Brief History of the Marque
The company was formed in 1955 in Gallarate as a bicycle factory.
The name Aspes is derived from Aspesi, maiden name of Maria Sorrentino. Maria's father Pietro Aspesi had been in the motorcycle trade before the war, and it was she who formed the company with her husband Theodosius Sorrentino and his brothers. [1]
In 1969, they introduced the Cross Special with a 50cc Minarelli engine.
In following years Maico and Sachs engines were also employed along with their own ASCO (ASpesi e COnsiglio) powerplants.
Their machines won laurels in the world championship races, in European leagues and the Italian, French, British, Swedish and South African championships.
The main focus of Aspes is motocross, and in 1971 they won the world championship with Felice Agostini, brother of Giacomo Agostini. Other Aspes riders include Alborghetti, Vertemati and Corrado Maddie.
The Milan Show of 1972 saw the introduction of the Hopi and Navaho models with 50cc Minarelli engines.
1976 saw Aspes begin production of the Yuma 125, their first street-legal model, and in 1977 they built a prototype 250cc which did not go into production. In the same year the Sioux single speed automatic moped appeared.
In 1978 the management of the company passed to Pier Mario, son of Theodosius.
In 1982 control of Aspes was acquired by Unimoto, based in Longiano in the province of Forlì, and there production continued until 1984.
The Aspes brand was purchased by Menzaghi Motors of Varese in 2008. The name was applied to a US-designed and Asian-built scooter with a Honda engine which charged batteries to run the electric motor which drove it, the Sirio Hybrid 50. In 2012 Aspes presented with considerable fanfare a similarly configured scooter, the Vega Hybrid 125 with a 125cc four-stroke engine and a 48v electric motor, which switched from electric drive to IC drive when the speed exceeds 20km/h.
An e-bike was produced, the Aspes Elios, with the motor mounted adjacent to the rear wheel.
An archive of the 2010 site: aspesitalia.com
Notes: (1) motoaspes.blogspot - the name is given elsewhere as Teodosio.
Sources: Moto di Lombardia, jonesmxcollection.com
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