A Moto Guzzi just never gets old in the way it sounds. Has the sound of a classic muscle car small block Chevy. There’s something about a Moto Guzzi that is just proper. There no goofy marketing gimmicks (at least now), no weird robotic transformer styling, etc. The motorcycle’s sound and riding experience sells itself. What you see is what you get. A pure motorbike experience.
210 KPH on the dyno. Wow. I used to have a beautiful Mk1 with competition silencers like the bike featured (although I realise this is a Mk2 Le Mans remodelled to look like a Mk1 )
Shame that Guzzi is still stuck with the 750 engine that has no more juice in it. They should put the v85tt in V7 and revive the legendary le mans. BTW where are you located?(I'm from NL BTW) and do you do V7 III tuning? Cheers
i was giving a 1979 Guzzi LeMans one time. it got sold out from under me before i had a change to get it running. it was all there and was intimidating looking as i was around 18 and had never ridden a street bike before.
I had the same year.... a lovely bike. Unfortunately either the bike got heavier or I got older, and we had to part about 6 years ago. Yes I agree the original Mk2 side fairings were hideous, mine also got removed, but I kept the front fairing as it did work to some extent, unlike the smaller ones fitted to the original Mk1. The Lafranconi exhausts that mine had, and it looks like you have as well, sound out of this world. Apparently that V-twin design started life as a generator engine for the army..........wow
The first generation Le Mans did not have the Roman numeral I. The series one had the large tail light incorporated into the fender. Also had unpainted fork stanchions and different fuel petcock levers as opposed to the series two which had the black rectangular DeTomaso tail light.
these bikes are getting harder to find in the midwest USA> the prices of the guzzi roundheads are steadily increasing...If you have one, hold on to it. it will soon be irreplaceable.
There seems to be some confusion on this page. This bike is what came to be called a MK1 .it was just a 850 Le Mans, still THE one to have. Every change the factory made,for the next ten years just spoiled it The MK2 was exactly the same machine except for a hideous Square Fairing, with a square headlamp, & square indicators. It also grew a square flap over the filler cap, which had become a cheap piece of crap. A Hideous square Instrument panel, and the square `jellytots` switchgear which was very slightly better than MK1 had. & 2 little ll badges on the side panels. The Mk 2 was just as good to drive but looked like a bus and urgently needed to be fitted with the Mk 1 bits to look right the Mk 2 also had Slightly wider T3 etc forks and a different centrestand sticky-out bit Both claimed to produce 72 bhp somewhere other than the rear wheel!... from memory
To clear things up a bit. This bike is originally a MK 2, but I rebuild it to a MK 1 for all the reasons you mention in your post. The MK 2 is hideous indeed. So, yes, basically it is a MK 1 now. And it still rides like a charm! ;-)
Martijn de Groot That makes perfect sense! What did it for me was the filler cap, even though I`d seen the centre stand, glad to see that you have left the front brakes as mk 2, I had 20+ years on a few of these and loved every moment!
Martijn de Groot Ik ken hem inderdaad. mijn pa heeft een V65 lario politie motor. volledig origineel. En een California T850 geloof ik. sublieme machines, en super om op te rijden. Hoewel ik gehoord heb dat de nokkenassen wat minder zijn...
Hello, can you write the size of carburetor jets and position of the needle that you use? Did you keep the phf 36 carb? Did you install an air filter? Did you change displacement? Heres a photo of my lm vdcon.nl/ownerslist?motor=1392141879 Thanks for sharing
Your response ended in the Spam-filter, but here we go: this is a 950cc version with the standard 36mm carbs and needles. I have only put the needles one position higher to give it a little more fuel. It helps on the lower revs.
Martijn de Groot Some people found the factory jetting of the LM mk1 an 2 too rich and gained a few horses by reducing the main jet. You can read on here: archive.guzzitech.com/Dyno-dockray.html www.richcutler.co.uk/guzzi/guzzi/guzzi_06.htm
