Gilera 50 5V trial

In October 1971, Gigi Crosa, a 24-year-old student from Genoa, decided to attempt the difficult challenge of riding to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, 5,895 metres. Gigi had always loved travel and adventure: at 16, he rode across France on a Vespa, and in 1969 he travelled 19,000 km from Turkey to Zambia. In Nairobi, he met a group of Italians who had just climbed the mountain. Infected by their enthusiasm, he decided to make the ascent on a scooter and in 1970 began studying the mountain to find a practical route without rivers, together with his brother Nicolò, who would go with him. For the expedition, they were supplied with two Gilera 50 5V Trial bikes, a model yet to go into production, with a series of adaptations to optimise performance during the ascent. The exhaust was fitted with a special hot air conveyor to prevent the fuel in the carburettor from freezing; replacement sprockets were produced to exploit the power of the engine in relation to the incline, and the front wheel was replaced with a studded tyre to give better adherence to the difficult terrain. Thus equipped, the brothers left for Mount Kilimanjaro, for a three-day ascent. They began the ride at an altitude of 1,400 m and after a few kilometres were completely alone: around them, only nature and silence, and a strange feeling of freedom combined with solitude. At 3,600 m, they stopped and slept in an igloo tent at -14°C. Back in the saddle, the landscape became harsher, with lava sand and the increasingly rarefied air making it difficult to breathe. They wanted to reach the summit but decided, after six hours of riding, to stop at a height of 5,180 m. Although they failed to reach 5,895 m, the Crosa brothers broke all records for motorbike ascents: this singular trial demonstrated the exceptional technical features of the two Gilera bikes and enabled the brothers to become acquainted at first hand with a legendary mountain one reads about at school and imagines to be unconquerable.