Fantic Motor: 50 years of off road made in Italy

Fantic – The pavilions of OpenDream were the venue for the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of Fantic Moto. A brand that, through ups and downs, has marked the history of off-road motorcycling made in Italy. The evening will be hosted by the well-known DJ Ringo of Virgin Radio and also many guests from the world of industry, such as the president of Confindustria Veneta; of music, like Red Canzian and sport like Kristian Ghedina.

Doing the honors will be the founder of Fantic, Doctor Mario Agrati"Fantic was born in 1968. I graduated in 1967. I come from a family that has always worked in the motor industry. From there the idea of ​​creating a company that made alternative engines was born. Fantic stands for 'fantastic' and we wanted to create motorcycles for sports and leisure use. We started with go karts and mini bikes, moving on to motorbikes on May 2, 1968. Then we decided to invest in off-road vehicles at a time when there were only artisans, thinking of industrializing an artisanal product. The first Caballero was presented at the Milan fair in 1969: this is how our story was born".

"As soon as I graduated, I spent six months in America and some people introduced me to Bronco mini bikes and asked me to produce them. My father and my uncle weren't so keen on the idea and so I started making them myself - he added -. Then came the Chopper 50, a name we know the meaning of, and which we sold in quantities with interesting numbers. Then came the 125. A winning card until the XNUMXs was to understand the tastes of young people, who pleased the eye and had a philosophy".

Many guests, we were saying. We have reached someone. “Fantic was one of the historical brands during my childhood. My parents didn't want to buy me a motorbike so I used those of my friends. I remember very long afternoons in the garage to work on the engines – Ghedina told us exclusively -. Today the catalog is very rich, there are trials, cross, electric bikes and scramblers. I'm happy that the brand has recovered after difficult years. It's important for our movement and for our country." Journalist Nico Cereghini has also always been linked to the brand: “The Fantic Rocket is the first motorbike I tried in 1968. Fantic was a phenomenon because you could see the hand of the design, the idea, the colour. In a certain sense this brand anticipated Aprilia".

Fantic means off-road but also competition. The house ran and won with Walter Brissoni capable of also conquering the Six Days of the Island of Elba, or Maurzio Dolce, one of the greatest riders in the history of cross: “Fantic signed me up for the 125 World Championship. In Chiari they told me not to compete with my partner Michele Rinaldi. I started in the second row and thanks to the bike's length I managed to catch up with everyone else. The two heats ended in sixth and third respectively. For me it was the race of my life as Fantic is the bike of my life”. Without forgetting the exploits achieved during the great African raids with Beppe Guarini, capable of competing with honor in the Dakar and the Rally of the Pharaohs.

The final greeting could only be from the president of Fantic Motor, Tiziano Busin"I wanted to thank those who believed and invested in this project. In addition to ideas, financial aspects are needed and together we can look to the future with renewed optimism“. A future that will be characterized by electric: in addition to the ebikes already on the market, in fact, during the next edition of Eicma, Fantic will present the new E-Cab, the electric Caballero to write another important page in two-wheeled history.