1968 Moto Guzzi V-7 - 3-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article

Description

1968 Moto Guzzi V-7 - 3-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article
Original, Vintage Magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
GUZZI V-7
AND NOW, A 700cc
“MUSCLE MACHINE” FROM
ITALY — A NEW CONTENDER
FOR THE “SHAFT-DRIVE
DEPENDABLE” CROWN!
THE MOTO GUZZI V7 twin, was ori-
ginally built to be a police motorcycle.
When it was designed, due allowance was
made for police accessories such as radio,
footboards, windshield, sirens, and saddle
panniers. As you know, a police machine
must be able to accelerate rapidly, travel
at extremely low speeds, sit and idle for
long periods of time, and last but not least,
give many thousands of miles of sendee
before it wears out. Try to imagine what
would happen if someone took a motor-
cycle like this, and made a civilian grand
touring machine out of it. This is exactly
what Moto Guzzi has done with their new
V7 twin. The following test contains views
and options after having the V7 for a little
over two weeks.
Just about everything on this motorcycle
is unusual. Best of all is the twin cylinder
90 degree V-type engine. It is an overhead
valve four stroke, with a bore of 80mm
and a stroke of 70mm. Total displacement
is 703.717cc, with a compression ratio of
9 to 1. This big twin cranks out 50 horse-
power at 6,300 rpm. Moto Guzzi, realizing
that this bike would be used for police work,
fitted hard chrome bores in light alloy cylin-
ders. Many sets of pistons and rings should
wear out before the cylinder bores will have
to be changed. The cylinder heads are light
alloy, and have a hemispherical combustion
chamber. Lubrication is by the wet sump
system just like in your family automobile.
Because of this, no oil tank is needed.
As you can gather from looking at the
photographs, the V7 has no chain, and sec-
ondary drive is by a double-joint driveshaft.
Power is transferred from the engine to the
transmission by a double plate, dry, auto-
motive type clutch. The constant mesh gear-
box has four speeds, and incorporates a
cush drive that helps to add many more
miles of use to the rear end assembly.
The frame is of the duplex cradle variety....
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