Moto Guzzi V7 Sport
We ride the first truly sporting machine
THIS IS GETTING A bit hectic. Ahead of me is the bright red shape of an Alfa Romeo saloon car, being driven at considerable speed down a winding country road. Behind it, I am gunning the Guzzi’s V-twin engine for all it’s worth, then squeezing the brake lever hard and hurling the bike through the bends in an attempt to keep up. And on every straight I’m lifting my left hand off the bars to prevent my loose-fitting goggles from slipping off altogether.
My increasingly desperate attempts to keep up with the Alfa are not designed just to prove that two-wheeled Italian vehicles are faster than four-wheeled ones, even when ridden one-handed and watery-eyed. Quite simply, the driver is my photographer, he knows where he’s going and I don’t — so I’m very keen not to lose him. Besides, sometimes it’s nice to have an incentive to ride hard...
Especially when you are riding a bike as nice and as rapid as this immaculately restored Guzzi V7 Sport, which must be just about the best early-1970s machine I could have chosen for the chase. The Sport fully deserved its name, as this bike was the first truly sporting machine to be built using Mandello del Lario firm’s transverse V-twin engine. As such, this is the bike from which all subsequent sporting Guzzis, from the 750 S3 and first Le Mans to the current Daytona and 1100 Sport, have descended.
The V7 Sport was introduced in 1971, after Guzzi engineer Lino Tonti had produced a new frame to house the firm’s 90-degree transverse V-twin motor. Even Guzzi fans have to grin when recalling that the engine was originally designed in the late 1950s to power the 3x3, a tractor-like device produced for the Italian ministry of defence. Guzzi, looking for a replacement for its ageing Falcone flat-single, then uprated the shaft-drive V-twin to power police bikes and the 703-cc V7 tourer of 1967.
For V7 Sport use, the touring motor was made more powerful and compact. Bore and stroke dimensions of 82.5 x 70 mm gave capacity of 748 cc, reduced from the 757 cc of earlier models such as the V7 Special, allowing entry in 750-cc races. Valve-gear and con-rods were lightened, and twin coils and points fitted along with bigger, 30-mm Dell’Orto carbs. The result was a peak output of 52 PS at 6,400 rpm, well up on the touring engine’s 40 PS. (A crankshaft figure of 70 PS is also quoted.)
There were plenty of changes in the bottom-end, too, although the new motor retained old-style features such as the simple gauze strainer, instead of a proper filter. A new, heavily ribbed crankcase and five-speed gearbox were added, and a more compact Bosch alternator situated on the front of the crank, replacing the previous motor’s large car-type dynamo between the cylinders.
The new alternator setup also had an important influence on the chassis, as Tonti’s frame was lower than its predecessors due to its top rails (which were strengthened by a diagonal spine) running between the cylinders, where the dynamo had previously been. Its front forks contained sealed damper units. Wheels were 18-inch, the front holding a big 220-mm double sided twin-leading-shoe front drum brake.
Guzzi certainly knew how to build a good-looking motorbike in those days, and the Sport was utterly unmistakable. As well as the lime-green paintwork, the first 150 examples of the V7 had bright red frames.
Numerous neat details included the ‘swan-neck’ clip-on handlebars that could be slid up the forks to give an upright riding position. Further back, the rear mudguard could be hinged up, and under the seat was a small inspection light that automatically illuminated when the seat was lifted.
Few V7 Sports can be in such immaculate condition as this gorgeous machine, which was stripped to the last nut and bolt and restored. This bike dates from 1973, being one of the last of fewer than 4,000 Sports that were produced before production ended towards the end of that year. With only just over 3,000 miles (4,828 km) on its black-faced Veglia speedometer (the warning lights of whose console were marked in Italian), the bike was in virtually the condition that it would have been in on leaving the factory, apart from its modern Bridgestone tyres.
