Moto Guzzi - Wikipedia

[Tom]

This is for the new guys that bought the bike and haven't read or are just exploring the history of the brand.  Good info.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moto_Guzzi

[Tusayan]

A lot of good detail, I imagine written by somebody employed by Piaggio who did a lot of research on the company history.  As I would expect with Piaggio involvement in mind, John Wittner’s 1980-1990s contributions to Guzzi engineering and model development are almost completely ignored, with he being relegated to being a ‘craftsman’ and not a factory employed engineer who originated several very significant models (that aren’t mentioned), and he is also mischaracterized as a ‘highly skilled pilot’ (meaning competition rider, direct translation from Italian).

It would also have been nice if they’d mentioned Federico Martini, the engineer who led Piaggio’s design of the V100 engine that was then put on hold for a number of years before final development and production, during which he died.   

https://www.cycleworld.com/2013/06/04/new-moto-guzzi-liquid-cooled-v-twin-engine-work-in-progress/

One interesting thing is that Giulio Carcano is noted as “being in service to Moto Guzzi until he died”.  I’ve been led to believe exactly the opposite: when the Italian government took over in 1967 and everybody including him was forced to reapply for their job, he simply didn’t and never looked back.  One floor of his home near the factory is BTW an expensive B&B nowadays but one day I’m going to stay there just for the experience.

[moto]

... One interesting thing is that Giulio Carcano is noted as “being in service to Moto Guzzi until he died”.  I’ve been led to believe exactly the opposite: when the Italian government took over in 1967 and everybody including him was forced to reapply for their job, he simply didn’t and never looked back.  One floor of his home near the factory is BTW an expensive B&B nowadays but one day I’m going to stay there just for the experience.

No need to rely on hearsay here. Greg Field got the facts by interviewing Carcano, Todero, Tonti and others. You are right about Carcano. The writer is confusing him with Todero, no doubt, who served as the number two man to both Carcano and later Tonti. He worked for Guzzi at the factory up until his death. Carcano, on the other hand, went on to a successful career designing exotic motorboats.
Anyone who felt like it could improve that Wikipedia article by writing new text with citations to Greg Field's work.

[kfz]

I completely rewrote the LeMans page and also redid the Tonti bike page but the WIKIPEDIA gods turned on me and refused to update the Tonti one.  Its rubbish and has a lot off errors and omissions but because I only sited books and Guzziology they refused as it wasnt first person accounts.  The page was removed the previous page reinstated.  The Lemans one stuck and is still up.

I can only try.

Kev

[kfz]

The 1000s page is also been taken down now. 

Still super proud of the LM page though,  its nice model history now with lots of tech details and support data.

Be nice to expand  the Dr John info in there.

Kev

[Tusayan]

No need to rely on hearsay here. Greg Field got the facts by interviewing Carcano, Todero, Tonti and others. You are right about Carcano.

Yes, among other data I’ve got a copy of Greg’s interview notes that also include some unpublished info.  However, when quoting such stuff (including that which was published) I prefer to say I’ve been led to believe it instead of quoting it as fact.  I did meet Todero once, but never interviewed him.

Apparently the worst thing Carcano would say about his time at Guzzi was that “it was an interesting period” even after the bureaucrats essentially threw him out.  I think he was involved with sailing boats versus motor boats, but I didn’t interview him either.  I sure would like to have met him and others who once did so much after walking to work every day in the little town of Mandello. When I was there in 1998 and he was still alive I asked the guide showing us around the factory (in my weak version of Italian) whether he was still walking, meaning healthy.  The guide who had worked with Carcano replied “no, he prefers to ride a bicycle”