Responding to pressure from the east with scores of refinements on the Le Mans theme, the archetypal Moto Guzzi is just now ( after 30+ years ) making the jump to “classic”. A stable, torquey heavyweight, this particular Le Mans has been beautifully maintained and upgraded. 1984 Moto Guzzi 850 Le Mans Mk. III…
Moto Guzzi went back to the drawing board to meet emissions ( noise mostly ) constraints, and heavily revised the 850 Le Mans, keeping the air-cooled V-twin, but quieting some of the noise and critics. 1984 Moto Guzzi Le Mans Mk III for sale on eBay Revisions to the engine and bodywork led the way…
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,…