MOTO GUZZI V7 II
John Nutting rides a modern retro and recalls the original.
the theme further by featuring a large-capacity fuel tank that looks like it’s made from the same pressings as the Le Mans. Fact is, the V7 range for 2016 is almost completely new, while sharing the same basic dimensions as the previous ‘small-block’ models. Although the 744cc (80 x 74mm) engines share the same internal dimensions and drive through a dry clutch, the gearbox now has six speeds connecting to the cardan drive shaft. Fuel mixing now uses a Marelli injection system with a single throttle body. Injectors are in the heads, which retain their novel flat-faced ‘Heron’ arrangement with the pushrod operated intake and exhaust valves side-by-side in line with the cylinder bores and the combustion chamber in the piston crowns. This year the range has also been expanded with a pair of cruiser V9 models with the biggest-yet version of the ‘smallblock’ at 853cc (84 x 77mm), showing how much potential it had way back in 1979 when the V35 first appeared. Sit astride the V7 and the bike feels compact, manageable and unintimidating, as is the intention. This is a machine aimed at first-time riders, which is why peak power is a modest 48bhp at 6250rpm, enabling it to be used by A2 licence holders in the UK. Ahead it’s clear that the development testers understand what a relaxed riding position should be, with a low seat and uncluttered controls. The instruments have clear dials and the usual warning lamps. An addition is a warning lamp for the anti-lock brakes. Gone are the interconnected discs of yore, in which the foot pedal operated one of the front discs, and the rear through a balancer. Stab the starter button and it’s unmistakably a Moto Guzzi, as the car-type motor engages the flywheel and the bike reacts with a sideways kick as the engine fires up: likewise when you blip the throttle. Unlike Honda’s CX500 there’s no contra-rotating clutch to compensate for the torque reaction. Another feature of the V7’s uncomplicated 90-degree V-twin layout is that there is a balance to be struck between using a heavy crankshaft flywheel to smooth the power delivery for relaxed riding and a lighter one to make gearchanges more crisp. On the latest V7, however, the extra sixth cog enables the gearbox ratios to be closer, making what I’d regard as the optimum flywheel weight easier to accommodate. This is key to the latest V7 because response is strong from low revs, with peak torque said to be at a lowly 3000rpm. Open it up and the bike gathered itself quickly through the gears, enough to make it fun around the Northamptonshire lanes I was riding on. The riding position is nigh-on perfect for spirited riding because the tank was sculpted just right to tuck in my knees and the foot-pegs are back behind the nose of the cushy seat, though the foot levers could be less intrusive. The slightly-raised handlebar was fine for speeds up to 80mph, a speed at which the engine is almost perfectly smooth, with its only vice being when you open up hard at lower revs and the power pulses through the chassis. In keeping with its target rider profile, the V7’s handling is soft and forgiving. It’s slow to roll into bends and the low budget suspension, adjustable
only for rear spring preload, is fine so long as you don’t hurry it. On dry roads, it was difficult to provoke the anti-lock into action but the additional novelty in the package, traction control would you believe, was easy to call up on a gravel surface. Open up enough to think you’ll get the rear wheel spinning and the engine baulks and coughs. Geared to reach about 105mph flat out, the V7 II Special is not a ball of fire, but that’s not the point: the bike’s fun to ride and looks stylish. Me? I reckon that like any Guzzi it’s a good basis for a special. Wind the clock back 40 years to a scorching day in early July 1976 and I’m preparing to put the first Moto Guzzi Le Mans through its paces at the MIRA proving ground. The thermometer on the side of the control tower indicated 80 degrees F and there was a light 10mph westerly breeze wafting along the timing straight, where Motor Cycle’s Midlands editor Bob Currie was ready to help record the speed figures. The Le Mans was a heady mix, an 844cc V-twin tuned up using experience gained in endurance racing with high-compression pistons running in chrome-plated light-alloy cylinders, and heads with bigger valves fed by huge 40mm unfiltered Dellorto carbs. Peak power claimed was 80bhp at 7400rpm, right up with