Rieju

Rieju
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1934
Founder	Luis Riera Carré; Jaime Juanola Farres
Headquarters	Figueres, Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Motorcycles
Website	https://rieju.com

Rieju is a Spanish manufacturer of mopeds and motorcycles. It is based in Figueres. They specialise in small-displacement motorcycles (between 49 cc and 450 cc). Their products are available in almost all European countries.

History

In 1934, two young entrepreneurs, Luis Riera Carré and Jaime Juanola Farrés, founded a company to manufacture bicycle accessories. The name RIEJU came from the first letters of each of their middle names (RIEra + JUanola).

They bought some land and started to build a factory, but the Spanish Civil War thwarted their plans. The Republican Government confiscated the unfinished building and used it as a truck depot. A second storey was built above the existing premises during the war and was considered a payment of interests when the facilities were returned.

In 1940, once the war was over, Rieju resumed its industrial activity making bicycle accessories.

In 1942, Rieju was established as a Private Limited Company (Sociedad Limitada) with a capital of 1 million pesetas, and started to build, alongside components, their first bicycle models. The company now had 35 employees and an average of 30 bicycles were built each week.

In 1947 Rieju built their first moped, adding to one of their bicycles an auxiliary 38 cc four-stroke engine (built by Serwa of France) coupled to the rear wheel. This model had a power of 1 HP and a maximum speed of around 40 km/h. Two years later, in 1949, Rieju launched the "No. 2" model, now with a more powerful engine and a gearbox designed in-house. Later models (No.3, No.4, etc.) evolved the vehicle to give it a "motorcycle look".

In 1964 Rieju reached an agreement with Minarelli to manufacture their engines under licence, and launched the "Jaca" model, with 3.5 HP and a top speed of 70 km/h, but this was limited to 40 km/h due to moped regulations.

The landmark Jaca model was evolved throughout the 1960s and 1970s, giving birth to the Confort and TT models. In 1978, Rieju developed a moped with automatic transmission but it was not successful.

Production kept increasing steadily throughout the 1980s, with new and more varied models, placing Rieju among the top moped sellers in Spain. Also, Rieju bikes won several prizes in international Enduro competitions, raising the profile of the marque.

In 1994, the company opened itself to other markets and started exporting their models across Europe. By 2006, exports represented about 60% of their sales.

In March 2011, the manufacturer’s first electric scooter, the Rieju Mius, entered production at the plant in Catalonia.^[1] Also in 2011 saw the launch of many new Rieju machines, most notably the new RS3 50 and RS3 125LC. They are made in Spain and are powered by Yamaha-Minarelli engines.

In 2020 Rieju purchased the rights to Gas Gas's off-road motorcycle models.^[2]

In 2021, Rieju launched their first electric two moped the "Nuuk CargoPro", a 6 kW electric delivery scooter with a 100–120 kilometre range with a top speed of 90 km/h.^[3]

In 2022, Rieju launched their second electric scooter, the "E-City" designed for urban driving. The scooter was released with two variations, a 50 cc equivalent which comes with a top speed of 45 km/h with a range of up to 70 kilometres, and a 125 cc variation with a top speed of 75 km/h and a range of 160 kilometres.^[4]

Also in 2022 Rieju introduced the MR200 by equipping their MR250 with a lower displacement cylinder, head and crankshaft to capitalize on the success of the Beta 200 RR.^[5]

In july 2024 Rieju acquired the spanish electric scooters manufacturer Win Life Electric Vehicles S.L. including its intellectual property and the rights of the RAY 7.7 Electric Scooter.^[6]

In 2025 Rieju began development of their off road MR300i employing a similar chassis with an in-house redesigned engine which lacks a kick starter. The new engine contains a counter balancer (reducing vibrations), an electronic power valve, a diaphragm clutch and electronic fuel injection with dual fuel injectors. ^[7]^[8]

Competitions

The first victory of Rieju in Endurance was in the 1979/1980 season, when Jordi Piferrer Taulé, riding a Marathon machine, won the 80 cc category of the Spanish Championship.