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The joys of Moto Guzzi…

scottmastrocinque

scottmastrocinque

GT Godfather!
GT di Razza Pura
Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
5,853
Location
Lima, Ohio
After working all day on Harley-Davidson motorcycles today, I am so looking forward to riding my California Vintage home tonight.

She is 10x better than any Harley-Davidson made, smoother, sounds better, definitely handles better, and the odds of seeing one coming the other way at me is ZERO.

I love being a Guzzisti!

Only regret is that I wish I was at the 100 year celebration right now. I was supposed to go last year and was all set but COVID-19 said “NO”.

This year, I couldn’t pull it off. Bummer galore.

Sigh…

Oh well, I’ll be there in my mind as I ride home.

Life is a beautiful ride! 😀

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Harley's ; 3/4's of the way through the last century , I was one of 10 Canadians able to attend the H-D school in Milwaukee. quite the experience , not to mention it was almost as cold as Ottawa ! Was interviewed in the early 80's about considering taking on the job
of western service representative ( in Canada) , sounded amazing at the time , but , family etc. changed my outlook . Continued working on them for most of the next 2 decades (in that time returned to their school at York for V-rod training). For reasons beyond me I just couldn't get away from them , even though I'd spent quite some time on Honda's , Yamaha's etc ( I try to forget how much time was spent on British bikes at that time , long ago ). Early 2000's I moved to Vancouver and worked at Trev Deeley's Harley Davidson ( the Canadian importer) for about 3 years and then finally broke away from my HD involvement . Haven't looked back :) ! They did keep me employed though . That's my HD rant ! Peter
 
Unfortunately Peter, I truly have a love-hate relationship with Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Some things on some Harley-Davidson I love. A lot of things I hate. Mostly, I love to hate them.

Only the most obscene lip-service is paid to the concept of “engineering” at Harley-Davidson. They wouldn’t know engineering if it jumped up and bit them in the ass!

Also, it’s sad but true that only a Harley-Davidson makes me grab SAE and Metric tools to work on the same stupid motorcycle!

This is especially true with Allen head bolts of which many of my customer’s motorcycles have rounded out Allen heads all over the bike because of this lunacy.

Who the hell at Harley-Davidson thought “Oh yeah, we’ll use both kinds of fasteners on our motorcycles, with no rhyme or reason to guide it.”

Harley-Davidson. An American disaster area, since 1903. 😩
 
scottmastrocinque said:
Unfortunately Peter, I truly have a love-hate relationship with Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Some things on some Harley-Davidson I love. A lot of things I hate. Mostly, I love to hate them.

Only the most obscene lip-service is paid to the concept of “engineering” at Harley-Davidson. They wouldn’t know engineering if it jumped up and bit them in the ass!

Also, it’s sad but true that only a Harley-Davidson makes me grab SAE and Metric tools to work on the same stupid motorcycle!

This is especially true with Allen head bolts of which many of my customer’s motorcycles have rounded out Allen heads all over the bike because of this lunacy.

Who the hell at Harley-Davidson thought “Oh yeah, we’ll use both kinds of fasteners on our motorcycles, with no rhyme or reason to guide it.”

Harley-Davidson. An American disaster area, since 1903. 😩
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Harley Davidson not withstanding, unfortunately a lot of your countrymen wouldn’t recognize a Metric spanner if they tripped over it, (I speak from experience). On the other hand I worked for a Spanish marine company where a large proportion of the work was on Mercruiser and Mercury engines and there wasn’t a SAE spanner or socket in the shop. Thankfully I own both. Don’t even mention Whitworth or BSP. That’s another can of worms.
 
Oh I disagree. All import cars and motorcycles here are metric. Most American cars are using metric bolts. Harley-Davidson just refuses to go one way or the other. They vacillate between the 2 making it a nightmare on the same motorcycle. I flipping hate it.
 
scottmastrocinque said:
Oh I disagree. All import cars and motorcycles here are metric. Most American cars are using metric bolts. Harley-Davidson just refuses to go one way or the other. They vacillate between the 2 making it a nightmare on the same motorcycle. I flipping hate it.
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We shall agree to disagree. On another note I took the bike from Menorca to Mandello last year for the Centenary, as I had accommodation reserved for more than two years, although enjoyable it was a very understated affair due to Covid. Not feasible for me to take the bike this year but I am flying out tomorrow to stay with my brother who has accommodation in Lecco and hopefully enjoy the weekend festivities at Mandello. Commiserations to those who can’t make it but will be thinking of the GT family.
 
