Riding the new 1200 Sport (with a Griso bonus)

[Jupiter]

As previously mentioned, I went to Italia last week and had a day with the new 1200 Sport.

(This post is an adaptation of a longer ride report on STN)

After our stay in Paris, we flew to Milano and took the train to Lecco (only about an hour). Here I am in Lecco with my kids Hallie and Harper. We had to get up pretty early to catch the plane so you can see there's some sag in the joy.




And fifteen minutes after getting on the train in Lecco, we were in Mandello del Lario. When you get off the train, there's the Moto Guzzi factory. Right there, over my shoulder!




The Moto Guzzi factory, Mamma Ciccia's (our bed and breakfast), and Duilio Agostini are all within five minutes' walk from the train station. After a bit of confusion we found Mamma Ciccia's. Silvia, the proprietess, welcomed us warmly. Mamma Ciccia's is on the right, and the apartment we stayed in is in the blue building on the left.



Silvia's husband David is in charge of the wine cellar at Mamma Ciccia's, and he did well by us. After perhaps one too many glasses of his vino bianco, I had my first good night's sleep since we arrived in Europe. The sun streaming through the skylight and the church bells chiming seven woke me up, and after a shower I arrived happily, expectantly, and somewhat groggily at Duilio Agostini at 8:30 sharp. The shop is open from 8:30 until 18:30 and I wanted to get in my full day of riding.

Unfortunately, Alis, the owner, wasn't there yet and no one else spoke much English. My command of Italian is limited to the menus of modestly priced restaurants so although the staff was exceedingly friendly there was little actual communication. I was wearing a Juventus (football club) shirt that I'd bought in Paris and Mandello is Milano AC (another football club) country so that produced a certain amount of good-natured ribbing that I encouraged by loudly responding "Torino, si!"

Fortunately, Alis arrived before I'd caused any trouble or the throwing of small motorcycle parts around the room. She set me up with a Guzzi 1200 Sport, a bike that I had been wanting to ride and specifically requested. You can't get one in the US yet; it's basically a Breva with more motor and better suspension.

I'd bought a 1:200,000 scale map in the US and picked out a road that went east along the foothills as my route. It looked pretty lightly traveled and was twisty as Bill Clinton at a Senate hearing. However, Alis' husband Peter (I think that's right) gently suggested a change. What he basically said was, "Sure, you've traveled 7,500 miles to Italy to ride our roads. Best thing to do is...head up to Switzerland."

The irony was lost on Peter, but he certainly knew where the good roads were. He suggested that I ride north along the shore of Lake Como and then to the Bernina Pass in Switzerland, and then loop back or perhaps better yet just turn around and retrace my steps.

After a bit of breakfast and a splendid caffe latte with my family, here I am ready to set out.





I really like the way the Guzzi Sport looks. The Breva is pleasant to look at, but maybe too pleasant. Like the BMW R1200R, it's an excellent bike that's understated to a fault. The Sport has a little more hot rod spirit, although the headlight looks too small to my eye, and I wonder if it wouldn't be better with a big platter of a headlight like the 1982/1983 Suzuki GS1100E.

It was cool (about 11 C) and a little hazy but the day held promise of sunshine. Here's the road along Lake Como. I was trying to get the terraces on the hillside above but didn't do a very good job.




The first couple of hours I was finding my legs, getting used to the bike and the unfamiliar roads, road signs, and the rules of engagement. The Guzzi was very friendly in this regard with stable handling and twist-and-go power. Agostini had fitted it with a carbon end can that gave it a great mellow rumble. It wasn't obnoxiously loud and at first I didn't realize that it wasn't stock.

After 90 minutes or so I stopped for coffee. Check out the sign and you'll see why this place was irresistable. "Stop Moto"!



The coffee was great and I continued on with confidence. Maybe it's a function of age but as I get older I'm much less concerned with spec sheet information and more interested in the way a bike feels to ride. The R1 I had was a spec sheet hero, but in real life it was the clean throttle response and torquey power below 7,000 rpm that was relevant in day to day life, not the breathtaking top end.

And that's where the Moto Guzzi shone, at real world speeds. It was like driving a seventies muscle car with better suspension. Lots of useful motor from 3,000 rpm on up. Twist the throttle in whatever gear you happen to be in and you bugger off into the distance leaving behind a juicy V-twin rumble like a car's V-8. Heavy, but that gave it a solid feel and plenty nimble as long as you didn't mind giving it a good push on the bars. It was set up a little soft for my taste but the suspension is adjustable and I didn't change it.

Here's Chiavenna. Still Italy but on the way to Switzerland. The valley is steep and way up on the hillside you can see a little town. What in the world made building a town up there seem like a good idea?



