Gilera was founded in 1909 by Guiseppe Gilera, who, at the age of 22 produced his first motorcycle. Name the Gilera 317 it used a 317cc overhead valve engine with belt drive. The company grew very quickly and in 1920 moved to a large new factory in Acore just outside Milan. In 1935 Gilera aquired the Rondine engine design and used this as the basis for its highly succesfull race bikes for the next 22 years. The advanced four cylinder Rondine engine was also the basis for engines on many future sports bikes such as the MV Agusta and many of the Japanese sports bikes of today. In 1939 a Gilera Four, using a water cooled supercharged engine won the European championship. Gilera also produced the 500cc Saturno in 1939 which was to become on of the best known and most popular of Gilera bikes. In 1949 the company produced the Gilera Sanremo. After WW2 supercharging was banned and in 1950 Carlo Bandirola rode the 1950 Gilera Four to victory. Postwar engines were based on single and twin piston engines of between 100 and 500cc. From 1953 to 1955 Britains Goeff Duke won the world 500cc championships on Gileras. In 1956 Gilera's son, Feruccio, died and as a result the company began to decline and sales slumped. Gilera's last triumphs came in 1957 when Libero Liberati won the world championship on a 350cc Gilera and Bob Macintyre broke 100mph for the first time on the Isle of Man TT. Gilera sadly retired from racing at the end of 1957 ending more then 20 years of domination. From 1957 production was only in small numbers and even after Gilera was bought by Piaggio in 1969 it was still quiet. In 1989 Piaggio decided to use the racing heratage of Gilera's name to market a new range of small capacity motorcycles. Gilera also continued to produce its own machines such as the 1989 Gilera Nouvo Saturno, the Gilera 750 and in 1993 the Gilera Nordwest. In 1993 Piaggio closed the original Gilera factory in Acore ending 73 years of motorcycle production there. In 1996 the Gilera name began to become known again with the production of the Gilera Eaglet. A 50cc scooter using a cruiser style frame. This was to be the basis for Piaggio to market a range of sports scooters using the Gilera name and in 1998 the Gilera runner was unvailed. The Runner has become Europes best selling scooter and has brought the Gilera name back to the top. Origanly only available as a 50cc the Runners popularity promted the introduction of a 125 and 180cc version. The Runner is still outselling every other scooter in Europe today. In 2000 Gilera unvailed another original design on the form of the Gilera DNA. The DNA's clever mix of motorcycle and scooter is already proving extreamly popular. As with the Runner the DNA is currently only available as a 50cc but the 125 and 180cc versions will be out in spring 2001. Gilera have just unvailed their newest 50cc scooter. Named the Gilera Ice it is as radical in design as the Gileras of previous years. Also in 2001 Gilera re-ignited it former flame for racing when it anounced that it would be racing, in conjunction with Derby, in the 125cc world championship. In October 2001 Gilera won the championship-the first world title for the historic racing name in 44 years! In conjunction with this victory Gilera announced Its first new Motorcycle in 8 years and its first pure sports bike in almost half a century, the Supersport 600.