KRAM-IT  |  Early 1980s-late 80s  |  Italy  :

Kram-It carried the German Kramer name across the Alps and into Italian hands. The operation began towards the end of the 1970s at Arcore, north of Milan, where it first imported the German Kramer machines with their cantilever twin-shock suspension before moving to autonomous production under the Kram-It badge. The name itself was a contraction of Kramer Italia. A new company had been formed in Italy initially called Kramer Italia, and from 1982 it traded as Kram-It, at which point the firm became wholly Italian apart from the engines, which Rotax continued to supply.

The product line stayed faithful to the marque’s German roots in off-road competition. The range was dedicated to off-road models covering both motocross and regularity, and during the 1980s the company moved its base to Gazzaniga in the province of Bergamo, where the lineup was predominantly enduro, with Minarelli engines powering the 50cc machines and Rotax units used on the 125, 250 and 300.

A second brand entered the story in the late 1980s. In 1987 Kram-It took over the HRD marque, which had no connection to the English maker of the same name and had been founded in 1980 by Marabese. By the cybermotorcycle account the HRD initials stood for Happy Red Devils, applied to fast and elegant 125cc road models named White, Red and Silver Horse. That range, of Varese origin, made its mark with a 125 enduro powered by a Yamaha engine alongside the quick and refined road machines badged White, Red and Silver Horse. In the second half of the eighties this operation moved from Busto Arsizio in the province of Varese to San Vittore Olona on the far side of Legnano, but financial difficulties brought its motorcycling venture to an end.

Both the Kram-It and HRD marques were subsequently taken over by the Exy Engineering Group of Valmadonna, in the province of Alessandria, a concern that produced motocross and enduro machines.