Legnano Green

[czakky82]

I’m sort of torn between two colors for paint when the time comes for my V7 Sport. The only thing holding me back from the Legnano Green (sic?) is the unavailable color match. However I think I’ve found a decent match and would like some input.
The color is from Hyundai, lime twist (among other names) w9y.
Not to be confused with the Kia: aliens 2 color, which I don’t think is very close.

What say you?

Seems the closest off the shelf commercially available color I’ve seen.

[fotoguzzi]

Maybe not exact V7 green but after Black I think this the best color Guzzi ever used.

[BMCMOTO]

RS Motorcycle paint.
https://www.rsbikepaint.com/en-us/colours.php#makeid=104&modelid=3869&prodyear=1971
UK based business but ship quickly. Not particularly inexpensive (Guzzi content) but not much more if any than same quality US available paints in my experience.

Brian

[czakky82]

I guess one of the things that I like about the Hyundai color is the single stage w/clear of course.

[moto]

I’m sort of torn between two colors for paint when the time comes for my V7 Sport. The only thing holding me back from the Legnano Green (sic?) is the unavailable color match. However I think I’ve found a decent match and would like some input.
The color is from Hyundai, lime twist (among other names) w9y.
Not to be confused with the Kia: aliens 2 color, which I don’t think is very close.

What say you?

Seems the closest off the shelf commercially available color I’ve seen.

Seems too, well, lime green, rather than the weird lizard yellow that described the original Legnano green bicycles made by the Legnano bicycle company in Legnano:



It may be that Guzzi's "Legnano green" was always different from the original. Or not. It's beyond me.

Here's a closer match to the bicycle color I think:



 

[LowRyter]

Maybe not exact V7 green but after Black I think this the best color Guzzi ever used.

best color ever

[moto]

Not to change topic too much, but I came across a quote indicating there were two green shades for the V7 Sport's introduction to the U.S. market, "green and lime green":

“Regular” V7 Sports production started in November 1971, with production bikes using a thicker steel-tube frame instead of the chrome-moly tubes found on the Telaio Rosso. Moto Guzzi planned to continue painting the frames red, but a decision was made to finish them in either black or silver. Also, engine cases were now a smooth die cast, and the transmission featured external webbing. According to Falloon, crankshaft and connecting rods were no longer specially polished, and transmission gears were updated to deal with what was a rather fragile gear set in the original. For the U.S. market, the gas tank and toolboxes were finished in red (maroon), green or lime green.

--  Greg Williams, April 2014, "Sex Appeal: 1973 Moto Guzzi V7 Sport." Motorcycle Classics.

https://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-italian-motorcycles/moto-guzzi-v7-sport-zmwz14mjzmw/

I am beginning to wonder if Guzzi ever officially called one of their colors "Legnano green" back in the day, or if this appellation has been added retrospectively. Anyone have evidence about this from contemporary product listings or publications?

[czakky82]

@Moto, I noticed the separate color listed as well. Was there another green? They show a darker green V7 in Fields’ book but it looks like a much fettled bike with different seat and exhaust (from memory).
To further complicate things the “legnano green” never photographs the same twice…

What vehicle is that pictured? Subaru?
I’m not very well versed in cars.

[JJ]

Maybe not exact V7 green but after Black I think this the best color Guzzi ever used.

Always liked that color...with the red frame....including on the vintage models!

[LowRyter]

JJ, both are great colors but they're not the same.  ^^^^

[JJ]

JJ, both are great colors but they're not the same.  ^^^^

OK - noted...Legano Green for the modern model, so what's the name of the green color on vintage V7 Sport then?

[guzzi4me]

What vehicle is that pictured? Subaru?
I’m not very well versed in cars.

Yes Subaru Crosstrek.

[LowRyter]

OK - noted...Legano Green for the modern model, so what's the name of the green color on vintage V7 Sport then?

so far as I knew neither had a name.  Owning my Sport for 10 years and searching for any formal name about the color, this Legano name is the first I've encountered.

[moto]

Without pulling out all the examples, I found a number of photos of "original" V7 Sports with paint at least similar to Legnano Green, the color of Legnano racing bicycles.





