Guzzi Evangelism and a Future Guzzisti?

[Scud]

No coffee in the house this morning... so jumped on the LeMans. As I pulled into the local Starbucks, I noticed a car show getting started. Bunch of 60s iron, some modern sports cars (American and European), a few lead-sleds, some other oldies. Lots of dads with young boys. As I pulled in, one of the boys visually locked onto the Guzzi - hot Italian racing red and rumbly with my sawed-off Ti pipes. He tractor-beam focused till I parked.

 

While I was inside getting a pound of Komodo Dragon ground for the French press, I glanced out several times to see him still transfixed - no care whatsoever for the Ferrari, the Cobra, none of the cars... just gaping at the Guzzi and apparently lost in dream-land.

 

Reminded me of my boyhood fascination with motorcycles. I hope he's appropriately "scarred for life" and will be a Guzzisti in future.

[al_roethlisberger]

Heh, he probably will!   

 

I remember spending many weekend afternoons up at various MC gatherings in the Santa Cruz mountains where lots of more "esoteric" bikes would show up and the MGs would always get attention 

 

I saw my first V11 there, a red frame green Sport and immediately was smitten 

[czakky]

I saw a brand new 2000 v11 at a dealer in Mpls when I was 18. Finally scored one a few years ago. I know the "look"...

[al_roethlisberger]

I saw a brand new 2000 v11 at a dealer in Mpls when I was 18. Finally scored one a few years ago. I know the "look"...

 

Ouch, you're making me feel old 

[JBBenson]

Around 12 years old (1976-77), on a school field trip to San Francisco.

 

While lumbering up one of the ubiquitous hills, we heard behind us the (now familiar) howl of a Guzzi under load. My oldest friend, who was more motorcycle savvy than I, pointed and said "Look! A Moto Guzzi".

 

We watched it as it roared ahead of us on the left, the "Moto Guzzi" script visible on the back of the seat.

 

The name was memorable and easy to say. It seemed impossibly grown up and cool and rare and stylish. That sound! It defined the polar opposite of sitting in a yellow school-bus on a lame field trip.

 

I was hooked. I have had other bikes, but nothing really feels like a Guzzi.

 

To this day, when somebody stops to look at it and chat, even if they know motorcycles, I see the timid gleam in their eye: this very rare and super exotic beast looks and sounds just like a motorcycle should. They are in the presence of something special. Little kids just sense this. They know.

 

Everything else is just school-bus-lame.

[PDoz]

I saw a brand new 2000 v11 at a dealer in Mpls when I was 18. Finally scored one a few years ago. I know the "look"...

I guess that'd make you the guzzisti of the future ( I refuse to admit to feeling old)

 

Ps Scud - how's that poor kid going to explain to dad that his preferences lean the other way now. Surrounded by 4 wheel muscle men, he's developed a taste for a sexy italian mistress.....

[Scud]

 

Ps Scud - how's that poor kid going to explain to dad that his preferences lean the other way now. Surrounded by 4 wheel muscle men, he's developed a taste for a sexy italian mistress.....

 

 

Maybe he could try this:

 

"Dad, I think most of the sports car guys are p-whipped, and their wives won't let them get motorcycles. If you're a real man, you'll get us a V11 LeMans - the last of the hairy-chested Moto Guzzis."

 

BTW - I confess to hitting the throttle a little harder than usual on the way out; I thought the boy (guessing age about 12) needed to hear the "Guzzi under load" (per JB).

[Rox Lemans]

I saw a brand new 2000 v11 at a dealer in Mpls when I was 18. Finally scored one a few years ago. I know the "look"...

Same situation. Caught eyes on a v11 Tenni in 2003 and wanted a v11 since. Now on my second v11 after I sell the Triumph.

[Cabernet]

Stumbled on a V11 in a Motorcycle Accessories store in 2004. Week later I bought it. Still got it. No plans on changing the situation.

[Orson]

No coffee in the house this morning... so jumped on the LeMans. As I pulled into the local Starbucks, I noticed a car show getting started. Bunch of 60s iron, some modern sports cars (American and European), a few lead-sleds, some other oldies. Lots of dads with young boys. As I pulled in, one of the boys visually locked onto the Guzzi - hot Italian racing red and rumbly with my sawed-off Ti pipes. He tractor-beam focused till I parked.

 

While I was inside getting a pound of Komodo Dragon ground for the French press, I glanced out several times to see him still transfixed - no care whatsoever for the Ferrari, the Cobra, none of the cars... just gaping at the Guzzi and apparently lost in dream-land.

 

Reminded me of my boyhood fascination with motorcycles. I hope he's appropriately "scarred for life" and will be a Guzzisti in future.

Something similar happened to me as a kid although, not with Guzzis. When I wuz about 12 or 13 years old, we were on a family vacation waiting in the car to board the ferry to Vancouver Island. The first vehicles off the boat were two identical Kawasaki Z1s with sleeping bags tied on the grab rails. I wuz starstruck. The two riders were the coolest people on the planet, in my eyes.

 

Back to Guzzi content, i wuz walking around Amsterdam on vacation when I spotted a Guzzisti strapping on his helmet getting ready to ride. We made eye contact and I gave him a thumbs up. He gave me a smile and pointed to the bike as if to say,"All the glory goes to the bike. I just ride it".

[gstallons]

" all the glory goes to the bike. I just ride it " .. the most appropriate statement of all time .

[Zooter]

Cool story.

 

I think I was scarred as a kid by the biker gangs overtaking us on the highway in the 70's. All Triumps and Harleys ''under load'' as you put it. Mum would always say ''you're never getting a motorcycle''. Little did she know the virus was already in me.