Purosangue: Officine Rossopuro’s Guzzi cafe racer
The custom world is rife with fads and fashions, but there are a few one-marque specialists taking the slow and steady route…
Read more »Moto Guzzi has been building motorcycles since 1921, making it the longest established European motorcycle manufacturer in continuous production. The factory in Mandello del Lario, Italy, was the birthplace of several industry firsts—including the first wind tunnel for motorcycles, and an eight-cylinder engine.
Since 2004, Moto Guzzi has been owned by Piaggio, Europe’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer. Although production is not huge compared to the Japanese and American makers, the company is now on a stable footing and has a passionate fan base—attracted by the air-cooled 90° V-twin engines. The transverse cylinder heads projecting on either side of the bike are an easily identifiable feature.
Moto Guzzi is extremely popular with custom motorcycle builders, who tend to focus on the iconic Le Mans series of bikes built from 1976 onwards, and the V7. More recently, the ‘new’ V7 and V9 models have been a sales success, and have featured prominently in Moto Guzzi’s own ‘factory custom’ sponsored builds.
The custom world is rife with fads and fashions, but there are a few one-marque specialists taking the slow and steady route…
Read more »In the late 1970s, the Moto Guzzi Le Mans was the closest you could get to a factory café racer. Bereft of…
Read more »With too much bodywork and an awkward looking 16” front wheel, the Le Mans IV wasn’t exactly the prettiest Moto Guzzi to…
Read more »Most of the leading custom builders work on commission—they get a brief from a client, a direction is agreed upon, and a…
Read more »A super-stylish Guzzi custom from Italy, the kind you just want to throw a leg over and ride? That must be an…
Read more »There’s a Moto Guzzi V7 Classic in my garage right now, so when I heard that Cafe Racer Dreams were starting work…
Read more »The custom scene is awash with concepts and Photoshop renders and imagined bikes. But designer Davide Caforio, who flits between Milan and…
Read more »There are three brands I always associate with the glory days of motorcycling in the 1970s: Honda, Triumph and Moto Guzzi. Four…
Read more »It’s quite common to see manufacturers getting into bed with custom builders these days. We’ve seen BMW hooking up with Roland Sands…
Read more »Back in the 90s, Moto Guzzi built a polizia version of its NTX 750 dual sport bike. Tall and imposing, it struck…
Read more »There are a staggering number of motorcycles in Paris. Sit at any café for half an hour, and you’ll probably see more…
Read more »There are a tiny handful of builders who consistently hit the mark with every bike they create. In Italy, one of those…
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