When did you first see a Moto Guzzi and your thoughts...

[bobrebos]

Might have been about 1973 when I was about 16 years old.  But then again, Im so old I cant even remember what I ate yesterday!  Oh well, whatever model bike it was it must have been cool because I love the Guzzis!   

[Ronkom]

Early 1970's, with two partners I'm running a racing/dirt bike shop in Norfolk Va.  We were all racing MX on local tracks in Va/NC.  Dave McAllister, one of our "regulars" showed up one day on a V7 Sport he'd bought in Italy while in the Navy & had shipped to the US. Mac was MX racing a BSA, he built a trailer & would pull the beezer to the track w/his Sport. He also mounted a Velorex sidecar to the bike. My first Guzzi ride wasn't "on" a Guzzi, but "beside"....in the sidecar w/3 cases of beer at Daytona. Dave actually "flew" the car w/me in it heading down the boulevard past the Speedway...yee-ha! A few years later, after a move to Amherst County in the mountains of Va.,  I was selling bike accessories on the road and trailering a couple Moto Morini's around for Hermy @ Herdan up in Pa. Mac rode the Sport up from Norfolk for a visit. We took the Sport & a 3 1/2 Morini up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We swapped bikes & I had my first ride on a Guzzi. My thought at the time was "This is God's own locomotive" It was a couple more years 'till I got my sh** together & had a good job so I could buy my first Guzzi, a used Ambassador from a guy in Pittsburgh.
ronkom     

[Luke]

In 1980 I was working as a foreign car mechanic, I bought a Norton Commando from a guy, he was selling it because he had a Le Mans, that was the first Moto Guzzi that I had ever seen up close. It was very impressive and the owner said it was head and shoulders above the Norton, it was also way out of my budget.  In 1985 I was working at a small Moto Guzzi dealership while going to college. I took out a student loan and bought a wrecked Le Mans 1000 (IV?). That bike was my main transportation for several years and a part time race bike, I still have it along with several other Moto Guzzis, and a handful of Nortons. So many projects, so little time.