This is a motorcycle that I hate to love and love to hate. I love Moto Guzzi’s, always have. I love Cafe Racers since the first time I saw one. So when I first saw this V7 Racer, a factory made Guzzi Cafe – I felt my heart flutter. It is beautiful. Under the looks it has some things I really like. 5.8 Gallons in the fuel tank, you could ride this thing as long as your butt will let you. That V-Twin, facing sideways, allowing that Air Cooling to really keep things cool so when your hot, it’s chill and turning some lazy revolutions.
But there in lays the problem… those Revs are not just lazy, but damn near lethargic. The bike only has 48 Horses and 40 pounds of torque. What is this? The 60’s? Come on Guzzi… Well, yes, the machine is running on an electronic fuel injection. This is an advantage, and should help the 744cc engine crank out more Miles Per Gallon. Well, 47 to 50 MPG in the highway is pretty good, but not as big of a number as I’d have hoped, especially when the engine is so tired.
Here’s the thing… it’s expensive. 10 Large. It’s under powered. You are not going to be lifting the front wheel very much on this thing. But there is something about the V7 that wont let me look away. It’s beautiful and innocent… You just want to ride it hard and put it away panting.
Just like something else beautiful innocent and Italian… but I can’t remember what that could be…
Oh, yeah… A Ducati. Wait… What were you thinking I was going to say?
Don’t be filthy.
I have the V7 Classic Model. You are correct in that you will not lift the front tire on these bikes, but they are plenty fast and extremely agile. Twisty roads were meant for this bike. Style……..it has it in spades. The shaft drive and gearing feel like they came off an old tractor so don’t expect fast Japanese sport bike gear chnges. In all honesty this is probably a cafe racer for hipsters, but a very fun bike to ride nevertheless. I got mine for much less than $10k used, and if I were to replace the stock bars with clubmans and bolt a sick bubble fairing on it might be the coolest motorcycle ever. I put 100 miles on it on Saturday, and my wife said I smiled for the rest of the weekend. Nuff said.
TimG
Hi there. I own a bunch of bikes. My most recent is the Yamaha FZ8. It’s a modern Cafe racer. They now call them naked bikes. Well it makes aroud 100 horsepower, with 800cc. Gets 47 to 50 mpg. And I bought it new for less than 9000 out the door; tax, title , and asst. fees. And it looks cool to. Just a more modern cool. Blaine
Needs more supercharger.
Yeah, that’s pretty. But it wouldn’t have an easy time making it up the mountains, here.
I just imagine turning a Duc 996 engine sideways and stuffing it in there…
THAT would be something.
Jim
Is her name Ducati?
10 Large? *facepalm
For a little more than that, you can get ( I know, I’m a broken record ) a 1700+ cc that will take the front wheel off the ground right off the showroom floor.
And those pegs? My knees hurt just looking at them.
I know… I know… I’d have to take some pain meds, wait 30 minutes before I could even thinking about trying to jump on. But it would be worth it.
I guess I’d have to get the Classic version.
Used to run an 850T with lemans pipes and pegs-nice old thing, I kept it for 12 years. Not a “fast” bike by any modern standard, but a nice reliable decent handling machine. And it had “cool factor” in spades.
Almost as good as an XS650.
She sure is beautiful, but innocent?