Piaggio Sfera

The Piaggio Sfera is a scooter produced by the Italian motorcycle manufacturer Piaggio from 1990 to 1998; the word sfera means sphere or globe. It was presented at the Monte Carlo show in December 1990 and was the first Piaggio scooter made with a plastic body, designed by Luciano Marabese and built at Pontedera after a project costing over 50 billion lire. It won the Compasso d Oro award in 1991. The first series came with 50 and 80 cubic centimetre engines and was restyled in 1994, and the second series of 1995 added a 125 cc version with the first four-stroke engine Piaggio made. Two other scooters were developed from it, the Piaggio Quartz and the Gilera Typhoon, and the Sfera went out of production in 1998 without a direct replacement, the Piaggio Fly being regarded as its natural heir. A hybrid prototype, the Sfera Bimodale, was shown in 1991 and never built.