AJP Brand History
António Jorge Pinto (AJP) is a Portuguese motorcycle manufacturer, AJP being the initials of António Pinto and Jorge Pinto. The story of the company began in 1981, when 22 year old António Pinto opened a motorcycle workshop. Four years later, in 1985, AJP was founded and after a period of other 2 years, their first motorcycle was created.
In the same year, wearing the name of Antonio Pinto's daughter, the Ariana 125 was born. Only 25 units were ever made.
Eight years later, in 1995, the prototype AJP Galp 50 was developed. From the beginning, Antonio Pinto tried to sell this project to Casal, but the stars were against his intentions. So, he got money to start the production, but on that time the Portuguese market of 50cc bikes had suffered a crisis.
Casal, whose adventure started in 1953, was a real name in the motorcycle business, being the largest Portuguese bike manufacturer. At the beginning, it manufactured agricultural engines, but after a while Casal started designing and producing a lot of motorcycle models. Unfortunately, in the '90s, Casal experienced financial problems, becoming only a Suzuki representative on Portuguese land.
