1972 Moto Guzzi Eldorado
(Page 2 of 4)
November/December 2005
By Ric Anderson and Richard Backus
“Moto Guzzi was really foundering back then,’’ says Greg Field, owner of several Moto Guzzis and author of the 1998 book Moto Guzzi Big Twins — A Color History.
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“The Italian market and even the European market were not doing well, and the company looked at the American market as the key to success. The American distributor went to Guzzi and asked to go after the big-bike market.’’
Domestic buyers were hungry enough for an alternative hog that Moto Guzzi reportedly sold as many as 5,000 Eldorados a year from 1972 until the model was pulled in 1974 — not a death blow to Harley, but definitely a kick in the teeth.
A void at the top
Through the 1950s and 1960s, Harley faced no serious challenge from foreign manufacturers in the big-bike market. The British ruled the sporting class but steered clear of big-bore cruisers during the Fifties, and the Japanese followed suit when they began sweeping across America in the Sixties.
BMW’s tourers of the era, Field says, weren’t powerful enough to haul two passengers and full gear.
Enter Moto Guzzi importers Mike and Joe Berliner, brothers who owned the New Jersey-based Premier Motor Corporation. Acting on pleas from domestic distributors for a foreign-made touring bike to break Harley’s stranglehold on the class, the Berliners shopped the idea to overseas manufacturers and got a couple of bites. A Ducati V-4 concept failed to get off the ground, but a prototype of the Moto Guzzi V700 grabbed the Berliners’ attention and was put into testing in 1965.
Production began 1966, and the V700 went on sale — with a sticker price of $1,439 — that year in American dealerships. A 750cc version, designated the Ambassador for the United States market, appeared in 1969.
The 850cc Eldorado, unleashed in 1972 with a price tag of $1,985, would be Moto Guzzi’s most potent weapon in the battle against Harley. The new cruiser was built on basically the same chassis as the Ambassador but featured a five-speed transmission — as opposed to the Ambassador’s four-speed — and an engine that boasted far more torque than the 750cc V-twin. The extra oomph came courtesy of a new crankshaft with a throw of 78mm instead of 70mm, driven by completely redesigned pistons that increased the compression ratio from 9:1 to 9.2:1.
Standard features included a “police’’ fuse box, offering several extra terminals for accessory circuits.
Although the Eldorado suffered growing pains such as transmission problems that led to the first 1,500 units being recalled, it was an instant success.
“The first Eldo in 1972 was basically an Ambassador with a bigger engine and a five-speed transmission, but the torquier engine and the new transmission gave it a different feel,’’ Field says. “Compared to the Eldorado, the Ambassador just feels like an older bike. Then, in 1974, Guzzi came out with the Eldorado with a front disc brake and a different set of forks, and that just took it to the next level of that modern feel.’’