And in Bourgonuovo, here's an MV Agusta in it's native habitat. Note the waterfalls in the background.



When I got to the Swiss border, I stopped in at the crossing building to get my passport stamped. To my chagrin, the border guard was carrying on a conversation with the woman before me in German! I fumbled through, "Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch," and the guard cooly replied,

"What do you want?" Ouch. I told him I'd like my passport stamped and he looked at me as though that was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. But he did it, and I'll never see him again anyhow.

After the Swiss border the road got much better. Better pavement, nice cambers, seemed like a good time to up the pace a little, ja? Peter had described it as "Heidi country" and as usual he was right. Check this out.






The miles to San Moritz were covered at a brisker and brisker pace. And then it was time for lunch. I about had a heart attack looking at menu prices until I realized that they were posted in Swiss francs rather than Euros.

This shot is for my buddy ejh (also an Apriliaforum guy), who lent me this copy of "Eggs and Mirrors" to read on the trip. It's poetry and short prose by a Seattle writer. Erik, this book was indeed read partly in Switzerland.




After lunch I zipped up to the Julierpass, where even at 1500 it was 6 degrees C. The Goose and I were becoming very good friends.



On the way down from the Julierpass I hooked up with a group of riders, maybe six. Somehow I wound up in front and was feeling frisky so the pace got pretty hot. Hey, somebody's got to show these Italians that Americans know how to ride, too. Beautiful day, nice road, no stops for pics. We were busy. I rode with that group until they stopped in Chiavenna.

Just south of Varenna I saw this Futura in factory colors that weren't available in the US. Seemed like a nice pic. By this time it was about 20 degrees C and all my extra layers were stuffed in my little backpack.





Here's Agostini's upon return about 1800, with the bike cooling down in front.




Agostini has designed an exhaust can, with catalytic converter, for the Griso. Take a look at this. It looks great on the bike and the build quality is very very nice, certainly way better than the stocker.





This exhaust is only available from Agostini. It's so new that the sticker on the silencer is just that, a sticker. The metal tags that will be on production units aren't done yet. They've sold one, serial number 001, to a customer who came in when I was there. He was pretty pumped but his didn't have the metal tag yet either, and Alis made him promise to come back and get it.



I really like my R1100S. But if I was in the market for a replacement, or if I was in the market for an R1200R, I'd buy the Guzzi Sport instead. It's a little quirkier, has about the same power and delivery but has that great V-twin rumble. And you can get factory hard luggage, too. The bike I rode had the bag mounts but the bags weren't mounted.

It's significant, though, that I live very close to my Guzzi dealer. If I lived 200 miles from a dealer I might have a different opinion.


Packing gear was a riddle. I didn't want to take a huge suitcase, so instead of bringing the 'stich, I wore the Vanson jacket and packed my BMW armored summer pants. I brought glove liners for my gloves and magic Smartwool socks. When I started out in the morning I put on an extra pair of pants under the BMW pants and wore a sweater and wool scarf. As the day wore on, the sweater, scarf and glove liners were shed.

As to a helmet, I decided not to pack a helmet but to buy one from Agostini and have them ship it home for me. The lid I bought was a Caberg, which is Italian made. It has a built-in flip down internal dark screen.





At first I thought it was just a gimmick, but on the ride back I took a stretch of autostrada (mainly just to experience it). The autostrada has many many tunnels, and in the tunnels I'd flip up the dark screen and then flip it down when I came out into bright sunshine. Worked great.


So that's it; a day in Italy and Switzerland on the new Goose. Hope you liked it; I know I sure did.

[Crankone]

Great report, great pix, wish I had been there. thanks

[Arnie]

Great pics and what an awesome trip! Thanks for posting. I'd like to hear more of your impressions of the 1200 Sport.

[naimchase]

Thanks so much for that report. The photos reminded me vividly of my trip to the area. After the factory museum, I have been trying to find a Guzzi I really want, so your impressions are fun to read. The Sport does look much better.

Great trip. You won’t forget that one.

BTW – SP65 climbs straight up the hill from Varenna. The switchbacks are so tight I had to back and fill the Alfa 165 to get around them! It really is a paved goat path.

[Jupiter]

Originally Posted by Arnie

Great pics and what an awesome trip! Thanks for posting. I'd like to hear more of your impressions of the 1200 Sport.

OK, that's fair, especially if you're gonna be so nice about my post! Here's some more detailed information about the Guzzi 1200 Sport.

