The Complete Book of Moto Guzzi by Ian Falloon
Anyone wanting to know anything and everything about Moto Guzzis, ?The Complete Book of Moto Guzzi? is the place to go. Ian Falloon is a well-known motorcycle historian, with many books to his name. He is especially fond of Italian marques and this volume really does answer all the questions any Guzzi owner might have. And tell him a lot he does not know.
My own introduction to Guzzis was when I was 16 and my professorial father took a sabbatical to Rome. The manager of our apartment building had a Guzzino, or Motoleggera 65, a little two-stroke made from 1946 to 1954. It was not until I read Falloon’s book that I realized this basic transportation sold so well it put the financially challenged firm back on solid economic footing following World War II and allowed the company to get back into racing, an Italian passion. The Guzzi marque was begun in 1921 by Carlo Guzzi, a World War I (in that war Italy was on the American side) pilot, and two of his buddies. First model was the Normale, a four-stroke 500cc single, engine pointing forward. And this horizontal engine was very much the Guzzi image for the next 45 years, with its signature outside flywheel?or salami slicer, as some called it. The size of the single ran from 175 to 500cc, and the racing versions were quite successful. Racing was important to sales, and in the 1930s Guzzi also had a transverse-mounted four-cylinder engine, as well as a transverse (like Ducati) ...