them in the Road Militia offering prizes and licences. The local fascist organizations had taken over the direction of the Moto Club Bologna and created district groups, to whom they had delegated the organization of competitive events and propaganda.
With the declaration of war, in 1940, Bologna firms faced hard times. Excluded from state orders, the development programmes on stand-by, the production of motorcycles at a standstill, permitted only to produce a meagre number of three-wheeler trucks, while work connected to the war industry was obligatory. Finally allied air bombardments completely destroyed among others the M.M. and Drusiani machine workshops.
