Magni Guzzi

MAGNI GUZZI

What if You Built the World’s Trickest Moto Guzzi and Nobody Came?

ONE OF THE BEST KEPT SECRETS IN MOTORCYCLING IS ALIVE and well and has taken to the streets in Italy. Only trouble is, nobody knows about the hottest Moto Guzzi going.

“We’re very disappointed to have no orders,” says Arturo Magni, legendary former race director for MV Agusta and presently Italy’s leading specialist chassis constructor for Moto Guzzi-powered sportbikes. His latest creation is the Magni 8V Australia, which uses the same motor as Guzzi’s just-released Daytona 1000.

A hit at the ’91 Milan show, the Australia was delayed because Moto Guzzi couldn’t supply Magni with new eightvalve motors. Now that it can, all those who expressed interest seem to have forgotten the Magni.

If the day I spent with the prototype road version is anything to go by, they’ll be rediscovering the Australia shortly. Not only is it a stunning looker and the best-performing Guzzi ever, but at $16,750-compared to $14,195 for the stock Guzzi

Daytona 1000-the Magni’s something of a bargain exotic.

The Australia shares the Daytona’s fuel-injected, eight-valve engine, five-speed gearbox, shaft drive and exhaust system. The Down Under designation came about via Guzzi’s Australian distributor, Perth-based Ted Stolarski, who sponsored the prototype eight-valve racer in Battle of the Twins events in the USA, Australia and Japan.

That racer debuted with twin rear shocks, but in pro-

duction form, the 8V Australia turns out to be the first singleshock Magni Guzzi to be built, with a specially developed, fully adjustable WP shock fitted in a cantilever system incorporating Magni’s trademark parallelogram swingarm-an idea that first surfaced on the abortive four-cylinder MV Agusta 500cc streetbike back in 1950.

The Magni feels a lot different than Guzzi’s Daytona, mainly because it’s not nearly so rangy in terms of riding position or wheelbase. The seat is 1.2 inches lower on the Magni, and the result is a bike you feel part of rather than perched on, and which steers noticeably more quickly.

In fact, the Australia is almost nimble-not a quality you would readily attribute to any Mandello-made V-Twin. It takes a fairly big heave to get the Magni to switch from side to side quickly, but fast transitions are possible. Even with the noticeably shorter wheelbase, the Magni is rock-solid around 100-mph sweepers, without displaying the slightest sign of shaftie shock if you back off the throttle in a hurry in the middle of the turn because you grossly misjudged your entry speed. (Please don’t ask me how I know.)

Superior weight distribution contributes to the Magni’s much sportier handling. The engine is about half an inch further forward than in the Daytona, and together with the more compact riding position, more rider and engine weight rests upon the front wheel. Though the bike seems rotund and meaty when you first climb aboard, in action the Magni is surprisingly agile and deft-handling, and seems smaller than it really is. Indeed, at a claimed 455 pounds dry, it’s a substantial 20 pounds lighter than the Daytona, thanks to such goodies as carbon-fiber fenders, EPM mag-alloy wheels and a minimalist approach to detail engineering.

Given that the engine and exhaust package is exactly the same specification as on the Daytona, for homologation purposes, the lighter weight does endow the Magni with better acceleration, even though the gearbox is just as slow and clunky as on any Guzzi ever built.

Being as it is a hand-built special, the Magni betrays its heritage in things like the messy detailing of the fairing bracketry, the sidestand that’s dangerously too long, the naff number “1” on the seat, etc. Offsetting those rough edges are small engineering touches that make big differences. The engine is tilted slightly so as to fit a 17-inch rear tire, while the Daytona has to make do with an 18-incher and its smaller footprint. Self-aligning spherical bearings, sourced from the nearby Agusta helicopter factory, are used for the swingarm pivot. There’s a lot to look at and a lot to like about the Magni.

Moto Guzzi’s Daytona is a fine motorcycle, but even in the relatively small numbers in which it’s being built, it’s still a well-rounded device produced by a large factory, and designed to appeal to a relatively wide cross-section of customers. The Magni Australia, on the other hand, is a hardnosed, uncompromising, purposeful motorcycle that takes the Guzzi eight-valve concept another stage farther. Riding it, you feel the personality and skill of the men who made it. And now that this unsung hero of Italian motorcycling is finally in the marketplace, will somebody come and give Magni some orders?

Alan Cathcart