[Normy]

Oh man, my best friend is a Guzzi-haulic!

He has a '73 850 T3 in his garage in Charlotte. It's not currently running, but could be quickly, if he had the money. A wife, two kids, and a house under construction tends to do that~

I had a 1976 Honda CB 750-four for 14 years; I wound up keeping it in my living room in Orlando. In 1996 I moved it from Michigan to Florida. I left my parents place, and drove to Roy's house outside of Pittsburgh. From there we went to western Virginia, where we crashed in a cheap hotel. We rode the interstates until we hit West Virginia; we left the I and took a twisty country road about 100 miles long that cut a corner in the Mountain state.

-Folks, as soon as we got off the interstate, it was a PITCHED BATTLE! Me and Roy basically raced for 100 miles on that twisting road. During the tight curves, Roy's Guzzi seemingly had the weight and reflexes of a 10 speed bicycle; That machine was like a snake and he went flying past me. On the straight aways, my big four cylinder would spin turbine-smooth to its 9000 rpm redline and I'd pass him like he wasn't moving! We did battle like this for 90 minutes; When we finally reached the interstate again, we pulled into a 7-11 parking lot and shut down; both of us were wet from sweating and completely WIRED! I'm serious- it took me 10 minutes and a bottle of Gatorade to stop trembling! That was the best ride of my life.

I rode his Guzzi a dozen times, and for those of you who have never tried one of these things, it reminds you of a hand built Ferarri in the switchgear and overall execution. It handles like a bicycle- these bikes feel very light, even if they aren't. The shaft drive [with the exception of the "parallelogramo" models] causes the bike to "lift" when you give it throttle, and drop when you let off. The longitudinal crank causes the bike to rock to the right under throttle too, so you have this odd "lift-bank, drop bank" situation going on. And to add to the whole picture....this bike has a perfect Harley-Davidson sound track going on, courtesy of the single crank-pin V-twin engine.

Fascinating machines!

N!