Hardware: The overall build quality is miles (chilometri?) above Guzzi's bikes even three or four years ago. The V11 Sport, for instance, doesn't wear well. Find one that's had five years of regular use and you'll see fasteners fuzzy with corrosion, flaky paint, that sort of thing.

However, the 1200 Sport is the new generation Goose like the Breva or Griso or Norge. Some parts of the bike are drawn from the same parts bin. Sport and Norge appear to have the same instrument cluster, for example, and that instrument cluster is an evolution of the instruments on the 2004 Mille.

Remember that all these are Piaggio bikes. Moto Guzzi and Aprilia have the same parent company now, so having Mille/Tuono parts show up on a Goose and vice versa makes some sense.

That's not a bad thing. I immediately recognized the digital part of the dash as similar to my Tuono.

Brakes: Two fingers, easy stoppage. I did no riding that would have revealed any limitations in the brakes. They're modern units and they stop the bike hard. However, I was riding flowing roads and never had the opportunity to use them hard enough to reveal any fade.

Engine: What a gem. Not a track motor; there's no use in revving it out (I did hit the limiter twice).

What the engine does, is produce big torque all the time. It delivered power much like my R1100S does. I'd guess not big horsepower numbers, maybe around 95 like my BMW, but I bet it makes more torque. Wild-ass guess would be 75 lb-ft.

So on the street, this is sweet. Pass in any of three gears (I did a lot of passing--they got traffic in Italy) by just rolling it on. From 0-160 kph the engine flexible and a joy to use.

And it makes a fucking wonderful V-twin rumbling noise. The bike I rode had a carbon can, but it wasn't loud enough to piss off the neighbors.

There is a little bit of throttle snatch at low speeds, which is typical of fuel-injected Euro 2 and 3 bikes. I noticed it in hairpins on both of the passes and on the road down into Bellano. Please keep in mind that this was a very small issue and easy to ride around. Both my R1100S and Tuono have more low-rpm throttle issues than the Guzzi.

Tires: I don't remember what shoes it had on (I looked, but have forgotten), but I had them scrubbed as close to the edge as is smart on the street. No issues at all.

Suspension: The bike has an arm to limit torque effect from the shaft; it works. There is no shaft effect at all. Matter of fact, from the saddle you couldn't tell if the bike had a shaft or a chain or a belt.

The bike was set up just a little soft for me. The suspension is adjustable and unless it was full hard as ridden (and I doubt that), I'm sure it could have been made nice and taut. I didn't mess with it, though, just went riding.

Riding position: I'm an average guy, about 5'9". The bars are low and forward and at first I thought that they might be just a smidge, maybe an inch, too far away. But once up to speed it was just right on the route I took, which didn't have a lot of stop-and-go. For open road with sweeping curves, maybe 110 kph or so, the riding position was good enough that I forgot about it, which might be the highest compliment you can give.

The seat was on the edge of too soft for me, at 155 pounds. If you weigh 180 or more, a replacement seat is probably in the cards.

Overall impressions: The muscle car analogy is a good one. Big motor, relatively heavy bike (it's naked, but weighs over 500 pounds), but easy to ride. Very forgiving on unfamiliar roads. My Tuono steers quick as thought, but the Guzzi you have give direction. However, it's nimble and feels stable as hell. I liked it.

I'd favor the Guzzi over the BMW R1200R, or even the Rockster, which I think is a stonkin' bike. The Guzzi Sport is as quirky as the Rockster but better looking. And it makes that noise...

[cosaro]

niiiiiiice post!!!!

[bossbob]

Nice write up ....... still being appreciated

Thanks

[Prilliant03]

What a fantastic report. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and the pics brought back many happy memories for me of riding in that part of Italy.

The only problem is my feet are now itching like crazy. I need to get another bike trip under my belt soon.

[Fustern]

Great report! Planning an Italy trip with the family in 2009. Hoping to tour the Ducati, Aprilia, and Ferrari factories. I'd also like to rent a bike (Guzzi, Ducati, or Aprilia). Mind if I ask what the cost was for you to rent in US dollars? For how much time?

Thx!

[chrisonord]

You lucky bleeder!!! I had a quick look at a guzzi sport in a dealer near to me, and they had a griso in also, I like the look of the griso and I may even go the route of something like this as it is getting difficult to get the right hip and leg over the capo these days. I certainly could not think of a better place to try one out either. Nice one. Whats next, a stelvio through marocco perhaps??

[Jupiter]

Originally Posted by Fustern

Great report! Planning an Italy trip with the family in 2009. Hoping to tour the Ducati, Aprilia, and Ferrari factories. I'd also like to rent a bike (Guzzi, Ducati, or Aprilia). Mind if I ask what the cost was for you to rent in US dollars? For how much time?

