I bought my red (what other colour could it be) Moto Guzzi Le Mans Mk.4 at the start of May 1991 for £3000, a little more than suggested by the UMG. But with a genuine looking 12000 miles on the clock, reasonable, I thought. Mine, being of 1985 vintage, is one of the first 950cc Le Mans that Moto Guzzi produced and comes equipped with the dreaded 16" front wheel, at the time all the rage with the Japanese.
The chap I bought the Guzzi off was some kind of engineer and had modified the bike in a couple of areas, so what I got for my money was an immaculate Le Mans fitted with Lafranconi exhausts and a set of 40mm Del'Orto carbs that are supplied as part of the race kit from the factory. I think we can safely say that it sounded pretty good. The first thing I did, upon picking up the Guzzi after work on the Friday evening, was to take it out for a spin for a couple of hundred miles so as to get the feel of it. My initial impression, as I pulled out of Oxford on to the ring road, was of how strongly it pulled from as little as 2500rpm in top gear and how, when the throttle was opened up from 4000rpm, it would leap forward, making a huge hammering sound, somewhat like a big vee eight Yank car.
After a diet of Japanese fours for the previous seven years this was a whole new experience, and I was enjoying it more than a little. Handling seemed solid and predictable if a little slow on tight bends. I can't comment as to whether the 18" front wheel Guzzis are better handling than mine as I've never ridden one, but I can say that it is as good if not better than a GPz750, which I owned a few years ago.
The first time I had to use the brakes in anger on that first ride was a bit of an eye opener. The right-hand front disc is operated by the right hand, the left-hand one and rear brake by the foot pedal. This came as a big surprise, even when you know the theory, having honed my reactions for the past ten years on the more usual set-up. When some Nigel pulled out in front of me as I stormed up to a roundabout, naturally I dabbed gently on the foot pedal and grabbed ever harder on the hand lever.
The Guzzi started to pull up but what I needed was to stop bloody quickly. Not good. Then I realised my mistake and pushed down firmly with my right foot. The Guzzi decelerated at a far better rate. I wish I could have said the same for myself, as I slid up the tank....seriously, though, the brakes on my Le Mans are pretty good, they just take a little getting used to.
I don't know if all Guzzis are like mine but my parking light in the headlight always comes on as soon as the ignition is switched on, so when the evening light began to fade I assumed that to turn the lights on properly I would have to turn the key to the next position as there was no light switch on the bars. Rather than turn the lights on it cut the motor out. The parking lights were still on but the motor was dead, so I turned the key back to its original position and the motor started straight away.
I proceeded to push, pull and twist every knob in sight but to no avail. I decided that all I could do was ride the remaining 30 miles home with my thumb on the headlight flasher so that I could at least see where I was going and hopefully people would also see me. Upon closer inspection, the next day, it turned out that the light switch is situated up inside the nose fairing. How to look like a prat in one easy lesson.
A little under a month after I'd bought my Lemon a friend and I decided that a jaunt to Ireland for a week was in order, as we both had the first week in June off work. Tickets were booked and before you could say Killmuckbridge we were off to catch the ferry from Fishguard to Rosslare. We both fuelled up before leaving our home village of Eynsham, so I was very pleased to note that the bike only used four gallons of four star when we filled up just before getting on the ferry. This worked out at 55mpg, which was to improve further, to about 60mpg, whilst in Ireland, mainly due to the grotty roads keeping our speeds down.
The Honda CB550 my mate had borrowed for the trip did between 50 and 55mpg but needed more regular top-ups as the tank was a lot smaller than that on the Guzzi. All I will say of Ireland is that the beer is wonderful, the people are great and if you ever go over then try to make it to Clonkilty on the R600 on the first Monday in June as they have a bit of a musical festival. This involves drinking vast quantities of beer whilst sampling the different types of music in all the bars and hotels.
Anyway, in the 1000 or so miles we did over in Ireland the Guzzi never missed a beat. It didn't need topping up with oil once, was good on petrol (good job at £3 a gallon) and always started with the minimum of fuss in the morning, which was mildly amazing as there wasn't a choke, just good old fashioned ticklers on the carbs. The main problem I came up against during our week away was in the personal comfort area. Due to clip-ons it was quite a stretch over the tank to the bars, which leaves you with quite a lot of weight on your wrists.
Not a problem on good roads where a reasonable speed can be kept up. I have usually found it quite comfortable, but on the pot-holed roads in Ireland it was not possible to go above 40mph very often, with the result that most of the jolts that came through the rather firm front suspension went straight into my wrists. After an hour or so of this my wrists would become rather painful, as were my piles as they got the same treatment from the back end. I have not had the problem since my return from Ireland, so maybe I've become a bit hardened to it or perhaps it's just that everything has gone numb. Who knows?
As soon as we got back from our little trip I had to put a new pair of tyres on the Lemon, the Metz's it had come with were well worn when I bought it, so I fitted a pair of Arrowmaxes, which lasted for 10,000 miles both ends. These have just been changed again, this time back to Metz's, which has cured the tendency the Le Mans had for shaking its head gently when cornering hard on a bumpy bend with a pillion on board.
The brake pads were all new when I first got the bike and they were all just about ready for replacement when I changed the tyres, so they must last about 12000 miles. So, with no chain to oil or replace, and easy, although fairly regular, home servicing, I have found my Guzzi pretty cheap to run although this is helped by my using a trail bike to go to work on.
Reliability has been 100% during my 15 months of ownership which has surprised me a little after some of the things I had heard about Guzzi electrics. All of the electrical components on my bike are Bosch which is hopefully a good sign, and the switches are the same as on BMW's. Maybe I've been lucky with my Lemon so far, and there may be worse things to come....but you see this is the first time I've ever been totally besotted with a motorcycle and I don't think I'd even care if it did need anything done to it now!
Recently, I changed the exhaust to a stainless steel Dr John Witner semi-race pipe with a Supertrapp silencer, which has meant jetting the carbs up a little. Now it sounds even better and runs better still. I will enter it in the Super Twins drag series next, I think, to see how well it matches up. I can take my Lemon anywhere which is more than can be said for me.
A.J.Craft