Grrrriso!

GRRRRISO!

THE MOTO GUZZI GRISO 8V is the most promising new entry by the Mandello del Lario factory in years. From the beginning, the Griso model line has been blessed with possibly the best chassis ever developed for a street-legal Guzzi. It offers a solid structure, up-to-date geometry and has excellent balance. Even better, it now has a powerful new fourvalve-per-cylinder engine.

The new eight-valve version of the classic Moto Guzzi transverse, 90-degree V-Twin uses the same 95 x 81.2mm, 1200cc cylinders and bottom end as the latest two-valver, just with all-new heads. To be clear, it has nothing to do with the awkwardly laid-out Daytona 1000cc eight-valve engine of yore. The cam-inhead setup used then had a toothed-belt cam drive placed in front of the cylinders, which shielded them from cooling air! On the new 8Y the valvetrain is compact and elegant, also with cam-in-head layout, except this time chains were used instead of belts, and they are mounted at the rear of the engine to allow full flow of cooling air. The heads are, in fact, even more compact than those used on the two-valver. Keeping air-cooled four-valve heads cool is ultra-important, so a twin oilpump system is used. The highpressure circuit feeds the plain bearings, while a low-pressure/ high-volume circuit cools the heads. Compression ratio has been safely bumped up to 11.0:1.

Fed by 50mm throttle bodies, the Griso 8V produces what was termed a “real” 106 horsepower with plenty of potential in reserve. A less glamorous but very pleasant novelty is a new, easy-pull single-disc dry clutch in place of the higher-effort traditional twin-disc unit. The very competent Griso chassis remains, but in this case uses slightly upgraded components in light of the more powerful engine.

Bruno dePrato