Originally based on the Moto Guzzi 1000 Le Mans, the Magni Sfida is a tuner-developed special nearly unheard of stateside. Post-war, Arturo Magni started at Gilera and then ran MV Agusta’s race operations 1950-77, before he and his sons started a design and fabrication shop for low-volume sportbikes based on MV, BMW, Honda, and Guzzi…
Using the innovative Daytona 1000 engine, and occupying a more boulevard bike place in the line-up next to the 1100 Sport, Guzzi’s V10 Centauro was fun as a styling exercise and a powerful grocery getter. Though the basis for the modern V-twin was designed in 1971 by Lino Tonti, a significant upgrade was made in…
A dentist turned Moto Guzzi racer, Dr. John Wittner won several titles in the mid-1980’s, and lent his hard-earned expertise to the factory during the development of the 1000cc Daytona. Along with some consulting from Raceco ( an English racing tuner that had worked on the exciting Daytona racing prototype ), the collaboration produced the…
Today’s Moto Guzzi Daytona 1000 is the living, breathing result of an almost unbelievable underdog story. Italian and British motorcycle manufacturers never seem to lack enthusiasm. But cash? Well that’s always a problem. So while manufacturers like Honda have the financial backing of large companies to drive development and new technology, brands like Ducati and…
The Mark IV Le Mans increased displacement to 949 cc, and made few other updates to the venerable cafe racer that would take it into the 90’s and see the development of the 1100 cc engine. A neat closing chapter to the long Le Mans history, the big twin was fast if not super quick,…
Many of our readers will find it very appropriate that I’ve referenced a Ray Bradbury short story about dinosaurs for the title of this post. In a world of GSX-Rs and ZX-7s the Moto Guzzi Le Mans IV was indeed a dinosaur, long past its days as a world-class sportbike by 1987. But by then,…
In the late 1970’s, longtime U.S. motorcycle importers Joseph and Michael Berliner requested a 1000cc Moto Guzzi to compete with the BMW R100RS, and while Guzzi had a more touring oriented 1000SP, they capitalized on the Le Man’s good name and introduced the CX100. Built in 1979 and only 353 units, it’s quite rare to…
Following the final Le Mans model in 1993, Moto Guzzi introduced a similarly-styled model with an 1100cc engine. Guzzi had tested the waters for a 1000cc 4-valve overhead cam Daytona model in 1992-93 and decided there were still a couple of good years in a carburetted pushrod machine. With a revised frame and rear suspension,…