Celebrating 90 Years of Moto Guzzi Motorcycles

By Motorcycle Classics Staff
Published on September 1, 2011
article image
Photo courtesy of Moto Guzzi
A 1921 Normale 500, the first in a long line of innovative Moto Guzzi motorcycles.

Ninety years ago, the first in a long line of motorcycles rolled out of a little factory on the shores of Lake Como in Mandello del Lario, Italy. The company was Moto Guzzi, and the bike was a Normale 500, the first in a series of pioneering sport motorcycles that have included icons like the Otto Cilindri V8 race bike in the I 950s, the V7 in the I 960s and the world’s first factory cafe racer, the unforgettable I 972-1974 V7 Sport

You’ll be able to get a taste of Moto Guzzis past — and present and future — at the Motorcycle Classics Barber Vintage Motorcycle Show, presented by Moto Guzzi, during the 7th Annual Barber Vintage Festival, Oct. 7-9, 2011. We’re calling on Guzzi fans everywhere to join us for Guzzi Fest and celebrate 90 years of Moto Guzzi motorcycles. Celebrity judges will award trophies in five categories (last year’s judges included Alain de Cadenet and John Surtees), and we’ll also have a People’s Choice award. Plus, we’ll have a special award for Best Moto Guzzi. And even if you don’t enter, if you ride your Guzzi to the show, you’re invited to park on the grass with us at Barber and be a part of the fun. Check out the vintage Guzzis on hand, talk to other Guzzi faithful, and check out the latest Guzzis as Moto Guzzi shows off some of its newest motorcycles, including, we’ve heard, the V7 Racer, and the latest in Guzzi’s retro-inspired V7 Classic line.

Race Tech’s suspension whiz Matt Wiley will give a seminar on suspension tuning, and we’ll also fly the colors for Airtech, Barnett Tool and Engineering, Haynes Manuals, Held USA, Pecard Leather Care, Race Tech, Spectro Oil and Z I Enterprises, who are all helping sponsor our show and are getting the word out to classic bike fans everywhere about the upcoming Barber Festival.

Great AHRMA vintage motorcycle racing, the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team, a top-quality swap meet, a classic bike auction, the Motorcycles by Moonlight dinner benefitting the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, plus literally thousands of vintage motorcycles swarming around the 740-acre Barber complex — it really doesn’t get any better than this.

And don’t forget, you could take it all in for free if you’re the winner in our Barber Vintage Festival Sweepstakes, including three nights hotel, tickets to the festival and passes to the museum. MC

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