Have you ever stumbled across an ad online where someone’s selling one of these unusual mopeds – the Garelli Gary Uno?

Or maybe you’ve just come across an image, or even a sales brochure of one like I did.

Either way – you’ve asked yourself, “what are Gary Uno mopeds?”

In this blog post, you’ll discover:

• Who made the Gary Uno moped
• What it is – and its specs
• Whether it was available in the US

Who Made the Gary Uno?

The company behind the Gary Uno is an Italian motorcycle, moped, and scooter maker founded by Sesto San Giovanni in 1919, known as “Garelli.”

Since then, the company has gone through a few bankruptcies before buyouts from other companies.

Then, in 2019, the company made a comeback, now emphasizing e-bikes and electric motorcycles.

But what about the Gary Uno?

In the late 1980s, Garelli had merged with Fantic Motor and became part of the FM Group.

Before the FM group went bankrupt in 1993, two mopeds were created – the Gary Uno and the Gary Due (the latter literally means “Gary Two”).

However, there’s barely any info about the Gary Due – the only thing I could find was this photo on MopedArmy.com.

Because of this, we’ll stick to the Gary Uno for this post.

So then, what is the Gary Uno?

The Garelli Gary Uno is at its core a 2-stroke, air-cooled moped.

Underneath, it’s a Garelli Basic with slightly more modern features – at least for a moped from the early 1990s.

Some of the modern features include:

• Electric starter
• Telescopic front forks

The moped’s design looks similar to a Puch Maxi, a Tomos Colibri, or even a Piaggio Ciao.

Like the Puch Maxi, the Garelli Gary Uno had an automatic gearbox and an air-cooled engine.

Where Were Gary Uno Mopeds Sold?

Gary Unos were mainly sold in European countries during the early 1990s, evidenced by this Swedish sales brochure from around 1990:

“A moped for everyone”

According to this sales brochure (which makes me nostalgic for some old-school cable television), the company selling Garelli Gary Uno in Sweden was the Sollentuna-based “KGK Suzuki AB.”

If it wasn’t obvious already, this company had sold Suzuki motorcycles – something they had done since 1982. 

But don’t assume that they’re no longer around – because they are.

Today, they’re known as “KG Motor AB,” although they still sell Suzukis. And Hondas.  

Was the Gary Uno moped available in the US?

Based on this workshop manual I found on Marty’s Garage, Garelli appears to have had dealerships in America.

The first page of this manual reads:

“A guide to servicing the Garelli 49cc moped engine – prepared for use by American Garelli dealers and technicians.”

It’s, therefore, a safe bet that Garelli mopeds were sold in America – even if the workshop manual contains no addresses or phone numbers.

But before you leap to conclusions, there are a few things about this manual that we need to take into account:

First of all, even though it mentions the Garelli band, there’s no mention of the Gary Uno anywhere in this workshop manual.

There is an image of a moped on page 26, but it looks like a completely different model entirely:

Garelli Gary Uno moped

And finally – while there’s no publication year on the manual, I assume it was published sometime in the 1970s – i.e., during the moped’s heyday in America.

My assumption aside, if this workshop manual was published in the 1970s, it couldn’t be the Garelli Gary Uno since it didn’t see the light of day until the early 1990s.

Sources:

• Myronsmopeds.com