guzzisti91
Tuned and Synch'ed
There are only 2 reasons i would ever sell my Guzzi: to get another one or i move to a country i can't ship it to. Australia's getting too hot for me (coming from someone who was born here), so i'm looking to move to Switzerland, which appears to be Guzzisti central - most common bike dealerships in the east appear to be Guzzi. 1 in each town! & used ones are dirt cheap. Never seen so many dealerships anywhere, so maybe i'd kill 2 birds with 1 stoneI remember the day clearly. I was filling my car up at a service station in Essendon (Melbourne Australia) when I heard the sound of engines approaching. Engines that sounded like nothing else I'd ever heard. I looked down the road and saw two bikes headed my way. One red & the other yellow. As they got closer, I saw they were sports bikes. Now, I was vaguely aware of Moto Guzzis, but until that point I'd never really paid much attention to them. But now, I saw their cylinders out in the breeze and recognised the make of bike immediately. Their riders gunned the engines and there is no other way to describe this - I heard God.
To this day, I tell detractors that God rides a Moto Guzzi...
Two Sport 1100's gleamed in the low morning sunshine as they roared past me. And I was hooked.....
My Honda 750/4 K2 never appealed to me from that moment on. I bought every bike magazine that contained Guzzis I could find.
It was some time later, 2003 in London when I test rode my first Moto Guzzi - a yellow Centauro. Frigging awesome. Rough and mean and very quick in my limited experience. I ended up buying a G5 for its ability to handle my luggage. I rode around England and France and loved every moment on that bike.
In 2006 I had moved from working on cars to motorcycles. There was a 2001 Cali Stone gathering dust in the showroom where I worked. It was dressed up as a tourer with running boards, panniers and screen etc. and looked UGLY! One quiet day, I thought I'd take it for a run to clear its throat and then, without permission, I put it on my bench & stripped all that excess stuff off until it looked like a motorcycle I'd be happy to own.
Well, the boss did his nut when he saw what I'd done, so I went to the finance dept, got a loan and bought it.
I commuted 950 kilometres every week for almost two years and it never ceased to amaze me just how capable it was touring as well as scratching.
There were a couple of speeding fines and once a country-copper pulled me over for speeding. Bless his cotton socks, for he was happy to look the bike over and let me go with a warning!
Well, I've still got that bike. It's had a few modifications over the years and now hits an indicated 240kmh. Even allowing for speedo error, that is moving!!!
Nothing lifts my mood quite like it.
I'll never sell it.