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| '''Moto Guzzi''' is an ] ] manufacturer that was established in ]. The company now specializes in 90° V twin engines. | '''Moto Guzzi''' is an ] ] manufacturer that was established in ]. The company now specializes in 90° V twin engines. | ||
| == Company History == | |||
| 1919 - 1928 | |||
| A horizontal single cylinder four-stroke 500 cc engine, four-valve cylinder head and overhead camshaft, bore 88 mm, stroke 82 mm. With the help of blacksmith Giorgio Ripamonti, Carlo Guzzi had just constructed his first motorcycle. The year was 1920 and the bike was presented to Emanuele Vittorio Parodi, a Genoese ship owner, who, after an initial loan of two thousand lire, agreed to finance setting up of a motorcycle production company. On March 15, 1921 at Mandello del Lario on the eastern shore of Lake Como, Carlo Guzzi, technical genius and designer, and his friend Giorgio Parodi, Emanuele’s son, founded the "Società Anonima Moto Guzzi". And so one of the world’s most famous makes of motorcycle was born. Carlo Guzzi and Giorgio Parodi had met a couple of years earlier in the air force and, together with motorcycle rider Giovanni Ravelli, nursed a burning passion for the motorcycle. Unlike almost all other constructors during those years of constant striving for performance, every component of the motorcycle Carlo Guzzi had in mind was rational and essential. First and foremost it had to guarantee functionality and reliability, right from that first prototype, so radically different from other bikes in its engine configuration and low-slung frame. A philosophy which has accompanied Guzzi products throughout the company’s entire eighty year life. | |||
| The first motorcycles bore the lettering G.P. (Guzzi-Parodi), but to avoid confusion with Giorgio Parodi’s initials, subsequent models were named Moto Guzzi. The eagle of the logo was added as a tribute to Giovanni Ravelli who died suddenly in an air accident. To promote the new make, Carlo Guzzi decided to make his racing debut immediately and on May 28, 1921, entered the Milan-Naples raid with the only two machines so far produced, winning 20th and 21st place. But four months were all it took to see Gino Finzi’s Guzzi come a sensational first at the finishing line of the famous Targa Florio. This was the start of that extraordinary series of 3,329 successes, 11 Tourist Trophies and 14 World Championship Titles which rewarded the Mandello company’s racing commitment between 1921 and 1957. This racing experience was also reflected in standard production machines in terms of quality, the adoption of technically avant-garde solutions and quantity, thanks to the amazing success which boosted the fame of the make among the public. The Sport series, introduced in 1923 with outstanding success (especially the Sport 15 model), was followed in 1928 by launch of the GT, the first Moto Guzzi with elastic frame, an innovation at first criticised then adopted by all constructors throughout the world. | |||
| 1994 – 1946 | |||
| The company’s growth was dramatic. In 1934, just 13 years after it’s founding, the 17 employees in the Guzzi factory at Mandello had swelled to 700. | |||
| This was the year when the famous Guzzi 500 twin made its debut, going on to dominate the World Championship circuits unchallenged with its highly original 120° V engine. | |||
| The definitive international racing consecration came in 1935 on the Isle of Man with the Guzzi 250 and 500 twin, both with elastic frame, victorious in the Tourist Trophy. | |||
| For the first time in history, a non-English bike had won what had already become the world’s most important race and Moto Guzzi went down in legend, together with the extraordinary racing protagonists of those years such as Tenni, Woods and, later, Ruffo, Lorenzetti and Anderson to name just a few of the Guzzi official riders. | |||
| In the 1930s, two new models were presented to the public, the P 175 and the P 250 with its derivations the P.E., P.L., Egretta, Ardetta then, in 1939, the famous Airone 250, for almost 15 years the most popular medium capacity motorcycle in Italy. For private riders, racing models such as the Dondolino, Gambalunga and Condor were developed. | |||
| After the war, the motorcycle market changed radically. | |||
| The war left Italy deeply scarred, with almost all roads damaged and the car accessible to the pocket of just a select few. The motorcycle thus became a key factor in the mobility of the Italians, partly thanks to technological progress which enabled highly efficient low powered motorcycles to be developed. | |||
| After the Second World War, Italians got about on scooters and the so-called «lightweight motorcycles» which attracted a much vaster public than their higher powered sisters, delivering an acceptable speed while being strong, relatively clean and easy to ride and handle. | |||
| 1946 – 1967 | |||
