Ghezzi & Brian Supertwin 1100

GHEZZI & BRIAN SUPERTWIN 1100

Quick Ride

Made over Moto Guzzi

WANT PROOF THERE'S still room in motorcy cling for creative, hardworking craftsmen? Look no farther than Giuseppe Ghezzi and Bruno Saturno, the men behind Ghezzi & Brian (www.ghezzibrian.com), a tiny Italian outfit specializing in Moto Guzzi-powered sportbikes.

Ghezzi got his start building Guzzis for Twins racing. After topping the Italian SuperTwin championship in 1996, he decided to produce a street-legal version of his winning roadracer, which he calls the SuperTwin 1100. Saturno, nicknamed “Brian” in his racing days, manages the enterprise.

Ghezzi begins with Guzzi’s tried-and-true air-cooled ohv, two-valve-per-cylinder V-Twin, then remaps the Weber-Marelli fuel-injection and fits an exhaust of his owm design. Developed with help from Italian pipe-bender Tubi-Style, the elegant headers and Ducati 998style underseat silencers are more efficient than the stock system and play an integral role\

in the bike’s overall aesthetics. Claimed output is 94 horsepower and 72 foot-pounds of torque, about 4 bhp and 3 ft.-lbs. up on Guzzi’s VI l Sport.

Doubling as an airbox, the frame consists largely of a mas-

sive steel backbone running through the longitudinal engine’s Vee, thus establishing a direct line between the steering head and the elements locating the sw'ingarm pivot. The rear suspension’s parallelogram design was pioneered by Dr. John Wittner for use on his Guzzi-powered roadracers, and later applied to pro-

duction Guzzis. The swingarm itself is fabbed from rectangularsection tubing, then further stiffened by under-arm bracing.

Suspension components comprise an inverted 41mm Paioli fork and a nearly horizontal

Bitubo monoshock. Its rocker arm is connected to the swingarm brace via a short pushrod, through which ride height can be altered. Rimmounted Braking rotors reside up front, with a conventional setup at the rear.

By sportbike standards, the SuperTw in is very comfortable. The handlebars are low, but nicely angled and wnthin reach of semi-outstretched arms. At 31.1 inches, seat height is low for a compact sportbike. To grant the cornering clearance demanded by a real sportbike, the footpegs take advantage of the bike’s narrow waistline and are neatly tucked-in.

With 23 degrees of rake and 3.5 inches of trail, the 428pound SuperTwin needs only a light nudge on the bar to go from bolt upright to a kneescraping lean angle. The mildly retuned, five-speed engine feels much more spirited than a stocker, especially at high revs, and braking provided by the massive rotors is solid and precise. Top speed is 150 mph, 13 mph faster than a VI1 Sport.

W;ith its sharply drawn fairing, neatly contoured gas tank and solo-style seat, the SI4,995 SuperTwin has a lean, essential appearance. Factor in its fantastic chassis, and unless you’re devoted to horsepower, a better balance of agility and pleasure may not exist

Bruno de Prato