The Big Car Database

Nassetti Motorcycles

Ettore Nassetti Officina Meccanica di Precisione of Cesare Nassetti & C. based in Milan.

It was founded in 1934 and specialized in the construction of generators and flywheel magnetos fitted to the engines of major motorcycle brands of the time.

In 1953 they opened a plant in San Pellegrino Terme where they produced an auxiliary bicycle engine named The Pellegrino in versions AR and AR2.

The engine was improved in later series named Alba and the more evolved Brunetta.

Their mopeds had a pressed steel backbone chassis which incorporated the tank and were powered by a two-stroke engine with a horizontal cylinder.

These were followed by conventional chain drive mopeds with three-speed gearbox gearchange pedal, models FC3 FC3 Aurora.

Later in the fifties they produced the Sery and Dilly series. These were conventional mopeds the sports and turismo versions.

The Dilly had a 49cc two-stroke engine producing 2 hp, and the Sery a four-stroke ohv engine. The sports version was good for 70 km/h,the turismo somewhat less.

Nassetti displayed at the 1956 Milan Salone a scooterino with large wheels and a 3-speed two-stroke engine Around five examples of this stylish prototype were built, only one of which is known to have survived and is exhibited in an Italian collection.

When Nassetti closed its doors, the Belgian importer found a scooterino in the warehouse and apparently shipped it to Belgium where a dealer looked after it for the next 47 years.

The machine was then sold to someone in the Netherlands, and then found by an Italian collector who returned it to its country of origin.

In the early years of ciclomotoristica Vittorio Alfieri appears to have worked with Nassetti as an engine designer.

He is credited with the invention of the magnetic sump plug.

Credit: Moto di Lombardia, Henshaw