MOTO GUZZI: A Noble Brand

A Noble Brand

“Moto Guzzi has never created banal bikes: continuously improving technique and style, without betraying originality”

The biggest compliment for Moto Guzzi? The one from Carlo Emilio Gadda, considered by highly-respected critics as the greatest Italian writer of the last century. Gadda, not talented behind the handlebars but who did graduate in Engineering at Milan’s Polytechnic University, wrote in note 5 of his short story ‘At the park on a May evening’ (in L’Adalgisa – Milanese Designs – Einaudi): “Moto Guzzi” = Motorcycles made by Guzzi. Guzzi workshops at Mandello del Lario, a branch that turns to eastern shore around midday, a few bays and gulfs after Lecco. Scattered the village on the wide fan of detritus. Guzzi! Living name and I will say palpitating in the beating heart of every Italic rider.”

In the story, Moto Guzzi only appears as an extra (“A Ptolemaic carousel of rampant motorcycles, a multi-coloured photomontage of red or violet thunderbolts and used gasoline (…) In the spinning cosmos of Viscose and Moto Guzzi bikes…”), as opposed to an antiquated carriage, while strolling in the park on a spring evening; yet the author cannot resist the compliment. This is a clear demonstration of a sincere admiration, of which he himself was convinced, after having analysed the topic with the curiosity and interest that were part of his spirit.

That very same Moto Guzzi, in 2021 passed the milestone of one hundred years. Always remaining faithful to a concept that encompasses various characteristics, including one that has always been a general rule: avoid putting motorcycles without a strong personality into production.

“MOTO GUZZI Forever” – The book

Only the most enthusiastic, among the vast numbers of Moto Guzzi fans, are aware of the technical affinity between the single-cylinder engine of the ‘250’ racing bike from the Mandello company and the V12 of the first Ferraris. It’s a surprising relationship that comes from the great technician Gioachino Colombo‘s fascination with the engine that Carlo Guzzi had designed for the racing bike, which led the way in GPs with the names of ‘Albatros’ and ‘Gambalunghino’. In the post-war years, Colombo designed the engine of the first Ferrari and took the Mandello company’s concepts into consideration. Thus, the first V12 from Maranello to arrive at the inevitable limit of 3000 cc was a Guzzi multiplied by twelve.

It is one of the curious stories contained in this book that combines the events that characterized the history of the brand with the description of all the models that came out of the legendary Mandello del Lario workshops, both for road and racing.

A typically Italian phenomenon, deeply linked to the personality of the product, Guzzi has never created banal bikes: continuously improving technique and style, without betraying originality.

Faithful to the 90° V-twin engine, conceived for ‘fast touring’, Guzzi was able to demonstrate that even with a typical ‘road-going’ engineering technique a company could go racing. This is confirmed in the detailed account of the production-based motorcycle racing period of the 1970s and Guzzi’s even more sensational victories in the ‘Battle of the Twins‘ at Daytona, in the first decade of this century.

Would you like to know more about the extraordinary story of an Italian legend?
Then order a copy of Moto Guzzi Forever here: