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Moto Guzzi bassa lunga

For the cats

Adler obliges: The bassa lunga doesn’t have to let its wings hang in thick air – it has got the cleaning of its exhaust gases regulated.

Type experts find it difficult. On the one hand, the bassa lunga is easily recognizable as Moto Guzzi – not only because of the eagle on the tank – on the other hand, it has never left the northern Italian production facility in this form. The solution to the riddle can be found in the Swabian Alb, more precisely: in Gomadingen, more precisely: at Guzzi refiner Moto-Spezial.
Thick wires to Italy, a large portion of creativity and the possibilities of a well-equipped machine park offer the prerequisites there to successfully pull off a project à la bassa lunga. And that’s even reasonably economical: While the first copy (MOTORRAD 1/1995) was still mixed according to the principle of the slaughter plate from Guzzi parts of different origins, Moto-Spezial now gets the (slightly modified California II) frames directly from the supplier, while Moto Guzzi contributed the bare engines. Other parts from the Guzzi shelf, an upside-down fork with linear ball bearing technology from our own production and a set of Fournales air suspension struts round off the technology of the Italian-Swabian cruiser.
At least on the surface. Because there is – as an optically unspectacular icing on the cake – the homemade injection system, the electronics of which make it possible to clean the exhaust gases via G-Kats (see box).
This special bassa lunga does not have a choke lever, instead a button on the throttle that can be used to increase the idle speed when the engine is cold. The V2 knows no starting problems in the Moto special trim any more than impurities in the power delivery: The 1100 comes into life with Guzzi-typical onomatopoeia, in order to react spontaneously and without missteps to changes in the throttle valve position – not better than a standard injection engine, but also not worse. Purpose cleaner.
Compared to the series California, the gearbox shifts more cleanly – which can only be thanks to the cleverly designed actuation lever and its top-class technical design. On the other hand, it is initially a little difficult for the bassa lunga novice to drive a clean line. At low speed, the machine looks unwieldy, and on top of that, it shows a pronounced self-steering behavior in tight bends and wants to tip over towards the inside of the curve.
However, the conditions improve as the curve radii increase and the speed increases. The bassa lunga feels more and more in its element, allows quick changes of lean angle and conveys an above-average degree of steering precision – according to cruiser standards.
In terms of comfort, the bassa lunga unites the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: First of all, she cradles the driver with an elegant telescopic fork and then kicks him in the back a fraction of a second later with a bone-hard tail. As a consolation: The air suspension struts offer the possibility – albeit with a bit of screwdriving effort – to find an individual set-up.
I.Individuality is also the key when it comes to designing a bassa lunga: for a purchase price of around 31,000 marks, the customer is king, so the version that is being driven is not binding in detail. Here’s a tip: The miniature rear-view mirrors that aspen like aspen leaves and the starter switch on the rear frame are in the interest of a tidy handlebar area, something for the eye, but clearly for the cat in terms of practicality.

Engine management with regulated catalytic converter

Hans Peter length, head of the Moto Spezial company, is known for his ambitions not only to improve standard Moto Guzzis in detail, but also to optimize essential functions by replacing entire assemblies. For the large-volume V2 models from Mandello del Lario, for example, he developed a complete engine management system with mapped ignition and injection with the additional option of a regulated catalytic converter. The digital control unit is housed in a self-developed instrument cluster with a speedometer and rev counter to save space. All options are open to the customer. A Guzzi with carburettors can be converted to injection. Motorcycle Spezial can equip a model with standard injection with regulated catalytic converters. And the bassa lunga is donated by Hans Peter Length not only with its engine management system called pgp / ms with regulated catalytic converter, but also mechanical components developed in-house, such as the elaborately manufactured throttle valve housing. The throttle valves rotate in ball bearings and thus enable exact synchronization and function, especially in the partial load range. This is to prevent the valve jerking, which is often objected to in two-cylinder engines. The more favorable position of the injection nozzles also improves the mixture preparation. These have been moved closer to the inlet valves and thus reduce the pollutants as they arise. The controlled catalytic converters in the specially developed silencers are supposed to ensure the drastic exhaust gas cleaning that follows. Two lambda sensors, one for each cylinder, signal the exhaust gas composition to the digital control unit and thus help to achieve the optimum mixture composition. Langes developments have already successfully passed the function test: the exhaust test bench certified a Moto Guzzi with an engine management system and a regulated catalytic converter with 1.43 grams / km hydrocarbon and 0.02 gr / km nitrogen oxide a high level of environmental compatibility. At ten gr / km, the value for carbon monoxide is also well within the Euro I standard, but could be better for a regulated catalytic converter – for Hans Peter length, it is certainly an incentive for further optimization.

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