Here is another original Legnano frame:



On the other hand, here is a photo from a Guzzi brochure showing the lime green paint on page 3 (from Greg Bender's site; this takes a bit to load):



https://www.thisoldtractor.com/moto_guzzi_more_topics_brochure_-_moto_guzzi_v7_sport-_850_california-_850_gt.html

There is another brochure showing what might be Legnano green on an actual Telaio Rosso racer on page 1, and a different, near-lime-green paint on the production model on page 2:





https://www.thisoldtractor.com/moto_guzzi_more_topics_brochure_-_moto_guzzi_v7_sport_-2_page-.html

Here are two contemporary cars from Plymouth, a 1970 and 1972 Barracuda, respectively:





I recall these Plymouths and other makes in similar colors to the second one. By the end of the 70's everyone was sick of them.

My opinion, given what I've uncovered, is that Guzzi did offer at least two colors of green. One was lime green, or close to it.

The other may or may not have been an intentional copy of Legnano green. In the U.S., we might have called that one either "green" -- since it was close to the green offered by automakers -- or maybe "Plymouth green," which is what I thought of it as, at the time. In Europe everyone with a pulse would have known the famous Legnano racing bicycles and their signature color (used from 1930 into the 1970's) so the Guzzi color might have been called "Legnano" as an informal identification, even if Guzzi just called it "green."

In America, only kids and teenagers who were unable to buy cars rode bikes, so no one would know "Legnano green." Over the years, Guzzi enthusiasts, reading accounts of the color from Europeans, began to think of Legnano green as some special Guzzi color, perhaps a factory racing color, instead of the bicycle color it was. What exactly the shade was became lost as motorcycles were repainted and as contemporary lime green examples were also found. In later years Guzzi itself issued at least one model in "Legnano green" that was really a brighter color. Perhaps Guzzi lost track of its own history, or perhaps it made a calculated decision to use the by-then mythical name for a different shade.

So, yes, there were two colors, one either called Legnano green by the factory or else by European observers well-familiar with the bicycle racers.

The Subaru in the picture is a 2021 Outback in a color called Plasma Yellow Pearl.

By the way, I think the authentic lime green might look very good on your Sport.

Moto

[blackcat]

RS Motorcycle paint.
https://www.rsbikepaint.com/en-us/colours.php#makeid=104&modelid=3869&prodyear=1971
UK based business but ship quickly. Not particularly inexpensive (Guzzi content) but not much more if any than same quality US available paints in my experience.

Brian

I'd go with RS, color matched the paint on my Daytona RS though it was kind of pricey but I only needed a little bit of paint.

[czakky82]

Alway great insight Moto.

@Blackcat, I’m a little scared of the base paint/color paint thing as a very amateur painter at best. I’m likely to go the Subaru route with the black decals, or black paint with lighter decals.

I will say that originally I was going burgundy but my wife who couldn’t care less about motorcycles or my re-hab projects wasn’t a fan. It’s funny how I’m still trying hard to impress her!

[moto]

json display


Upper right: a V7 Sport that I am convinced still has its original paint (the one called Legnano)

Upper left: the mocked-up paint scheme I gave my painter. The color was "eyedroppered" from the same photo of a Subaru I posted earlier in this thread. (By the way, the mock up is from an 850-T painted in red, with a white tank stripe. It might be from a forum member, but I have lost track. Sorry not to be able to give proper credit. My son did the computer work.)

Lower right: my T3 after the Subaru color paint job

Lower left: my Subaru Crosstrek in Plasma Yellow Pearl -- at dusk, showing a different color cast in the evening than in the daylight

The color looks a lot different in different light. I can meet up with you for an examination of the T3 before you make your decision.

Moto

[blackcat]

Alway great insight Moto.

@Blackcat, I’m a little scared of the base paint/color paint thing as a very amateur painter at best. I’m likely to go the Subaru route with the black decals, or black paint with lighter decals.

I will say that originally I was going burgundy but my wife who couldn’t care less about motorcycles or my re-hab projects wasn’t a fan. It’s funny how I’m still trying hard to impress her!

I don't blame you in terms of the painting as my ability to paint is not particularly good.  I sprayed the Norton frame and it came out OK, and probably better than what the factory did so I was OK with that level of painting but a tank, especially a V7 Sport in that color....nope. Fortunately I have a guy who can paint and his prices are not bad and it's professionally done.

