Edgard Soares visits Motostory, since 1920

Last Sunday, February 12, 2016, will be marked in the history of the Motostory project – The History of the Motorcycle in Brazil, as the day the family of the mythological Edgard Soares visited our headquarters. Edgard Soares, the grandson, his wife Micaelle and the little Edgardzinho came to visit our office and present us with some of the most important original documents in our history. “You can use it the way you want, please. We are all Motostory!” Edgard said at the end of the visit.

I confess that it looked like a kid, lost at a the toy store, looking at that documentation. Crazy feelings … I had the chance to take a look at this treasure published in Edgard facebook page. I also had even seen part of it myself, when I visited him in his shop a few years ago. But get it here, all of this content in order to carry out our project … what an honor!

The documentation left temporarily under our care has an incredible amount of documents that tell the saga of one of the most influential families in our history, and still in its fifth generation, linked to motorcycling. In order to write about the various episodes of this true epic history will take some time, so I will not go into details today.

I’ll just take this news to talk about one of the albums left with us. “I do not know how to tell you why this album is among my family’s records, but it dates back to my great-great-grandfather Francisco Soares’s time, but everyone called him” Paco Soares. “It  has some original newspaper clippings and photos from the 1920s, and the brazilian Motorcycling of the beginning of the century! Have fun!” Edgard added.

I was looking at this album for two days, because I knew that there would be a link between the family of Constante Ceccarelli, from Campinas, and his B.S.A., or Francisco Soares (who does not appear in the material) and Antonio Lage, the main personage of the album and his Harley. Luigi Zanetti (Harley Typo 20), Guilherme Spera (Triumph), G. Gennaro (Triumph 4 HP), Luigi Zanetti (Harley Typo 20), Antonio Ardanuy (Guzzi), Kurt Wilhoft (Harley Typo20), Guglielmo Spera (Harley Typo 23) or their clubs, such as Sociedad Sportiva Paulista, or Palestra Italia, or Rio Moto Club, Federação Paulista de Cyclismo (who was also in charge of Motocyclismo activities at that time), International Cyclists Club, Sport Club Africano, Sport Club Lorena, among many others.

The competitions reported in the newspapers show three different modalities: speed, whether in smaller circuits or large crossings, such as São Paulo – Ribeirão Preto – São Paulo, those of regularity and the so-called ramp tests for motorcycles.

With these documents in hand, it will be possible to tell the story of Antonio Lage, and enrich the content we already have of the Ceccarelli and Bezzi families, as well as the Edgard Soares family, the cousins, the Carmona, and more.

Thank you Edgard and Gislene Soares for the warmth and confidence. Motostory thanks! Soon we will also have the stories of the Soares family!