A Brief History of the Italian Marque
Oreste Garanzini, born in 1887, started working very young and during the first war worked in Legnano at the Officine Rossi Elettromeccaniche then moved on to the Legnano bicycle factory where he became technical manager of the cycling sports group.
In 1919, the agency assumed overall sales for Italy of the Verus which Alfred Wiseman had founded that year in Birmingham.
Garanzini opened a store on Corso Genova, Milan, with a workshop initially at Via Ariberto and later in Londonio.
Racing success is a great advertising medium, and soon the shop in Genoa became a meeting point for motorcycle enthusiasts in Milan.
Garanzini raced a Verus powered by a Blackburne engine which he extensively developed and renamed Veros.
With this machine he won the Italian 350cc championship in 1921, scoring four first places and an additional five podium placings.
The following year he began producing motorcycles under the JAP-Garanzini marque, concurrently building the Veros brand until 1925, when the British Verus factory ceased production.
Veros motorcycles had many racing successes with riders Virginio Fieschi, Attilio Cavalleri, Gino Attolini, Amedeo Ruggeri, Erminio Visoli, Edward Loreti and others.
Riding a 350cc Veros, Erminio Visioli won in 1924 the Competition Consumer Parco Sempione in Milan, a demonstration organized by the magazine Motociclismo.
Motorcycle production by Orestes Garanzini increased, and to meet the demands of customers the manufacturer transferred to a factory in Giambellino which was larger and better equipped.
JAP engines were fitted to the motorcycles and the 1922 catalog offers two 350, one 500 Sport and a Sport 500 twin, all with the trademark JAP-Garanzini or Garanzini-JAP on the tank.
In 1923 the builder-rider won his second Italian championship, this time in the less heavily contested 250 class.
In 1924 the name O. Garanzini was adopted for the marque - the O. was necessary to differentiate the machines from those of his brother Francesco who manufactured motorcycles under the brand MFG. but was known to the customers simply as Garanzini.
In 1926 Oreste Garanzini, after producing about six hundred motorcycles equipped with British engines, began production of the model CTO 250 with shaft-driven overhead camshaft and oil bath, and another OHC model, the CTA 250 with chain-driven cam and magneto.
New models in 1927 are an OHV V-twin and a Gran Turismo with 350 Villiers two-stroke engine, both presented at the Milan Fair.
In 1928 the the economy, already bad under Mussolini's fascist state, became worse and motorcycle sales suffered a significant decrease.
Garanzini reduced production and the 1928 catalog listed only a few models, the only addition being an economical 175 JAP side valve.
In 1931 the brand Garanzini disappeared from the list of Italian manufacturers and the ingenious builder-rider opened a garage that became a car dealership in Milan on
Via Perugino.
Sources: Moto di Lombardia, Tragatsch p143.
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