I’m in the process of restoring a ‘78 850 but I’ve never ridden a Guzzi. So I took a vacation to Italy, Mandello del Lario, in fact. They have a little factory there you may be aware of.
I tried to rent a modern V7 but had problems in Milan with my license, so it was a no go. Found a smaller rental agency that by chance just had a “cafe racer” Moto Guzzi, a V50.
With the paperwork in order, the owner of the rental agency started giving me the rundown on how to use the bike. I tried to cut him short and said, “Look, I have a 77 CB750 I know older bikes.” And he said, disparagingly, “this isn’t a Japanese bike.”
It most definitely is not a Japanese bike. The CB750 is absolute junk in comparison. Soulless. The little 500 felt better than any Honda I’ve ever ridden. They are almost alive.
When I was about to ride off he said to me in broken English that it’s like a horse, and like a toy, and I didn’t know what he meant until about the third day. It really is like a horse.
Well I figure it made sense that the first ride on a Guzzi ought to be to their factory so that’s what I did. And then I spent the rest of the time exploring around Lake Como. Those roads were made for that little machine. An 850 would be too much. The 500 was a joy, and I barely got out of second gear on the narrow mountain roads. The speedometer didn’t work, the rear brake (although linked) tended to shudder when warm, and the battery died on the first day. This made it a push-in-second-gear-to-start motorcycle, like a race bike.
Guzzis might not have the numbers in terms of HP or top speed or whatever quantitative metric you want to use to measure the best, but they are qualitative machines. They get the feeling right 100%. I don’t need to be Valentino Rossi and exceed 200mph. It’s just silly these days. But Guzzi captures the feeling. Wonderful machines.
I’m putting my Hondas up for sale when I return to finish funding my restoration. What incredible machines.
I’ve attached some photos of the trip and the factory.
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