Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128207
Ghezzi & Brian Mota Guzzi Furia orthy and individual as they undoubtedly are, Moto Guzzis suffer from an image problem for any potential customer short of middleaged. This difficulty is presumably caused by the Mandello-based marque sailing so close for so long to financial meltdown. The strain on development budgets has quelled Guzzi's ability to think fresh and tool up for new models, rather than keep on reinventing the same old range of products. There is also the fact that the air-cooled pushrod V-twin engine that propels them has remained essentially unchanged for the past 30 years, ever since the company's then-chief engineer Lino Tonti (who recently passed away after a long career fighting against the odds to produce mechanical works of art for impoverished firms like Bianchi and Paton, as well as Guzzi) used an engine originally concocted to power a three-wheel delivery truck, to create a distinctive line of motorcycles still in production today. Of course, a similar mechanical scenario hasn't hurt Harley, and the fresh air currently being breathed into what was frankly a moribund marque by its new Aprilia owners will surely succeed in kickstarting Moto Guzzi's big-twin comeback a year from now, when its range of bikes powered by an all-new engine is launched at the 2003 Milan Show. But just as HarleyDavidson has finally gone modern with the Superbike-derived V-Rod as a high-end product yet continues to base the bulk of its model range on its archaic two-valve push rod motor, so we can be sure that Moto Guzzi will continue to do the same into the foreseeable future. The trick is in packaging it right - and here Harley's had the crucial help of its former engineering employee, Erik Buell, whose single-minded sportbike stance has enabled the Motor Company to target a whole new generation and completely different sales sector from its traditional model lineup, via the uniquely-styled, imaginatively-engineered Buell range of sportbikes. In fact, Harley-Davidson management liked it so much they bought the company and even created a dedicated new engine for Buell, W 38 APRIL 2, 2003' II: U II: • e as installed in the radical XB9R Firebolt launched earlier this year. That's a mark of support for you. Well, for Harley, read Guzzi - and for Buell, read Ghezzi & Brian, because the Latin parallels with the company which Erik built are uncanny, and not just because of the perimeter front brake shared by G&B's models and the Buell Firebolt, or the fact that both of them were born out of Battle of the Twins racing. If Guzzi's AprHia management has any sense, they'll act quickly to get behind the small but successful specialist manufacturer of Guzzi-powered sportbikes headquartered in Perego, a hillside village in the Italian Lake District not 20 miles from Guzzi's factory on the shores of Lake Como - just as Harley did with Buell before eventually buying the company from him. There's no need yet for Aprilia to go to that extreme, but as proved by a trip to Perego to ride the sexy-looking streetrod bearing the apt-sounding Furia ('fury') name launched at the last Milan Show and now entering production, Ghezzi & Brian is a company which has already resolved the problem of Moto Guzzi's rather staid image via its dramatically-styled, improbably youthful-looking product range, presently consisting of two bikes, both powered by Moto Guzzi's venerable two-valve push rod engine in fuel-injected VII Sport guise, of which the Furia is the newer. The G&B factory, housing handmade production of the Furia and its Supertwin sportbike sister by the n e _ lIS firm's six full-time employees, is currently somewhat improbably parked out back of the engineering warehouse that is 51-year-old partner Bruno Saturno's day job ("Brian" to his friends, on account of there being so many Brunos in the entry list during his days as a Formula 3 car racer, before he started racing a bobsleigh and then ended up smitten with a passion for motorcycles!). pending upcoming removal to a three-timeslarger purpose-built plant in the nearby town of Missaglia. This reflects the astonishing surge in demand for the company's products and especially the aggressive-rooking Furia, and just looking at the test bike glinting in the summer sunshine tells you straight away why. This is a Guzzi with attitude, a serious streetrod like no Mandello motorcycle ever was before. Its minimalist styling, with sculptured 4.16-gallon fuel tank and the stacked pair of sit-alone ellipsoidal headlamps (same as those fitted to the Buell Firebolt, KTM Duke, and Ducati's new 999) surmounted by a tiny vee-shaped deflector screen, sends out an unmistakable message. This is a bike pleading to be ridden hard, repaying its rider's commitment with a level of performance nothing previously made with a crossways Vtwin engine, shaft drive and a license plate, ever delivered. No compromises. Sling a leg over the broad but thinly-upholstered seat - at 31.6 inches high, it's half an inch lower than the Ducati 900 Monster which the Furia can't help but be compared with - Distinctively styled, yet purposeful. Meet the Ghezzi & Brian Moto Guzzi Furia. which is mounted on a neat subframe curving outward at the rear to provide passenger handgrips. Though you wouldn't want to ride from Naples to Milan sitting on it, the seat is nevertheless quite comfortable enough for street-rodding sessions, and you feel at once a part of the bike, snugly tucked in with your knees neatly gripping the swathed cutout in the fuel tank, and the high-set handlebar's pulled-back grips deliver a great riding position that's both comfy and purposeful. As on a Monster, you feel seated far forward, as you crouch forward over the front wheel with your chin about to graze the instruments in this case a handsomely designed custom-made G&B dash which is extremely easy to read at a glance. It incorporates a tacho on the left, speedometer in the middle - and that must-have item I've been criticizing Moto Guzzi for the last millennium for not fitting to their bikes, an oil pressure gauge. Kinda important on a bike that is partially oil- as well as air-cooled, but - at last!! Though you're seated quite far forward, the footrests seem a long way back, but not so far that you can prevent your knees from making friends with the meaty cylinder finning once you really start going for it. That means wearing a pair of jeans, as most owners will surely do for going