Army vehicles marked Guzzi

In 1928 Moto Guzzi began to produce vehicles for military use. A strong bond was born between the Mandello-based company and the army and police corps hierarchies.

Crisis was looming and in 1929 it broke out in all its severity, affecting many sectors. The Guzzi factory was able to overcome the crisis thanks to its production of military vehicles. During this phase Guzzi created the Alce (moose), a symbol of Italian army equipment, and the Trialce, a dismantlable three-wheeler van, designed for being parachuted. Both offered the possibility of installing a light machine gun on the handlebars. The Trialce also represented Guzzi's first experience in the three-wheeler van sector, which continued after the war.

In the course of the 1930s, production of military motorbikes became important to such an extreme that, in 1935, upon order of the General Commissioner for War Manufacture, the Guzzi plant was declared an “auxiliary factory”. This means that all the staff members over the age of 14 became “mobilised civilians”, thus exonerated from military service.