Where we've been

Louigi Moto was started by Rich Llewellin and has been trading for over 25 years now. It hasn't been easy, but it has definitely been worthwhile. The business has moved to its third premises and continues to grow.

We now have a large service workshop with extensive machining capabilities, a clean room for engine building, an extensive parts store, an eBay shop, a storage area for over a dozen motorcycles, a Dynapro dynometer room, an office, a tea room (make your own!) and an entrance lobby.

Rich’s love of motorcycles started before he could even ride them, and only increased when he bought one for getting to college. After college he worked as a mechanic on a fleet of vehicles that included delivery trucks and executive cars where most of the workshop staff raced bikes and encouraged his developing racing skills.

After a few years of riding bikes to races, competing and riding home, he decided he needed a vehicle to transport them. This is when he started cutting up cars and modifying them, always with the aim to somehow fit a bike in! These times introduced him to a whole new group of people who were building hot rods in and around Bristol. So, inevitably he ended up racing hot rods instead!

A few years later Ducati stunned the world when they launched Massimo Tamburini’s masterpiece, the 916. It was love at first sight and Rich simply had to have one. A 916 was unobtainable so he bought a brand new 748 SP and went bike racing again. This was a special bike in so many ways and he still owns and races it to this day.

Life had changed in 1986 when Rich’s family started a hotel and he worked alongside his parents and brother to develop and run it until 2002 when it was sold. At this point he decided the next chapter of his life would be a development of the Louigi Moto race team he had started back in 1998.

Louigi Moto Limited has now been in business for more than 25 years. It has not all been plain sailing and we have weathered many storms along the way including recessions, economic downturns and Covid19 which have seen friends and competitors alike close their businesses. But we are still here and still have the passion and enthusiasm to work on these spectacular bikes for our customers. If anything, our enthusiasm is still building to this day and is shown by the success of our race team and supported riders who between them won 6 national championships in 2024 including a British ACU title.

(For those that have not figured it out, Rich’s full name is Richard Llewellin. When he started hot rod racing he quickly got the nickname of Loui. Then, when the love affair with an Italian motorcycle started in 1995 this morphed in to Louigi. From there, when the race team was assembled in 1998 it picked up the Moto from ‘motorbike’ and became known as Louigi Moto.)

Rich says:

“My customers and racers reward me with results and positive outcomes and I reward them with my years of experience to solve their problems.

Whether it is not enough grip, not enough power or whatever niggle is going through their brain.

All the bikes and riders that come through our company doors are given the same level of passion and experience from myself and my staff ”.