Impression: Harley-Davidson Road King Classic and Moto Guzzi California Vintage

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Impression: Harley-Davidson Road King Classic and Moto Guzzi California Vintage
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Impression: Harley-Davidson Road King Classic and Moto Guzzi California Vintage

There are only two directions here, boy!

With two air-cooled V-engines to America ?? a road story.

The nearest spigot was three kilometers away. Too far to push. Too close to die I drove good ole Cali dry as a cake. But what does old mean? It’s brand new, a Moto Guzzi California Vintage, the current version of the Italian classic. Rainer was out with a five-canister to fetch fuel. The May sun bored its spikes into my neck, pollen had impregnated the air, the adventure lay sluggishly ahead of us like a salt lake. We were on our way to America.
The decision had been made the previous evening. Anyone who owns an air-cooled V2 with a little 15 W 40 in their veins
circulates, has probably already made the same plan.
Less than six hours later we had put it into practice. And are in the vastness of the Bavarian Spessart with fuel-
problems stranded. The Guzzi petrol indicator light is guaranteed to have sounded the alarm. But if you can’t see behind thick sunglasses, sorry.
Rainer peeled himself out of the horizon on the Harley Road King Classic. The guttural staccato of the two pistons swung softly over to me. It only got a little louder when he came to a stop next to me. The elongated silencers understand perfectly how to degrade any eruptions from the two 725 cm3 thick combustion chambers to a shallow breeze. “Here,” Rainer grumbled, pouring five liters of super into the Guzzi ‘s 19-liter tank. Start. The 90 degree V shakes phlegmatically. Asynchronous and metallic cold. Almost as if he had to
Weigh up every spark, measure every thousandth of a millimeter of valve lift. First wave of burns, second … stamping,
rattle, swing. Concentricity. Although injection nozzles have long since taken over the job of carburettors for the traditional Italians, the Cali Vintage still exudes
History. Snorkels beautifully bass-heavy out of the airbox,
trumpets the Song of Solomon unabashedly through theirs
It hums and tilts around the longitudinal axis in time with the piston strokes. Enter aisle, next tap, fill up.
We had covered 280 kilometers so far. On the smallest of roads. Northwest course. “We’ll never arrive,” said Rainer. He said this at every stop, every time we unfolded the map for our bearings. About ten times a day. He and his Road King had been buzzing through my rear-view mirrors for hours with ellipsoidal contortions. Because Moto Guzzi did everything right: the Italian designers take history seriously and refrain from storing mirrors in rubber. The forest swallowed us. A breathtakingly curved tar belt with plenty of grip leads from Partenstein via Schollkrippen towards Frankfurt. Anyone who thought a mighty cruiser would wave the white flag on such terrain is seriously mistaken. She goes deep, the Italian. Your running boards are high and the ground clearance is extraordinary for a custom bike. Easy to turn in, bend casually and through ?? Party time.
The Cali has a few special features in store. As with the Road King, it is switched via a rocker. Click hard with the heel, and the next higher gear is in there. Brakes? The brake pedal simultaneously actuates the rear double-piston floating caliper and one of the two front four-piston fixed calipers. Sounds unspectacular at first. Rainer says it has been like that for thirty years. Due to history. All right. Only: Now the guys from Mandello are building up really snappy brembos. You tick the brake pedal for a moment and 290 kilos of Amore literally drop anchor. There is actually a catch: there is nowhere to support yourself with your right foot when braking, because it is touching the brake pedal. So do you lean on it ?? and increase the braking effect. What works ideally during emergency braking should be used with caution in the curve labyrinth. Driving a Guzzi has to be learned.
Harley drives too. Have you ever heard of being caught on an incline? The 345 kilograms of American cliche slide easily over the front wheel when turning in and come into contact with the slightly sporty folding down. Okay, let’s be honest ?? The Road King is not designed for cornering frenzy. It’s just surprising how easily the Guzzi can put up with something like that. Even more surprising that the forerunners of both machines were used by the American police in the 1980s. Rainer always says: What Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in their films
Back then, every stuntman would take off his hat before that.
A gray, heavy thunderstorm unloaded its cargo over Frankfurt. We ignored it, kept our course. Giessen, Marburg, Korbach. The B 252 seemed to be the destination of both
To be machines: endless kilometers without traffic lights, not ver-
Guard plan, wide radii. The day hung on the ropes, soft light caressed the hills of the mountains. If
there have ever been good times when you should let it roll, then
Moments like this. Where acceleration values ​​are less important than the lottery numbers of the previous year and the term Topspeed a mythical creature from Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” ?? 100 km / h can be so ecstatic.
With both engines, this speed corresponds to around 3000 tours in the last gear. Any vibrations from the 45-degree Vau from Milwaukee are kept close by special bearings-
too completely filtered off. You only feel a powerful, fat one,
rotating crankshaft under you. This 1449 cubic buxom and
The 71 hp drive has something in its genes like those huge granite balls that rotate loosely on a layer of water in a precisely ground recess. They are mainly found in pedestrian zones. No matter how hectic you try to turn these things faster? they are not out of their peace by anything
bring. Like the Harley. Your engine turns persistently, lethargic. Unyielding. Always the same? “It doesn’t matter whether you have a tailwind, a hurricane is facing you, you’re going downhill or you’re going up a ski jump,” says Rainer. The torque-
kurve is something of a monument: Between 2000 and 5800 tours there are always 90 Newton meters. Everyday stress crumbles like cigar ash.
The Moto Guzzi behaves differently. Plays the perfect solo entertainer between idle and 3000 tours. Stomps like a Mississippi steamer, rattles, trembles, rumbles. Then it gets tough, the nominally 73 hp engine falls into a brief depression. Sure, things are progressing, at least somehow. But really only again from 4000 rpm. Then experienced
the 1064 cubic V2 a second spring rips quickly
forward. With 94 Nm, the Vintage only reaches its torque peak at 5000 rpm. Despite this very different character, the cruiser is also a first-class one-
Enjoyment on. Let’s exchange the machines, says Rainer thievingly happily and says: “Super class, the Guzzi! If I burn petrol, I’d like to see it too. ”And I think: Unbelievable, but the Harley looks damn soft in view of these Italian expressions of life.
The darkness fell on us like a slap. We stayed in Paderborn. There is nothing more to say about this. When the next morning dared to take cover, we were a little closer to Bielefeld and the promised land: yellow, large Ms broke the ground everywhere, a GPS challenge was offered, the Hollywood amusement park advertised itself. This is where it begins Route 66. “We’ll never get there,” Rainer groaned between two puffs of cigarettes. An elderly gentleman, obviously a pensioner, nodded at the sight of the Road King Classic and the C.Acknowledging alifornia Vintage and said, “Could ?? briefly explain the differences to someone who thinks rationally? «Rational? Clear! The Guzzi is sportier, cheaper, more off-road, lighter, vibrates more violently, brakes harder, steers easier and drives more diagonally. The Harley is better chrome-plated, more cumbersome, has the more effective wind protection, the lower seat height, the greater seating comfort and needs slightly more fuel. “And my old woman?” Rainer sucked on the cigarette. “Can you be-
hold. Although she sits better on the Guzzi. “
The horizon grew wider. Between Cloppenburg and Garrel, life has nothing to do with what we know from office honeycombs. There is enough space in front of each house to host the World Cup final if necessary. Gigan-
Trees cast long shadows. A 2.5 kilometer long road was the destination of our trip. Here, in the land of unlimited possibilities, around 200 residents share the airport, bus stop, hardware store, computer shop and snack bar. There is only one intersection. Next to it is a stone with an inscription, behind it a roofed rondel with a table. Then the local newspaper: In the Uckermark, a pubic hairdresser reported sales records, Keith Richards fell from a palm tree in the Fiji Islands. Nice and good. We stood with both feet
in Garrel, America. Rainer was wrong.

