Special Report: Mota Guzzi
-,
AN ITALIAN CLASSIC
PREPARES FOR REBIRTH
By
several years been Guzzi's best-seiling model in its Italian home market,
and in many ways effectively kept the
company afloat pending its Aprilia
takeover.
This will be complemented by an
1100cc version using the six-speed
engine from the V 11 Sport, both with
aggressive styling aimed at creating a
shaft-drive answer to Monster mania,
as well as a couple of showbikes. The
"concept bikes" that Moto Guzzi will
exhibit during lntermot will be seen in
two different areas of the display,
named "Laboratory of Style" and
"Laboratory of Technology." The
concept bikes that will be shown at
Intermot, will be proof that, thanks to
its unique 90° V-Twin engine, Moto
Guzzi is able to project and build
motorcycles of different styles and
usage in a wide range, starting from
this design (pet-named the Tecnocustom) and arriving at the muchanticipated supersport models in
store for the future.
The countdown has begun to Moto
Guzzi's big comeback, now only one
year away.
eN
ALAN CATHCART
m TM boss Stefan Pierer has admitW
ted on the record that he came
very close to buying Moto Guzzi three
years ago - only, after agreeing on a
deal with the Italian trophy marque's
then-owners Trident Rowan, he slept
on the decision, and woke up thinking better of it! Aprilia owner Ivano
Beggio stepped in to buy the company and, since then, he and his righthand man, Roberto Brovazzo, have
been working flat-out on turning it
around.
In effect, Beggio and Brovazzo
have completely reinvented Moto
Guzzi for the 21 st century. The first
fruits of this will appear at Intermot albeit not in the form of the new
range of bikes powered by the new
large-capacity, overhead-cam, watercooled V -twin engine Aprilia has
under development for its Guzzi subsidiary (those will mak~ their debut
next year in Milan) but a new middleweight 750cc Naked bike based
on the air-cooled Nevada five-speed
custom model which has for the past
48
SEPTEMBER 1 1 • 2002'
cue
•
•
n
•
_
s
