Piero Gagni

On the morning of Sunday 25 October 2026, Gagni fell from his scooter in via Camozzi in Pedrengo and struck his head. A nurse who lived nearby gave first aid before he was taken to hospital, and the traffic police said they would review camera footage to establish what had happened. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, underwent two operations and remained in a coma.

He died at 10:04 on the morning of Friday 13 November 2026. Most reports gave his age as 75, while Bergamonews reported 74. Tributes came from across the sport. Casey Stoner wrote on Instagram that he would be forever grateful, and former Ducati and Honda team boss Livio Suppo thanked "Pierino" for everything he gave to the people lucky enough to meet him. Sky Sport commentator Guido Meda wrote a personal remembrance. Funeral details had not been made public at the time of writing. He is survived by his twin sister Lucia and two other sisters.

Piero Gagni was born in 1951 in Rocca del Colle, a rural hamlet that is now part of the municipality of Bagnatica, in the province of Bergamo in Lombardy, Italy. His exact date of birth has not been made public. He was the youngest of seven children in a farming family, and he spent his childhood working in the fields.

From an early age he was drawn to engines. As a teenager he modified his own motorcycle, and by the age of fifteen he was working in the village workshop. He later worked for a time at a car repair shop in Celadina, a district on the eastern edge of Bergamo. Those years gave him the hands on mechanical grounding that would shape both of his careers.

No formal technical schooling has been reported. Gagni learned his trade on the job, starting in a local workshop at fifteen and then in a car repair shop in Celadina. His years as a Regolarità rider completed that training, because in the discipline at the time riders were expected to repair and maintain their own machines during events.

In 1974 Gagni became a factory rider. For around a decade he competed in Regolarità, the long distance off road discipline that later became known as Enduro, riding for leading teams including Gilera, Zundapp, Fantic and SWM. Because of his small stature he raced in the 50cc and 80cc classes.

He won two European titles, in 1979 with Fantic and in 1982 with Zundapp, as well as Italian championship titles, and he took six gold medals at the International Six Days, the sport's most prestigious event. In 1975 he was part of the Italian team that won the Silver Vase at the International Six Days on the Isle of Man, alongside Pier Luigi Rottigni, Gualtiero Brissoni and Attilio Petrogalli. Guido Meda later recalled the havoc he caused opponents with a Fantic Caballero.

After hanging up his helmet, Gagni was invited into Grand Prix motorcycle racing by Giacomo Agostini, who wanted him in his Yamaha team. There he formed a partnership with fellow mechanic Fiorenzo Fanali on the bikes of Eddie Lawson. In 2013 Lawson told GPOne that Piero and Fiorenzo were the best mechanics he had ever worked with.

Over a long career with Yamaha, Cagiva, Ducati and Honda he worked with riders including Freddie Spencer, Tetsuya Harada, Jean Michel Bayle, Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau. At Ducati he worked with Marco Melandri, Carlos Checa, Troy Bayliss and Casey Stoner. He was part of Stoner's crew for the 2007 MotoGP title, Ducati's first in the premier class, and moved with much of that crew to the factory Honda team, where Stoner won the 2011 title. After 2012 he continued as a consultant for Honda. He had stepped back from hands on MotoGP work a few seasons before his death but still returned to the paddock often.

Alongside his road racing work, Gagni followed the Dakar Rally seven times as a mechanic, working with Italian rider Edi Orioli among others. Guido Meda wrote that he became Orioli's shadow in the desert and never complained about the hardship, because he had already lived through the toughness of Enduro.

Gagni lived in Pedrengo, near Bergamo. No spouse or children have been reported. He was close to his twin sister Lucia and also had two other surviving sisters. In later life he became a keen Harley Davidson rider, and he enjoyed riding in the Bergamo area with friends including Claudio Teruzzi. Casey Stoner remembered him as an inspiration for his fitness, still able to do single leg squats in his late sixties.

Colleagues described Gagni as reliable, dedicated and modest. Guido Meda called him one of the true men of motorcycling, "strong, essential and substantial", quiet and loud at the same time, gentle and always transparent. He valued people who shared his passion and would make a point of greeting everyone in the paddock one by one. He believed in the self reliant mechanical skill of the Regolarità era, when a rider also had to be his own mechanic.

Gagni is remembered as one of the rare figures who succeeded both as a rider and as a mechanic. He carried the experience of 1970s off road racing into the modern MotoGP garage and contributed to world titles for Eddie Lawson's era at Yamaha and for Casey Stoner with both Ducati and Honda. Lawson rated him among the best mechanics he ever had, and Stoner called him his trusted mechanic throughout his MotoGP career.

European Regolarità champion in 1979 (Fantic) and 1982 (Zundapp). Italian Regolarità champion (reports give two or three titles). Six gold medals at the International Six Days. Member of the Italian team that won the Silver Vase at the 1975 International Six Days on the Isle of Man. As a mechanic, part of Casey Stoner's MotoGP world championship winning crews in 2007 (Ducati) and 2011 (Honda).

Gagni featured in the Solo Enduro interview series "La chiamavano Regolarità" with fellow Italian Six Days riders Gualtiero Brissoni and Pier Luigi Rottigni, and in a long interview on the Passione Artigliata channel about his journey from 50cc racing to MotoGP success with Stoner and Lawson. After his death, Passione Artigliata published a video tribute, and his life was retraced by GPOne, Corse di Moto, Moto.it, Sky Sport, Crash.net and Bergamonews.