Moto Guzzi has been building motorcycles since 1921, making it the longest established European motorcycle manufacturer in continuous production. The factory in Mandello del Lario, Italy, was the birthplace of several industry firsts—including the first wind tunnel for motorcycles, and an eight-cylinder engine.
Since 2004, Moto Guzzi has been owned by Piaggio, Europe’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer. Although production is not huge compared to the Japanese and American makers, the company is now on a stable footing and has a passionate fan base—attracted by the air-cooled 90° V-twin engines. The transverse cylinder heads projecting on either side of the bike are an easily identifiable feature.
Moto Guzzi is extremely popular with custom motorcycle builders, who tend to focus on the iconic Le Mans series of bikes built from 1976 onwards, and the V7. More recently, the ‘new’ V7 and V9 models have been a sales success, and have featured prominently in Moto Guzzi’s own ‘factory custom’ sponsored builds.
You’ve probably heard the word ‘bitsa’ thrown around these parts if you’re a regular here. For the uninitiated, it’s a motorcycle that has ‘bits of everything.’ Bitsas are the mongrel dogs of the custom motorcycle world… and just like mongrels, some of them are hard to look at. But others are cross-bred in just the…
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Moto Guzzi have produced some truly iconic motorcycles over the years, but they’ve also made some serious design missteps. We reckon the Griso lurks somewhere in the middle. It’s by no means ugly: in fact, it’s borderline elegant. And with 108 hp and 108 Nm from its 1,151 cc motor, it packs a wallop too.…
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Most custom enthusiasts refine and tinker with their bikes. Sometimes it’s to keep them in line with changing tastes and styles. Sometimes it’s to improve performance. And other times, it’s to fix age-related issues or the ravages of time. In the case of this sharp-looking Moto Guzzi, it was for all those reasons. It’s a…
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The launch of the V85 TT has boosted interest in dual-sport Moto Guzzis lately. And it’s about time: the competent Stelvio was killed off around three years ago, due to low sales and the cost of meeting Euro 4 emissions. If the new V85 TT is a little beyond your budget, one option is to…
Read more »Moto Guzzi has a rich legacy of building motorcycles for Italy’s civil servants. The V7 of 1967 was originally designed as a…
Read more »One of the wonderful things about customization is that it can breathe new life into otherwise unloved motorcycles. Need proof? Just look…
Read more »Kaffeemaschine is one of the big success stories in the European custom world. Founder Axel Budde specializes in high-end Moto Guzzi cafe…
Read more »Situated at the crossroads of passion and pragmatism, the team at Revival Cycles knows when it’s time to shred the establishment, and…
Read more »It’s around this time of year that all the top Japanese builders release their latest customs. Many workshops have spent weeks burning…
Read more »Clothing labels have been leaning on motorcycle iconography to market their goods for decades. Just look at Belstaff—the entire brand is virtually…
Read more »Moto Guzzi’s Bellagio gets a glamorous new set of clothes. Vladimir Putin gets a new motorcycle, with a little help from Kalashnikov.…
Read more »Would you customize a limited edition motorcycle? Moto Guzzi only built 600 units of the V11 Sport Scura, but that didn’t stop…
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