The Mito is a small-engined Cagiva

Cagiva

Cagiva is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded in 1950 by Giovanni Castiglioni in Varese, originally producing small metal components. It went into the motorcycle industry in 1978. The name is a portmanteau derived from the founder and the founding location, i.e. CAstiglioni GIovanni...

 sports motorcycle

Sport bike

A sport bike, also written as sportbike, is a motorcycle optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on paved roads, typically at the expense of comfort and fuel economy in comparison to less specialized motorcycles...

. The powerplant consists of a two-stroke 125 cc single cylinder, with some models capable of producing over 30 hp in unrestricted form.
The Cagiva Mito was the first bike of Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi, , is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name – seven of which are in the premier class.Following his father, Graziano Rossi,...

, eventual 9 time MotoGP world champion. In 1994, Rossi had been provided a factory Mito by Cagiva team manager Claudio Lusuardi

Claudio Lusuardi

Claudio Lusuardi was an Italian Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. His best year was in 1982 when he finished in third place in the 50cc world championship, behind Stefan Dörflinger and Eugenio Lazzarini. After retiring from competition, he took on the role of race team manager for Cagiva.-...

 and cruised to the Italian title.

During the 1990s the Mito was the arch-rival to Aprilia's AF1 125 FUTURA and later the RS125

Aprilia RS125

The Aprilia RS125 is a GP derived replica sport production motorcycle. It is powered by a single cylinder 2-stroke, Nikasil coated aluminium cylinder block, liquid cooled 124.8 cc Rotax engine....

, a similar 2-stroke 125 cc race-replica.
The Mito was introduced in 1989 as the Mk I.