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« Last post by SkyPilot on Today at 01:40:57 AM »
Coming from Hondas and Harleys, when I bought my '23 V7 Special Red Stripe, the small shop owner waved goodbye and I was off for my ride home in the chill of April, 50 miles away. I went 2 blocks and immediately returned to the dealership. "I think something's wrong. It's got a lot of shake and is making some weird noises and it really clunks when I shift." He just chuckled and said, "It's a Moto Guzzi...perfectly normal." I headed off and road home shaking my head, wondering if I'd made the right decision buying it. The shake is what some call "characterful," and the weird noises were just the heavy clunk when shifting and the whirl sound of the shaft drive. I've ridden that bike over 6,000 miles in the last year and a half. I love the bike more today than when I rode it home that day. After 2 services, the most recent one by myself, the bike shifts smoothly, with just a predictable, yet deliberate more refined clunk, and the shake smoothed out quite a bit.
After a ride, the long way home of course, I have to wipe that silly grin off my face, so I look like the motorcyclist I am! At night, I sometimes find myself thinking about the eagle I saw that day, or the deer that watched me glide by, and then I dream of my next ride, and the next. After 60 years of riding, in my 70s now, I can't think of a better bike for me than my V7 Special...at least until the next Moto Guzzi. Perhaps a V85 TT or a Mandello S or a....