Driving report HTMoto-Moto Guzzi V7 Classic Racer

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Driving report HTMoto-Moto Guzzi V7 Classic Racer

Driving report HTMoto-Moto Guzzi V7 Classic Racer

Sense and sensuality

It invites you to a rollercoaster of emotions, this classic round engine Guzzi. Demanding, strenuous, uncompromising. But precisely because of her weaknesses, it’s all too easy to succumb to this full-blooded Italian. Somewhere between meaning and sensuality.

The starting ceremony is somewhat like an operation on open lung lobes, for which two swabs are handed out. No choke, no accelerator pump supports the slide carburetors. Flood right with the swab until the fuel overflows. The same on the left. You only know this procedure from the stories of old warriors. Full concentration. Idle in there? Are both fuel taps open? Then look for the ignition switch and start button under the tank. ignition!
The starter hums, the huge, rust-red flywheel rotates. HARD. The V2 is here. There is a fire in both cylinders. The 40s Dellortos are hungry for air, open intake funnels snap at their knees. The pointer dances in the white Veglia tachometer. Idle? Nothing. Now just keep the idle at 2000 tours. No less, otherwise everything was for the cat. No longer because the “concrete mixer” is supposed to warm up gently. It is really a great feeling when it thumbles evenly left and right.
With every throttle, the Guzzi first tilts to the right and then back to the central position. With every fiber of the body you feel the overturning moment of the crankshaft rotating in the longitudinal axis. It’s a shame that you can’t print »Sound«. Not the barking from the stainless steel-
Exhaust system from HTMoto. Not even the grumbling from the crisp, short intake funnels. And certainly not the rattling when the single-plate dry clutch is pulled.