I’ve been riding this California for the last 3 days as I am doing some repairs to my Piaggio MP3 tilt locking mechanism.

❤️❤️❤️

I am always so blown away how absolutely lovely this motorcycle is to ride!

It’s significantly lighter than most of the behemoth touring motorcycles they make nowadays and it handles so easily. The riding posture is completely relaxed and just everything about this motorcycle has a nice gentle cadence to it. It’s completely “not frantic” in any regard.

Surprisingly, when I was a very young man, my first Moto Guzzi love affair was with a California and I guess I still love this platform so very much. I thought I was a SP kind of guy but my knees hit the fairing edge and the California fit me the second I mounted her. Only the Mille GT (I do love standard style motorcycles, hence my 1200 Sport) struck as strong a chord in me as a California but alas, I never found a pristine used one for sale in all these years.

It’s a testament to the California’s hold on me that when I was in my 20’s, I brought home a brand new 1100i and parked her right next to my Ducatis. My riding mates thought I had slipped a gear or two in my brain, calling her an “old man’s” bike. I laughed it off as I found the change of pace, lovely.

Fast forward 40 years and as I really age now, I love this California even more. Heh, what’s not to love about this absolutely pristine 6,000 original mile example? 😀

Owning 5 Moto Guzzi motorcycles, (so fortunate and blessed) I am frequently asked which is my favorite or if I could only keep one, which would it be. Granted, I am unlikely to part with any of them but if I had to cling to only one, although I adore my Stelvio, she’s really big to me and a handful to mount and dismount for a short and squatty terribly arthritic Italian like me, the California is just “easy” for me. “Easy like Sunday morning” as Lionel Richie would say. 😍

She would win, hands down.

It truly is a shame the 1400 didn’t excite me more. I wanted an Eldorado SO BAD. Yet every time I rode it, it left me rather uninspired.

I’m sure that the new water-cooled V100 engine will make an awesome California model. I am excited to see one in a year or two.

I’m positive they will build it and most likely, I will buy it. God willing.

As I stare into my garage at 5am this morning, I am filled with one emotion, gratitude.

I am grateful for the beautiful blessings in my life.

Moto Guzzi motorcycles have given me so very much joy and fulfillment.

I sincerely hope they do the same for every Guzzisti.

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These all normally live very neatly in my workshop. As I needed the space temporarily, I brought them back home. Now, I need to clean up my garage! 😆😆😆
 
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8,317 original miles. 1,000,000 more to go!

Early morning physical therapy appointment. Gentle ride over there.

I cannot get over how lovely this motorcycle is. What a joy.

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I normally ride her without the windshield as I prefer no shield most times.

The gorgeous top case is a beautiful leather constructed accessory. Very functional and characteristically Italian in style. I love it.

I also have the factory tank bag but no photo. I shall have to remedy that! 😀

The photos below are from 2019, when I acquired her in Kansas City, MO. It was a sweet ride home to Ohio.

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Did somebody say Yellow :D . No matter what I've ridden to rallies in the US this year , everyone asks
me , where's the Yellow one ? Peter
 
Yes but isn't your hello one a BMW R1100S? My first Centauro was the 2 tone grey over dark grey. It was my favorite. The Yellow is rather bold to say the least, but it has grown on me over the last few years.
 
Wow! It looks great, but I could not even think about riding something like that for more than a few miles. My back hurts just looking at the seat/handlebar position!
 
GerryAZ said:
Wow! It looks great, but I could not even think about riding something like that for more than a few miles. My back hurts just looking at the seat/handlebar position!
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Wow, really Gerry? I'm surprised.

I admit, the riding posture on my Stelvio NTX is by far the most comfortable of all my mounts, as I am sure your V85TT is very similar, but the California Vintage doesn't have excessively wide bars and it too, is a nice, upright, relaxed riding posture to me. :)

NEVERMIND.. BRAIN FART. Yes, Peter's Moto Guzzi Chopper makes my spine hurt too, just looking at her. He's a brave soul indeed!

Now, if Peter says that he rode that bad girl all the way up the Alaska Highway to the Arctic Circle, then I'm going to have a retro-active heart attack and more than a few herniated discs in my back! :D
 
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