From Giuseppe Visenzi to GIVI Success

Giuseppe Visenzi was born in Brescia on 22 January 1951. Today he is a successful entrepreneur who founded his won company – GIVI – a world leader in motorcycle accessories. When he was young, however, he set up a small workshop in the basement of his house where he used to prepare his own motorcycles for racing. In the sixties he scored many wins, including world ones, and established himself as one of the strongest private riders of the decade.

Giueppe Visenzi began his racing career in the late Fifties, running first with a Laverda 100 and immediately after with a single-overhead-cam Mondial. His first major race, the Castell’Arquato-Vernasca, dated back to 1958: on that occasion he seized victory with his first Mondial. After racing in lower divisions and junior categories, from 1962 onwards Visenzi made his debut in the senior one and placed third in the 125cc Italian championship riding a Ducati. With that same Ducati 125, a secondhand motorcycle, he also got his first points in the World Championship, finishing 6th in the Belgian GP and competing with the best riders of the time, such as Mike Hailwood, Luigi Taveri and Jim Redman.

Starting from 1963 Visenzi, whose headquarters were still in the small workshop in Via San Faustino in Brescia, rode an Honda 125, together with a bigger Aermacchi Ala d’Oro 250 and then replacing them both at the end of Sixties with various other motorcycles: 125 Montesa, Bultaco TSS 250 and Yamaha 250 and 350, with which he gained prestigious results both at national level and worldwide.

In 1963 he took part in several international races winning in Lyon, France (125cc), in Beveren Waas, Belgium (125 and 250cc), in Portorose, Yugoslavia (125cc) and in Laxenburg, Austria (250cc). He also scored a very significant fourth place in Spa-Francorchamps in the 125cc category. In Italy, for the 125cc category, Visenzi arrived third in Imola and in Sanremo.

That’s what he told a specialized magazine of the time: ‘This year I have ade big sacrifices and I managed to buy a Honda 125. It cost me a fortune. I would prefer an Italian motorcycle but where could I find it? By this I want to express my regret for the fact that our industry has not thought about building racing motorcycles for private riders, so as to raise a good lot of private riders to face foreign motorcycle manufacturers, which instead are grabbing the best riders and the most promising youngsters….

After having many ups and downs in racing due to the conditions of my motorcycle, in 1963 I decided to buy a good one from Honda, that manufacturer a 125 racing motorcycle that seems to fit perfectly to my needs. It did cost a lot but it was worth it; since then my economic conditions have improved and I managed to snatch some good prize; moreover, I had the joy of winning abroad. Slowly I am balancing my budget! After racing for 4 and half years I still run a deficit. The motorcycle cost me 3,200,000 lire, but selling my two old motorcycles only got me 450,000 lire while I earned only 1 million and 50,000 lire in prizes.’

With the same Honda and Aermachi motorcycles in 1964 Visenzi gained many other placings and scored a second place overall in the 125 Italian Championship with Honda. Visenzi also seized the 11th place in the Isle of Man Lightweight Tourist Trophy and the fourth place in the GP of Nations at Monza.

In 1970, when he had already decided to stop racing, he took sporadically part to some races in Italy with a Yamaha 250cc. That same year Vasenzi started his entrepreneurial activity, founding first Moto-market Visenzi, in Via Piave 113, Brescia, and then, in 1978, GIVI, a manufacturing company of accessories for motorcycles and scooters.