the best at the time. It was also demanding, with the best response to the twistgrip flooding at about 4000rpm accompanied by a roar from the intakes and upswept exhausts. Long and low, finished in red and with a bikini fairing, the Le Mans was one of the most exotic machines you could buy that year. The low centre of gravity and fine steering offered great handling for the period, providing a combination of low speed agility and supreme stability at speed. Typically for the big twin and its hefty flywheel, as with BMW twins, gearchanges needed to be carefully performed to avoid clashing the cogs. With the clip-on handlebars encouraging high speeds, the Le Mans could thunder along and easily show 130mph on the speedo. But something didn’t seem right: cruising along at just over the legal limit at 70mph, other motorway traffic would be rushing off into the distance. Could the speedo be optimistic? The first part of the MIRA testing procedure was to calibrate the speedo using the timing equipment. Sure enough, at an indicated 70mph the Le Mans was trundling along at a lazy 56.5mph, making the speedo 24% optimistic. At 120mph it would be showing 149mph. Could the performance claims for the Le Mans be a myth? The bike proved to be a flyer, clocking a best one-way top speed of 125.89mph and a mean in both directions of 123.39mph. That tallied with the bike’s top gear ratio of 4.37 to 1, which gave a true 120mph at the peak power revs of 7400rpm. If others claim top speeds in excess of 130mph, it would more than likely be a one-way speed with a tailwind. The calibration of the speedo also revealed that odometer was optimistic by 15%. Although the Le Mans was dramatically quick through the upper gears, it wasn’t such a good sprinter off the mark, with the high bottom gear ratio making quick quarter mile times a challenge. The rear suspension would wind up enough to lose traction as the clutch bit. The best 14.0sec quarter mile time I could average belied the real intent of the Le Mans. At the time it was still one of the fastest bikes on the road. Kawasaki’s Z1 had clocked more than 131mph in 1973, but the subsequent Z900 had been down to 125.7mph. The top bike was Laverda’s 981cc 3C-E, with a maximum speed at MIRA of 133.3mph. The Moto Guzzi could be made faster though. For use in production racing and long distance events a whole range of tuning parts were available. In 1977 I helped set up the Roadrunner production machine series in the UK backed by
“The V7 II Special is fun to ride and looks stylish. Does the soul of the Le Mans live on in this machine? Certainly the soul hasn't dimmed.”
Avon Tyres. Steve Wynn, who the following year would be famed for supplying Mike Hailwood with his Tt-winning 900 Ducati, had set up a Sports Motor Cycles team with Castrol backing. The machines were a 900SS Ducati, a Laverda Jota, a Suzuki GS750 and a Moto Guzzi Le Mans, ridden respectively by Wynn, Roger Cope, Bill Pilling and John Sear. Roy Armstrong, who worked with Wynn at the time with brother Ian, recalls that Sear was tipped to win the championship at the final round at Snetterton. But he fluffed the start in the rain, fell off and the race and series was won by Pete Davies on a Slater Brothers Laverda Jota. The series rules allowed a number of tuning mods to be made to the bikes and Sear’s bike had higher 10.5 to 1 compression pistons and a factory camshaft, one of a number of parts that would enable revs as high as 9500 or more to be held with reliability. After the final round, Wynn suggested that I test the team bikes at MIRA to settle rumours about the bikes and satisfy his own curiosity. The Wynn Guzzi was a rocket. While I had struggled a year earlier to get the standard Le Mans off the line cleanly in the quarter mile acceleration tests, and couldn’t break 14sec, the Wynn Guzzi jumped off the line and flew through the 440-yards in 11.8sec with a terminal speed of 112.22mph. The top speed was no less stunning and revving to just over 8500rpm the bike clocked a mean two-way average of 132.07mph, making it the fastest of all the machines in the team. And this was on low gearing for the tight Carnaby circuit in Yorkshire! With the normal gearing it was very likely that much more could be achievable. So what was one of the best-looking bikes of the late seventies could also be one of the fastest. Does it live on in the V7 II Special? Certainly the soul hasn’t dimmed. But if you want to create your own fire breathing Guzzi there’s no shortage of experts to help you.