[czakky82]

@moto, they all look great. I’m definitely not necessarily going for concourse repro here. Just decent DIY’er!

@blackcat, expectations need to reckon with reality. I’ve got a par (at best) mechanical feel but a very subpar amount of patience for cosmetics. Oh

[lucky phil]

I’m sort of torn between two colors for paint when the time comes for my V7 Sport. The only thing holding me back from the Legnano Green (sic?) is the unavailable color match. However I think I’ve found a decent match and would like some input.
The color is from Hyundai, lime twist (among other names) w9y.
Not to be confused with the Kia: aliens 2 color, which I don’t think is very close.

What say you?

Seems the closest off the shelf commercially available color I’ve seen.

https://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?/topic/17183-how-to-color-match-the-guzzi-lime-green/&tab=comments#comment-183698

Phil

[RinkRat II]

  Yesterday while tooling around town there was a Toyota TRD edition turned left in front of me in a color similar to the green you're looking for.



     Paul B 

[JJ]

Hey!  What about MY Legnano Pesto?!?

[moto]

I think I see the big picture, after consulting Moto Guzzi Big Twins by Greg Field, still a member here. Greg had help preparing his book from many historically important Guzzi employees, including Lino Tonti, the creator of the V7 Sport.

Here's what Greg's book says on page 59:

The legend of the Telaio Rosso..., the special, hand-built V7 Sports painted in colors chosen by Tonti himself to at once connect the new machines with Guzzi's glorious racing heritage and set them apart from all that would follow--a metallic lime green for the gas tank and toolboxes to suggest the zinc-chromate green of the 1950's dustbin-faired racers and bright red for the frame to hark back to the earlier Guzzi racers.

And here is a detail of a photo stated to be of a Telaio Rosso, and credited to Moto Guzzi, on page 55 of the same book:





(I set the white balance accurately using a white reference sheet, and trust that the publisher was similarly careful.)

The photo is a genuine Telaio Rosso; if it is zinc-chromate green there is not much, if any, green pigment. The yellowish color of zinc chromate predominates.

As for calling this color "lime green," it might be considered a very unsaturated hue, unlike the bright lime green in the OP's first picture, but I think today the bright version is what most people would think of. Limes do come in different hues.

So the suggestion is that Tonti chose the color of a primer that was used as the paint on one of the 1950's dustbin racers. Different shades of primer on different fairings can be observed at the factory museum, so the particular one that he chose would matter.

The main thing I take from this is that "Legnano green" was not Tonti's intent. He wanted an approximation of a Guzzi racing fairing in the famous primer. The term "Legnano green" was probably attached to the color later on as an informal name, as I suggested before.

All that said, the actual Legnano green used by the bicycle company still looks like a pretty good approximation to the hue Tonti chose (and Subaru Plasma Yellow Pearl looks better, if anything). I haven't seen any indication that the bicycle color varied over time.

Chasing the most authentic Legnano green is beside the point. It's a red herring.

Sorry to the OP for all the topic drift.

[czakky82]

Ha! Well I am getting an education here!  Thanks Moto for sharing your knowledge on this strange bit of Italian Moto lore.
To me, the deep hue and unique color alone is special enough. I’m not trying to match perfectly but I have something more to ponder now. Cheers!

[fotoguzzi]

I think you should paint it gloss black and red frame.

[fotoguzzi]

Just for kicks I found this in my “all” file. Don’t know if it’s original or not. I can’t even remembered who the owner is.

[Huzo]

Maybe not exact V7 green but after Black I think this the best color Guzzi ever used.

I just absolutely love those things.
Dave Swanson’s red V11 is just gorgeous too. I have never ridden a V11 Sport but I know I would just love it .

[JJ]

I think you should paint it gloss black and red frame.

[rocker59]

What say you?

Seems the closest off the shelf commercially available color I’ve seen.

I say that's a pretty close match.  I looked at a bunch of photos and most were retouched, but this one from a dealer's lot looks pretty cool:

[RinkRat II]

     I think Fotoguzzi is correct

        Paul B