Moto Guzzi V-twins have always looked and felt like no other bikes, and that is particularly true of the V7 Sport, whose colour and stickingout cylinders must make for one of the most distinctive superbikes ever built. The quirky feel was reinforced when I climbed aboard and fired up the engine — which can be done either with the starter button or, in car style, by turning the ignition key — to feel that trademark lurch to the right of the longitudinal crankshaft.
This bike’s clip-ons were set in the normal, lowest position (they can be slid up the fork legs to give much higher bars). So the riding position was fairly stretched-forward and sporty as I pulled away, feet on the relatively high pegs, conscious of the way the engine’s low-rev shaking — though it vibrated less than most larger-engined models — smoothed as the revs rose, noise increasing with a blend of hollow sucking from the Dell’Ortos and muffled bark from the stylish but rather too efficient (at least for my liking) Silentium pipes.
Out on the open road I was immediately impressed by the Sport’s lively acceleration — provided I kept the motor revving. Guzzi V-twins have a reputation for low-revving torque, but the V7’s 750-cc motor really comes alive only at about 4,500 rpm and pulls strongly from there to the red-line at 7,250 rpm. At lower revs it runs perfectly well, but just doesn’t generate much in the way of forward motion when you wind open the Tomaselli twistgrip.
Keep the motor spinning, though, and the Sport is a very useful performer — as the driver of that much younger Alfa, and doubtless plenty of other motorcyclists over the years, discovered. The bike showed a healthy turn of acceleration, even from speeds of 110 km/h and above, and cruised at 145 km/h-plus with an effortless feel that made it easy to understand how Guzzis earned such a reputation as peerless long-distance sportsters.
At first the riding position felt slightly strange, with my long legs pushed outwards by the broader front section of the petrol tank. But I
soon learned to “adopt the position” by sliding back on the long, generously padded dual-seat, so my knees could tuck in as the designer intended. Suddenly I felt at one with the Sport, which barrelled long-leggedly along at an indicated 160 km/h, with plenty of speed in hand to its top speed of 200 km/h.
The other part of the Guzzi legend related to the big twins’ highspeed stability, in an era when many rival machines — Kawasaki’s 900-cc Z1 was first produced in the year this bike was built — were prone to wobbles. The V7 was rock-solid both in a straight line and in fast curves, thanks in no small part to the rigidity of its frame, which used the big V-twin engine as a stressed member.
Suspension too was excellent by early-’70s standards, although the front forks were rather soft and under-damped, and their sealed damper units meant that this could not easily be cured. Some of the Guzzi’s stability came from its conservative steering geometry and longish wheelbase, which also meant that it was less than agile in tight turns, especially since its kerb weight was a substantial 225 kg.
Nevertheless, the Sport could be flicked around rapidly enough given plenty of effort from its rider, and its handling did not suffer too much from the shaft-drive rear end. This bike’s Bridgestone tyres gave reassuringly modern levels of grip, too. My only slight concern was the ground clearance, not so much with the side-stand on the left, but that the gear-lever grounded — with potentially disastrous consequences — when well cranked over to the right...
Apart from an occasional squeal at low speed, there was not much wrong with the big double twin-leading-shoe drum brake, which gave plenty of bite even at high speed. It didn’t fade noticeably during my test, either, although under hard braking over bumps the forks began bottoming out, with subsequent loss of stopping power. The singlewidth rear drum of similar size gave some worthwhile assistance too.
The adoption of a disc front brake was one of the key features of the 750 S model, which replaced this model in late 1973.
The V7 Sport had been too expensive to sell in a big number, costing far more than Kawasaki’s powerful new Z1 four in most markets that year, but it had established Guzzi as a manufacturer of high-class sporting superbikes. That reputation would later be enhanced by the triple-disc 750 S3 of 1975, and then the long-running 850 Le Mans.
Those 1970s bikes’ air-cooled, transverse V-twin layout is, of course, still used by Moto Guzzi, with the current V7 models having remarkably similar style and performance more than 40 years later. All of which emphasises just what an important bike that lime green V-twin was. The V7 Sport is where the legend of Guzzi’s sportier V-twins began.