| These were precisely the principal characteristics of the Guzzino 65 cc, launched by Moto Guzzi in 1946. Designed by Antonio Micucci and re-christened the Cardellino in the 1950s, for more than a decade the Guzzino was the best-selling lightweight motorcycle in Italy and Europe, so much so that when the first rally was organised in 1949 just three years after its launch, 14,000 people took part. The unprecedented success of the Guzzino opened the way for production of other low capacity motorcycles from the Galletto, the highly original hybrid between a scooter and a motorcycle, to the Zigolo, a 98 cc lightweight motorcycle and the Lodola 175 cc, the last design to bear Carlo Guzzi’s name in 1956. At the higher capacity end of the range, in 1950 the then outdated GTV 500 (later renamed the Astore) was replaced by the Falcone 500, becoming the dream of the majority of motorcyclists in the 1950s. In 1949, the first World Motorcycle Championships were held and in the decade between then and 1957 when Moto Guzzi participated for the last time, the company managed to astound enthusiasts with a series of amazing wins, creating a succession of innovative and consistently successful designs and machines. | |||
| Alongside Carlo Guzzi, the racing team included top mechanics such as Umberto Todero and Enrico Cantoni together with a designer who became a legend, Giulio Cesare Carcano. After joining Moto Guzzi in 1936, he was responsible for creating the sensational Guzzi 500 Eight Cylinder. Considered by many as the most extraordinary two-wheeled machine of all times, with its 90° V engine, the Eight Cylinder boasted the most extreme capacity staging (?) ever achieved and demonstrated the exceptional technical level of the Mandello design department. As early as 1955 on its first official outing during the Belgium Grand Prix trials, the Eight Cylinder gave a hint of its extraordinary potential. The following year, with its 72 hp and 275 km/h it went out officially onto the tracks where it won its first triumphs. In 1957, the company’s withdrawal from racing, by common agreement among Italian producers, prevented further development of this spectacular machine. | |||
| 1967 – 2000 | |||
| The 1960s brought major changes for the company. With the death first of Giorgio Parodi in 1955 then of Carlo Guzzi in 1964, combined with the deep crisis hitting the motorcycling sector during those years, Moto Guzzi was acquired by SEIMM. During that time, the company focussed on lightweight machines such as the Dingo and Trotter mopeds, in great demand from the very young, and development of a new 90° V twin engine designed by Carcano which would become the symbol of Moto Guzzi until today. The Guzzi V7, launched in 1967, was the first fitted with Carcano’s V twin with a capacity of 703 cc. It was remarkably successful and, after the V7 Special with 750 cc engine, in 1971 the legendary V7 Sport was launched. This machine, with its elegant lines and exceptional stability, won extraordinary success. For the American market, the Special, California and Ambassador versions were developed. In 1973, Guzzi became part of the De Tomaso Inc. group and began producing a series of four cylinder engines, culminating in the Guzzi 254, to then refocus production on development of the V twin, always highly appreciated by the public and identified with the distinctive character of the Mandello company. | |||
| A Sport type frame and engine were progressively adopted for all subsequent versions of the V7 and in 1977 were also adapted to lower capacity versions such as the Guzzi V35 and V50, two models which provided the basis for the whole range of Guzzi machines in the 1980s, with particularly attention paid to design. | |||
| In the 1990s, from the California series to the Nevada and the V11 Sport, there was a radical revival of the Guzzi spirit. Today, Moto Guzzi, now part of the Aprilia group, has launched the new V11 Sport Rosso Mandello, fruit of that combination of tradition and innovation which has always characterised products bearing the Mandello eagle, representing the birth of a legend unequalled in the history of motorcycling. | |||
| == Model Information – to be expanded == | == Model Information – to be expanded == | ||
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Moto Guzzi is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer that was established in 1920. The company now specializes in 90° V twin engines.
Model Information – to be expanded
Singles V35 V50 V65 V75
Le Mans Several versions of the Le Mans (or Lemons as they were affectionately known) were produced, designated I, II, III, IV, V and V11 Lemans. The I, II and III are 850cc, the IV and V are 1000cc and the V11 is 1064cc. The first two models had rounded barrels while the latter have squared barrels. All models have shaft drive and make use of Dellorto carburettors. The late model V11 Lemans being Fuel Injected. The bikes were highly regarded for their styling and their performance. The torque of the engine and the frames rigidity meant the model was competitive at a time when Japanese manufacturers were taking over the European motorcycle market in the 1970s.
California The EV California series has been the biggest seller. The high quality suspension components and braking equipment keeps this machine out front of its competitors in this market
1100 Sport V11 Sport
General
Although many regard Guzzis as unreliable, it has been observed that a well-maintained Guzzi engine is highly reliable. Several machines have clocked over 500,000 miles with basic maintenance. The service interval of the older models is 3000 km and if this schedule this is observed the engine, partly due to its simplicity, should last. Later model has improved greatly on the service intervals.
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