HELP WANTED FOR V700 HISTORY SEARCH

[mark van lieshout]

HELP WANTED
Who can help me in my search for the history of this 1967 V-700, VIN VS32AB (European VIN number)?
Hi my name is Mark and I recently bought a very beautiful V-700 Guzzi bike and learned it has a very interesting history. A history waiting to be revealed! It travelled from Italy to the US and after several places in the US it left for Australia, where, 10 years later I found her in a barn. It still took me almost two years to get her to Europa again.
The history to me is known from today and goes back until the nineties and early 2000. My information is now that an in Italy stationed US soldier bought the bike in Italy in the early nineties during a tour of duty in the Desert Storm war. When the stay ended the bike was shipped to the US, Colorado. The V-700 was painted black instead of the red grey original color, and I received two pictures from 1996, with a Colorado plate number L036A. The owner in Colorado was the same US soldier and appeared to be a woman. Here in Colorado she also had a kind of governmental (law enforcement) job, but I am not sure what. She rode with a club with only law enforcement members. The biker lady, probably named Vicky, moved later to Jamul California and the Guzzi had a California license plate 17K5212. Here it was sold (approx. 2004) to someone in El Cajon and he restored the bike back to the original color scheme and that is how it still is!
My questions are: Who can tell me more about the history in the nineties until 2004? The Colorado time period? The story how the bike moved from Italy to the US? I would love to get in contact with the US servant and hear about the whereabouts of this Guzzi in Italy as well as in Colorado and California?
For all information please contact me on email: mark.van.lieshout@planet.nl
Or call me on +31 6 37295807
Many thanks for everything which helps me in my exciting search!
Ciao Mark
 
It was painted black during the Colorado stay






This is how it looks right now, just out of Australia, in my back garden!

[guzzisteve]

Interesting story. Good luck w/search on history of your bike.
In 1990 while working at a Guzzi dealer in S. Chicago Hts, IL a mechanic from a gas station there came into the shop and wanted parts for a V700 he was working on. It was a woman's bike, the 1st woman to buy a Guzzi in the US. She was 80 yrs old and wanted to ride her bike again. The only 66 model I have herd of ever. Well, I wanted it. She wouldn't sell it according to her wrench.  A few years later I started buying 700's cause no one wanted them, everyone wanted 750 & 850's to restore. So, I have 3 , a 67, 68, 69. Still looking for a 66. The old dealers I talked to that got them w/first brought in US by Berliner were offered 2 bikes in 66.
 

[mark van lieshout]

Nice story. I believe the very first V700 went from Italy to the US. Mine is from june '67, and is an early one produced for the Italian home market. There was a difference in some parts in the US types and the European V700. E/g/ the rear taillight was regtangular in the EU. and round in the US.
Thanks

[mark van lieshout]

Hi Guzzisteve,

There is one Italian publication in Motociclismo, june 1966, which reports about the 1966 V700 pre-series. It was painted in grey, and I pressume it was shipped to the US (or some were). There is also one publication in the same magazine in September 1967, and that is with the first real production serie in red and grey paint. Do you know if there was an US publication about those very first shipped in 1966 to the US? That would be very interesting.
Ciao Mark

[guzzisteve]

Hey Mark,  No I haven't researched any articles in magazines from the period. I just talked to a couple of the original dealers set up at that time. In 90 is when this took place. One had his own shop and had been a roadman(salesman) for Berliner, the other was our local dealer who is still alive and well. They may have gotten 67 models in 66. Same as 98EV's were here in 97. In Illinois at that time the bikes were titled the year sold, so if it was bought in 66 but was a 67 model it became a 66. All the books I have read showed an all grey one they were testing in 65. I don't know what color the woman's bike was painted.