CarBrandLogos archive · Piaggio · 1967

PiaggioCiao

A moped stripped to its essentials and sold for four decades.

Photo: Daniele Serena · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Piaggio history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Piaggio Ciao, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Ciao was Piaggio's cheapest way onto two wheels. Introduced in 1967 and built until 2006 at Pontedera and at Arganda del Rey in Spain, it was a moped in the strict sense: a 49 cc air-cooled two-stroke, a simple frame, and pedals, which in most European countries meant it could be ridden without a motorcycle licence and often from fourteen years old.

Piaggio Ciao · Luca Scotellaro (luckyluc) · GPL

Design and engineering

There was almost nothing to it. No conventional gearbox for the rider to operate, minimal bodywork, a saddle and a fuel tank. That simplicity made it cheap to buy, trivially cheap to run, and repairable by its teenage owners, which is largely how it was used: as the machine that got a generation of Italian and Spanish adolescents out of their home town.

In production

It was produced in enormous numbers across nearly forty years, tuned relentlessly by owners, and it retains a following among collectors who value it for what it represents rather than what it does.

At a glance