If we had to single out one professional rider who, back in the day, first gave the impression that he’d steer motorcycle racing toward professionalism and modernity, that rider would undoubtedly be Giacomo Agostini. ‘Mino’ was born in Brescia on June 16, 1942, and demonstrated a calling for engines, something that until then had never been in the family.
He overcame the objections of his father, who didn’t want Giacomo to race motorcycles, and in July 1961 he lined up at the start of the Trento-Bondone hill climb, the first race of his life, where he finished second. After a couple of years and many Italian victories, Ago moved on to the World Championship, though only in 1965 did he fully commit to the top series, riding the Italian MV Agusta motorcycle.
In 1965 Ago already came second in both the categories he entered – behind Jim Redman in the 350cc class and behind teammate Mike Hailwood in the 500cc class. The first title – the first in a very long series – came the following year, when Giacomo became World Champion in the 500cc class. He didn’t stop until 1972, and repeated the feat in 1975. He was equally victorious in the 350cc class, gaining seven consecutive world titles between 1968 and 1974.
Only five years or so after his absolute debut, Giacomo Agostini had rightfully become part of the annals of motorcycle racing – but it wasn’t only through his wins that the rider from Lombardy made history. Giacomo may have been the first “real” professional rider ever, and in any case the first to understand that approach is as important as performance when competing.
Just a few examples are enough. Soon, Giacomo gave up overnight stays in the paddock the night before racing to avoid noise and distractions, preferring a quiet bed in a hotel; he also steered clear of bad habits prevalent among his colleagues, like smoking and drinking. His dedication included him personally and thoroughly checking the motorcycle apparently after the 1965 Japanese Grand Prix, when Ago lost both race and World Championship in the 350cc class due to a trivial electrical wire disconnection.
His meticulousness reached the point where he made his own race attire, initially consisting of a thin, lightweight black leather suit and a bowl helmet. Those simple early suits were little more than a ‘cover’; after sliding on asphalt, riders barely had any clothing left on when they got back up, as the one-piece suits from those years didn’t withstand abrasion and did very little in terms of safety.
It’s no coincidence that Giacomo Agostini, perhaps the only rider of this era concerned about protection, met Lino Dainese, a young manufacturer of leather motorcycle suits who’d only recently appeared on the World Championship scene but who’d already won a title a year after founding the company. Dainese was founded in 1972; in 1973, German Dieter Braun was World Champion in the 250 class wearing a suit made in Molvena.
Giacomo’s old suit initially incorporated 1 mm thick leather panels and weighed 1 kg in total – he asked Lino for a 2 mm thick suit, even if he had to carry twice as much weight. At the same time, he tried to improve the helmet. In the late 1960s, many riders still used bowl helmets, some wore open-face helmets, and the first full-face helmets were appearing.
AGV, a company with which Agostini already collaborated, produced the first full-face motorcycle helmet in Europe. Giacomo, however, was not satisfied with the early versions – too much vibration, instability, and the visor didn’t offer visibility comparable to that of an open-face helmet. But it wasn’t rejected outright – Ago was willing to collaborate with AGV to improve the product, as he understood it would have been a huge step forward in terms of protection. So, in the early 1970s and with Ago’s contribution, the final X3000 model appeared, the first full-face helmet used in competition by Agostini.
But Giacomo Agostini’s commitment to improving the safety of all riders went beyond that. In 1972, he witnessed the tragic death of Gilberto Parlotti, a fellow rider and true friend since his early racing years. The tragedy occurred at the Tourist Trophy, on the Isle of Man, a track then used for World Championship trials. Giacomo dug his heels in – such a dangerous circuit shouldn’t have been part of the racing calendar – from the following year onward, he refused to take part. His stance, along with that of others, led to the race being excluded from the World Cup after the 1976 edition.
Giacomo acted on many fronts, which also effectively helped to persuade other riders in a period – the 1970s – when the notion of safety was slowly starting to play an increasingly important role, also owing to the contribution of Dainese, which in 1979 introduced the first back protector in history.
It was already a glimpse into modernity, an early stance that, over the following decades, led to a rapidly increasing evolution of motorcycle racing in this direction. Both in terms of rider equipment – helmets became increasingly solid and suits truly integrated protection systems – and in terms of circuit safety, as city circuits were abandoned in favor of wide spaces with escape routes and increasingly technological protective barriers.
Giacomo Agostini. A meticulous professional rider, a forward-thinking man.
