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Rumi-Gobbetto Motorcycle
Donnino Rumi was a painter and sculptor. They say he molded models with clay before doing full-scale prototypes in cast iron and aluminum.
Born in Bergamo in 1906, he was an apprentice at his father’s foundry and studied at his hometown’s academy of fine arts, the Accademia Carrara. But he took over the family business in the 1920s, and worked there full-time until the company shut down in 1962. From then on, until his death in 1980, he devoted himself exclusively to art.
The Competition SS52 motorcycle, also known as the Rumi-Gobbetto – an ironic nickname inspired by the shape of its tank, which is so long it seems to have a “hump” (‘gobbetto’ means “small hunchback”) in the front – was presented at Milan’s Bike Show (Salone del Ciclo e del Motociclo) in 1951. After a slight modification in 1953, production stopped in 1955.
So in reality, Donnino Rumi never quit creating art: his motorcycles can attest to that.