Technical data: Harley-Davidson Road King Classic – The forefathers

Engine: air-cooled two-cylinder four-stroke 45 degree V engine,
1449 cm3, 71 hp at 5450 rpm, 109 Nm at 3400 rpm,
Multi-disc oil bath clutch, five-speed gearbox, toothed belt.
Chassis: double loop frame, telescopic fork, Ø 41 mm,
Double disc brake at the front, Ø 292 mm, disc brake
rear, Ø 292 mm. Dimensions and weights: wheelbase 1592 mm,
Steering head angle 64 degrees, seat height 683 mm, weight 345 kg.
Test consumption: 5.5 liters / 100 km. Price: 20995 euros

Technical data: Moto Guzzi California Vintage

Engine: air-cooled two-cylinder four-stroke 90 degree V engine,
1064 cm3, 73 hp at 6400 rpm, 94 Nm at 5000 rpm,
Two-disc dry clutch, five-speed gearbox, cardan.
Chassis: double loop frame, telescopic fork, Ø 45 mm,
Double disc brake at the front, Ø 320 mm, disc brake
rear, Ø 282 mm. Dimensions and weights: wheelbase 1560 mm,
Steering head angle 61 degrees, seat height 780 mm, weight 290 kg.
Test consumption: 5.3 liters / 100 km. Price: 14890 euros

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