Benelli/Motobi Machine Dating

Details of how to use the club's machine dating service: machinedating@benelliclubgb.net

Dating certificates for ‘classic’ Benelli and Motobi machines are free to members and £20 to non-members. To get your certificate, send the following to machinedating@benelliclubgb.net:

Three photos: one of one side of the bike (in the condition that it will be presented for inspection), one of the frame number and one of the engine number.
An address to send the certificate to.

Digital photos, sent by email, are preferred but please note the following:

Set picture quality to low resolution - a file size for the photo of between 50 and 300k in .jpg format is fine, and means all the photos can be attached to one email.
The photos may be clearer and have fewer reflections if you turn off flash, especially for digital photos. Photos taken in good daylight or with good background lighting usually come out best.
If you need to use flash for pictures of frame or engine numbers, then a photo taken at a slight angle, above or below, will show up the number best.
2C 250 and 125 engine numbers are difficult to photograph, since the number is shrouded by the bottom RH cylinder fin. A clear photo taken at an angle will be fine, or a photo taken via a mirror may give a better image. It is simple to generate the mirror image of a photo in the Adobe Photoshop software package which is used for cropping and enhancing certificate photos.
The clearest photos are achieved by supporting the camera or by mounting it on a tripod.

If film pictures are sent, these will be returned with the certificate. If you are unable to provide photos of frame and engine numbers, then pencilled rubbings are normally acceptable. These are scanned and added to the certificate in place of photos.

Pictures have to be clear enough for frame and engine numbers to be read from the photos, which means we don't have to carry out an inspection of the bike in person, at the present time at least.

Turnaround time is about one month for models for which there is plenty of dating information available. This generally covers 60s/70s/80s models. If you require a certificate sooner, please let me know.

The older the bike and the smaller the engine size, the more sparse is the information available about it. Club records cover all bikes that have been known to the club and a few more besides, and information provided by the Dutch Benelli club also. At present we do not have access to original manufacturer’s records, although we hope that these may become available in the course of time.

A website with a good deal of information on the various Benelli and Motobi models can be found at http://www.officinebenelli.it/index.php?place=home&argomento=principale