Bella!! (Other Moto Guzzi...)

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Product:	Other Moto Guzzi...
Date:	12/08/00 (874 review reads)
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Advantages: big throbbing power and torque, comfortable, easy to live with, durable

Disadvantages: ancient technology, agricultural feel,

Bella!! Italian workmanship on the Le Mans may lag slightly behind the technical innovations to be found on the latest crop of Jap machines, but for me the pure throbbing power (oooer steady missus!) of that glorious V-twin wins hands down every time.

Le Mans comes in many versions, probably the best (some say) being the 850 Mark I. It has reappeared in various guises since, bored and honed to bigger and more thrilling sizes, but the Mark I stands out as THE machine i would die for.

Blackpool, 300 miles away? No problem, sir. Snow on the motorways? Yeah, well, who cares? An engine running on one cylinder? No problem for the big Guzzi; it ran for those 300 miles on one pot, after throwing an exhaust valve, and it never once missed a beat. The speed didnt seem to be affected either, and the journey was made comfortable by the torque of that big mother. And of course there was the diversion to spray WD40 into the lectrics every few miles!

Guzzis dont like wet weather, but hey, this is living! Show me a modern Jap bike that you can keep going with WD40!! The Le Mans, comfortable to ride, easy to throw about, low centre of gravity, easy to put on the stand, and those cylinders pelting out heat right where it mattered: on your damp, cold knees!

You either hate em or love em, but get on one and chances are you're hooked for life. Okay, it may have an agricultural feel to it, with gears that have to be thrown in by a lead foot, but you dont have to change gears!!! Swoop through 30 mph areas in 4th or 5th!! Try that with a JapaHondoSuki!!!

And that torque! Oh boy! Approach anything in top gear, slow right down to 10mph if you like, then give it a handful and away you go, without changing gear once! Torque like that comes from Heaven!

So there you have it! Like it or loathe it, the Le Mans, the cafe racer that has one big advantage over the rest; it may not be reliable at all times, it may leak, it may spit out e
xhausts like crazy, but hey...it's Italian!!! And it's red!!! What more do you want? :o)

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