The Goose with Six Gears
There are a whole mess of touring motorcycles out there these days, which is in contrast to the recent past where there were just big tour rigs that were designed to comfortably to go coast to coast with a good deal of stuff, including a passenger. If you wanted a different kind of machine to take a huge trip like this you could certainly do it, but it typically meant buying a lot of aftermarket accessories and fashioning your own mile-muncher. Such rides are often brilliant, but in some cases they don’t exactly handle the way they should because they really aren’t designed to carry all this stuff long distances. Comfort can be a less than stellar as well, as many of these starting platforms are more focused at around-town putting (and in some cases designed more for style than over-the-road functionality).
But now every genre of motorcycle has a turn-key touring version including cruising, standards, convertibles, and (my personal favorite) the sports tourer. Moto Guzzi has a good un’, too, in the form of the Norge GT 8V. This is a big touring bike that while not quite a full dresser, has big, detachable panniers that are easy to lock and secure (and capacious enough to swallow a full face helmet). The big 1200c air-cooled transverse 8-valve V-Twin has the familiar Guzzi “feel,” but is never annoying and has a generous supply of power in a broad, flat torque curve. The six-speed gearbox has good ratios to match the power output, and 70 MPH in top gear comes at a leisurely 4,000 RPM. The riding position of the 570 lb. (dry) bike is sporting in terms of the knee bend to the pegs but the bars and high and wide enough to make all-day riding comfortable. This comfort thing is enhanced by a really well-designed saddle (31.9 inch seat height; a lower seat is available as an option) and further helped by an easily adjustable rear shock that is perfectly suited for a sport touring rig such as this. Rough-road ride quality is superb, and the shock seems to hold its composure during aggressive cornering as well. The front forks are likewise sorted, and have preload adjusters on the the top of the stanchion as is standard practice these days. As it is basically a Guzzi trademark, there’s shaft final drive that uses sophisticated engineering to reduce “shaft effect” if you get ham-handed with the throttle.
Cool things: standard heated grips and an electrically-adjustable windscreen, although on the latter the up and down buttons are located on different sides of the handlebar and a loooooong reach for your thumbs. The aforementioned hard saddlebags are very capacious and once you learn the drill are easy to deal with and seem very weatherproof. A stout side and centerstand are always the traveler’s friends as are the 6-gallon fuel capacity and decent fuel mileage (I saw around 42 MPG in fairly spirited riding).
So all in all this is a pretty fine sport touring ride that has the size, power suspension and goodies to make long days on the road a pleasure, especially if your tastes lean towards taking the roads less traveled. Prices start at $15,990. www.motoguzzi-us.com





