Tag: Moto Guzzi

Dan does Tunisia…

Good buddy Dan in Baja.

Good buddy Dan is a young fellow I met when I was leading the CSC rides through Baja.  He’s the real deal…a serious motorcyclist who enjoys getting out and seeing the world on two wheels.  When I led the CSC rides, Dan was on every one of them, and we became good friends.  Dan also rides Moto Guzzi motorcycles, and most recently, he rode with a Moto Guzzi tour in Tunisia.  I was happy to receive this email from Dan yesterday about his north African excursion:

Joe:

Happy New Year – for me, the new year starts at the winter solstice. I hope you had a good year and will have a great holiday season.

I got my Christmas present early this year; a motorcycle trip in Tunisia. I flew to Milan and took trains to Mandello del Lario where the Moto Guzzi motorcycle factory is. I visited the Moto Guzzi Museum twice – it is only open one hour a day. A fantastic collection of motorcycles from their beginning in 1921. Then I took trains to Genoa where I met up with the tour group. The next day we took the overnight ferry to Tunis, and then the riding began. Seven days of riding, with lunch at the best restaurants and nights at the best hotel in town. Along the way we stopped and saw the sights – Roman ruins, an Ottoman fort, several oases, a famous mosque, salt flats, and a set from the first Star Wars movie, where I rode a camel. The trip was sponsored by Moto Guzzi; we were all riding Moto Guzzi motorcycles, and we had 26 motorcycles, several couples riding two up, two photographers, two mechanics, three guides, two support vans, and two spare Moto Guzzis. I may put together a trip report, meanwhile, this is a link to the Moto Guzzi report on the trip:

https://www.motoguzzi.com/us_EN/news/MG-Experience-Tunisia/

I did about ten thousand miles of motorcycle riding this year; my big trip in the US was home to Flagstaff to El Paso and home, with several stops along the way.

Dan

Dan, that’s an absolutely awesome report and a world class trip.  Thanks so much for sending the note and for giving us permission to post it on the ExNotes blog.   I’m reading the Moto Guzzi trip report now, savoring each photo and all of the descriptions.  Wow, it sounds like a wonderful adventure!

The 2018 Motorado Show

The Motorado vintage motorcycle show is held once a year on the eastern outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s a cozy show with a few hundred entries and the parking lot contains a few dozen more worthwhile bikes. I could go into one of my patented off-topic rambles only to bring you back to the show 500 words from now but I’ll spare you the agony. Here are a few of the motorcycles I found notable.

This year’s Motorado was Italian themed and the round-case 750’s came out in force. These are beautiful bikes but the non-desmo, spring-valve GT850 with its bizarre, Jetsons styling is the one for me.

Adjustable rear dampers on the mono-shockish Moto Guzzi Falcone. Also known as the Baloney Slicer for the large outside flywheel. The Falcone sports a 500cc lay down engine and were used extensively by the Italian army and Police force.

Italian-themed doesn’t mean Italian only. Motorado hosts all brands and style motorcycle. This Series C Vincent was blinding in the clear blue skies of New Mexico. Spotlessly restored and British, no one puts this baby in a corner.

In all ways unfortunate, this ’73 Norton High Rider was one of the first-ever factory chopper style motorcycles. Someone at Norton spent a lot of time screwing up a great motorcycle. I can’t imagine how they decided enough was enough but it looks like they just stopped styling on the bike and called it good.

Pre-unit vs. Unit Triumphs: Me being me, I prefer the pre-unit engines for their added complexity and abundant opportunities to leak. The long primary cover looks better too. Unit Triumph lovers are soulless automatons who should never be invited to parties.

The rare Bridgestone GTR350. Disc-valved, two cylinders, this bike was a screamer. Motorado had an unrestored example on display. The owner says he has about 100 motorcycles in his collection! The aluminum crossover intake ducting has only a screen to keep debris out of the engine so I’m guessing these things wore out fairly fast.

A couple of Ravens utilizing Moto Guzzi engines as they were never intended. The twin-cylinder model is shocking enough but the single with its rear cylinder blanked off takes the prize.

My internet buddy Wes dropped by on his H2 with bits and pieces from many years and even some 650 Kawasaki wheels. The whole of the parts exceeds the sum of the parts in this case. It’s a sweet bike and I should have killed him and stolen the thing.

I have about a million more shots from the show but you get the idea. Keep the date open for Motorado 2019 and I’ll see you there, maybe on an old Z1 if I can get the beast going in time.

More Joe Gresh stuff is right here!