Thx!

Sure, it was easy and while not cheap, not wildly expensive.

The bike was 100 Euro/day, including insurance. So you don't need to sweat insurance, you just give Alis some money and off you go.

When I went it was roughly $1.35 US/Euro so about $135 US per day. These days with the dollar worth only slightly more than used toilet paper it's gotta cost more.


That said, it is Italy. I actually walked over to Agostini the night before; my only agenda was to figure out where it was. I arrived about 1700, walked around the shop (it's dead cool), met Alis, and within ten minutes she invited me, "Why not just take the bike now? I won't charge you more and you can get some riding in tonight."

Man, I love Italy. If you rented from Alis you could tour the Guzzi factory one afternoon (they are only open afternoons) and then ride to Bologna, which would take about three hours.

Next day you tour the Ducati factory with your day starting at the factory cafe with your coffee in a tiny little demitasse cup with the Ducati logo on it.

Next day you ride to Noale (Venice area), where the people at the Aprilia factory look at you puzzled as to why anyone would want to tour. Five minutes' ride to Scorze allows you to peer in through cracks in the frosted glass, wistfully. Because they aren't set up for tours.

Still, you're in Venice which can't completely suck. The next day you jack in the factory tours and head back to Duilio Agostini by way of the Dolomites. Yah! Can I come along?

[Fustern]

Originally Posted by Jupiter

Sure, it was easy and while not cheap, not wildly expensive.

The bike was 100 Euro/day, including insurance. So you don't need to sweat insurance, you just give Alis some money and off you go.

When I went it was roughly $1.35 US/Euro so about $135 US per day. These days with the dollar worth only slightly more than used toilet paper it's gotta cost more.


That said, it is Italy. I actually walked over to Agostini the night before; my only agenda was to figure out where it was. I arrived about 1700, walked around the shop (it's dead cool), met Alis, and within ten minutes she invited me, "Why not just take the bike now? I won't charge you more and you can get some riding in tonight."

Man, I love Italy. If you rented from Alis you could tour the Guzzi factory one afternoon (they are only open afternoons) and then ride to Bologna, which would take about three hours.

Next day you tour the Ducati factory with your day starting at the factory cafe with your coffee in a tiny little demitasse cup with the Ducati logo on it.

Next day you ride to Noale (Venice area), where the people at the Aprilia factory look at you puzzled as to why anyone would want to tour. Five minutes' ride to Scorze allows you to peer in through cracks in the frosted glass, wistfully. Because they aren't set up for tours.

Still, you're in Venice which can't completely suck. The next day you jack in the factory tours and head back to Duilio Agostini by way of the Dolomites. Yah! Can I come along?

$135 is not bad at all. Especially considering I'll probably only see Italy a few times in my lifetime.

Sounds like a nice plan..only problem being the wife would kill me if I did a multi day tour on a bike leaving her with the kiddies on train/car/etc. She doesn't (read: won't) ride.

Now what is in Scorze exactly?

[vito]

Originally Posted by Fustern

$135 is not bad at all. Especially considering I'll probably only see Italy a few times in my lifetime.

Sounds like a nice plan..only problem being the wife would kill me if I did a multi day tour on a bike leaving her with the kiddies on train/car/etc. She doesn't (read: won't) ride.

Now what is in Scorze exactly?

i toured the italian alps and dolomites a few years ago and highly recommend it. we were on bmw rt's rented in milan.

go for it!!

[Jupiter]

Originally Posted by Fustern

$135 is not bad at all. Especially considering I'll probably only see Italy a few times in my lifetime.

Sounds like a nice plan..only problem being the wife would kill me if I did a multi day tour on a bike leaving her with the kiddies on train/car/etc. She doesn't (read: won't) ride.

Now what is in Scorze exactly?

Okay, here's the deal. Show your wife where Mandello del Lario is on the map. West shore of Lago di Como; it's a reasonable destination by itself although Varenna (about twenty minutes further north) is more picturesque.


While you're out riding, tell your wife that she, the kids, and the credit card can take the ferry from Varenna to Bellagio and go shopping. Bellagio is beautiful and loaded with lovely shops. So she has a good time, you have a good time...everybody wins.



Scorze is one place where Aprilia makes bikes. My Tuono was born in Scorze.

[Jupiter]

So here it is April of 2010 and I just reread this post and all the followup...

because this summer I'm going back.


I'm three years older (and have even less hair), my kids are surely three years older, and Italy is three years older as well.

Some things don't change, though. This summer, I'm once again going to spend some time riding a Moto Guzzi in the land of its birth. Pictures and ride report will be forthcoming!

Jupiter out.