This two-cylinder 500 was the last motorcycle to be designed almost at the same time as the Arcore-based company was acquired by Piaggio in 1969. It was the swan song of the glorious Lombard industry
Agile, but not light, aesthetically very pleasing, the B50 500 two-cylinder four-stroke was the last Gilera designed before the Arcore-based company was absorbed by Piaggio, a transition that took place in 1969. This bike was designed by a great technician, the engineer Giuseppe Salmaggi, who was also the author of the unforgotten and unforgettable Saturno, a glorious vehicle from every point of view and of the Rumi 125 two-cylinder two-stroke. Salmaggi, moreover, was a designer who at that time lent his work and undisputed ability to various northern industries.
features
—
Even for those times, its power of 40 horsepower was certainly not exciting and it could hardly have competed with the Japanese competition which was invading Europe in those years, effectively aging all European production. All with the exception of BMW which has always maintained, and which still maintains today, its hard core of enthusiasts and collectors who have remained faithful to the Propeller brand. The B50 was also evolved with a forward twin-cylinder engine. It appeared to have a double overhead camshaft, but it really didn’t. Furthermore, in the future this engine would also be available in two different displacements: 350 and 750. The B50 was a model that had all the characteristics to be able to compete commercially with the Moto Guzzi V7s and the Laverda 650-750s which were the most popular in that time. Unfortunately that bike was judged excessively expensive, so the project was definitively abandoned before its production was decided. It was then that for many years Gilera only built fifties. In fact, about ten years passed before motorcycles with higher cubic capacity and more prestige arrived from Arcore.
Many versions
—
They made numerous versions of the 500 twin-cylinder at Arcore. The first, due to a previous project that had remained only on paper, came out in the first months of 1969, when the company was not yet under the complete control of Piaggio which had acquired it that year. In 1973 they created a second version in two variants: one red and black with only two silencers, the other green and black with split manifolds which gave the impression of being faced with a four-cylinder. In the last two variants, according to some rumors, the engine would have been set some time before by the technician Lino Tonti, who in fact had worked for two years in Gilera before moving to Moto Guzzi where he built the legendary 750 V7 Sport deriving it from the Special, born when the head of design was the celebrated engineer Cesare Carcano. In particular, the latest version of the most recent prototype, the green and black one, destined like all the others to have no production development, has even more Japanese-style details. It was already a more modern project, but was rejected on the grounds that against the “real four-cylinder” it would have had very little chance of success.
The passion for two wheels is rekindled: buy your entrance ticket to EICMA 2022 now