Like everything else on this motorcycle, it lies open and is also an in-house creation by the Guzzi forge HTMoto in Aachen (see information box). Their boss, Hartmut Taborsky, had an idea: to build a motorcycle in the style of the 750cc world record Guzzi from 1969. There as a base-
A V7 from 1970 was used for it. Taborsky has rebuilt it pragmatically and cleverly
Brought to life. The frame is stiffened, for example, with gusset plates and additional struts in the area of ​​the steering head and on the front and rear beams. “Because a V7 normally wobbles like a ladies’ bike from 120 km / h …”
The heart of the Classic Racer is the heavily modified 90-degree V-Twin from Le Mans I. Modified cylinders,
Pistons and Carillo connecting rods are used in it. The engine now comes up with a 90 millimeter bore and 78 millimeter stroke
992 cm3. Thanks to the finely balanced crankshaft drive, HTMoto camshaft and new combustion chambers with double ignition, the V2 is really fit. Also owns
he still has a programmable HTMoto ignition system. Piston head cooling and oil cooler under the control head ensure a cool head. At least with the engine.
Because this is a roadworthy one
Racer born to take part in classic racing
to drive in circles. PS: Real 86. Pulse: 130. Get off the assembly stand, the Italian snaps off. You experience the feel-good area of ​​the V2 intuitively, literally feel into it, see bumpers swinging in your mind’s eye, pistons tapping and the presumably heavy crankshaft rotating. Just damn little of the landscape around you. The Guzzi line: narrow, long, flat. The guzzisti’s sitting posture: tense, strenuous, graceful. Who is grabbing whom here??
You submit, stretch yourself far over the long 24-liter tank. 67 centimeters lie between the steering head and the front edge of the seat bench. With a current Ducati 999 it is only four centimeters less. And yet there is a world in between. You humbly grasp the handlebar stubs attached below the shiny fork bridge. For smaller drivers a passion that creates suffering. You can only guess the horizon, you do
the total blind flight in serpentines. Hardly possible to put your head against your neck
further up and looking more forward.
Who is only half-heartedly on this
Guzzi lets in, has lost. Whole or even
Not. She demands, wants to know, energetically
be guided. She is a cafe racer
at least not, without a stand. Not even thinking about having to look for a tree or a wall in front of an audience. No, you dream of classic race tracks, Spa, Monza, Le Mans. But suddenly it is there, the modern age.
A current R6 screeches at you, with 15,000 tours. Their high-pitched hum lays over the deep bass of the V7. Yes, the world kept turning. So what? Your motorcycle is the last to stand up
“Iron Age” versus the age of electronics.
In a lost position, but upright inside. The engine does not vibrate. He stamps, pounds and knocks. And still depends on the gas. He sweats from various pores
Oil out, on the generator for example and that
right valve cover. But at 4000 rpm the V2 gets its second spring and impulsively storms up to 8000 tours.
The comparison may also be poor, given the current emissions and noise regulations: This old lady has more speed reserves and, above all, a more homogeneous torque curve than today’s V11 Le Mans with 1064 cm3 ?? see performance diagram. The final drive grabs the rear wheel like an iron fist. Gimbal reactions? No elevator effect, but double-declutching is required when downshifting to avoid an abrupt rear wheel. The engine braking torque is just immense. After all
if the gears rest cleanly, idling can be found easily. This is not even
of course with newer machines from Mandello del Lario.
Guzzi, who weighs less than four hundred pounds, runs stoically straight ahead. In addition, it is surprisingly stable in an inclined position. She likes long, beautifully curved arches. Then she spoils you, is precise and stoic. According to Taborsky, the chassis geometry of the Classic Racer corresponds almost exactly to a Le Mans I. But with the V7 the engine hangs in the guns-
a lower center of gravity around six centimeters lower in the frame. Nevertheless, it is important to force your will on her in turns. She is a beautiful beast.
In addition, it wants to be pushed every time the two-cylinder is switched off. And that’s not without it. There-
at the three-part charge control light in the barren cockpit reports that everything is going well. Does the 180 watt alternator from a Ducati 999 R not deliver enough juice? Yes, but the controller is defective. The small battery enjoys a place of honor: it sits in the open triangular frame
a solid aluminum plate between the cylinders. The cladding with the Hella round headlight is turned over like the mouth of a wrasse. That’s how it belongs. HTMoto leaves the cladding out of GRP
as well as the tank, the wheel covers and the one-man hump.
The MOTORCYCLE cartoonist Holger Aue lost his heart to motorcycles of this type. Because they are honest and mechanical, not always willing, but always exciting, no computers on wheels. It is what it is. The love of elegant
To shape. The joy of movement. The sound of a bygone era. From today‘s perspective, everything is wrong with this motorcycle: ergonomics, reliability, suitability for everyday use. But you get used to it, including its outrageous turning circle of 7.90 meters. The Le Mans I fork with thin 35 mm stand tubes works better than expected. As dry as Italian white wine, the cones digest heavy bumps and provide information at all times
directly over the asphalt condition.
The Bridgestone BT 45 radial tires have excellent grip. The high shoulder rims are fine, 2.5 inches wide at the front and with 36 spokes, and three-inch at the rear with 40 spokes. The drum brakes are pizza-sized, 250 millimeters at the rear and 260 millimeters at the front. Those double duplex from
a Yamaha TZ decelerates extremely poor. “Pulling the cable” is to be taken literally here, but apparently the brake shoes have not yet run in properly.
In the evening, when the sun is low, the brake drums shine like glowing-
of pig iron when tapping the blast furnace. The
reconciled. The one-day rendezvous was only 149 kilometers away. But you don’t want a second with him VMissing 7 Classic Racers. Arrivederci, Guzzi!

Technical data – HTMoto-Moto Guzzi V7 Classic Racer

Displacement: 992 cm3, bore x stroke: 90 x 78 millimeters, power: 85 hp at 8000 / min, carburettor diameter: 40 mm, weight: 198 kilograms with a full tank, tank capacity: 24 liters, wheelbase: 1485 mm, steering head angle:
63 degrees, tire dimensions: 110/80 ?? 18 front, 140/70 ?? 18 at the back, price: depending on the base and equipment

HTMoto-Moto

The company HTMoto, founded in 1980, is one of the top addresses for Guzzisti in Europe. In addition to maintenance service and mail order for spare parts and accessories, Hartmut Taborsky has made a name for himself primarily because of his conversions. Served for this
he has his own engine and roller dynamometer. For classic-
A mobile workshop car including a performance test bench and five round-engine racers are available for hire.
Hartmut Taborsky can deliver or convert all parts of the V7 Classic Racer described in the driving report individually. He himself rode this motorcycle in racing training sessions and in the three-hour Classic Endurance race in Croix. All you have to do is turn down the headlights, waiters and mudguards. In the photo on the left his son Robin (18 years) is driving. He competes in classic races with the V7 in the 2006 season. With different pistons and adapted crankshafts, the V2 from Le Mans I would have up to just under 1100 cm3.
In 2001, HTMoto presented the “Ultra-Low-Emission-Bike” based on a V11 Sport: thanks to heated G-Kats, thrust-
shutdown, double ignition, secondary air system and especially new software the motorcycle with the lowest emissions. It anticipated Euro 3 and duped the series manufacturers. Further information is available by calling 02408/1761 and www.htmoto.de.

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