I would be completely insane to buy an old-ish Moto Guzzi, right?

[T.W.R]

Thats hard to say as sometimes MG have a massive collective brain fart and do daft things like drill all the oil level holes in the diff's in the wrong place... Or run out of cash so they call up Guidos brother at ACME Hardening Co to do a quick (cheap) job on some gears on tick... Its all part of the 'trial' that can be ownership of Italian devices...

No worse than Ducati or Laverda of the same era...been there done that years ago with both of the priors mentioned and had to see mates go thru the trials of Guzzi ownership

Same with paint finishes... You could literally wash the frame and fairing paint off the matte black parts on our Mk2...

That could encompass most if not all of the manufacturers of the late 70s early 80s when it comes to matt black finish on parts & engine casings

They are not all like that... But the trick is knowing which ones are...

Depends on which time during the week they rolled of the line

If the Leerio has staggered along that far its likely a goodun and looks fantastic. Possibly a bit more fantastic than it ought to? Either way... At that price its a steal...

Least the seller is honest enough to admit that it's better going to an enthusiast rather than getting hacked-up into a cafe bitsa

[swarfie]

Thats hard to say as sometimes MG have a massive collective brain fart and do daft things like drill all the oil level holes in the diff's in the wrong place... Or run out of cash so they call up Guidos brother at ACME Hardening Co to do a quick (cheap) job on some gears on tick... Its all part of the 'trial' that can be ownership of Italian devices...

Same with paint finishes... You could literally wash the frame and fairing paint off the matte black parts on our Mk2...

They are not all like that... But the trick is knowing which ones are...

If the Leerio has staggered along that far its likely a goodun and looks fantastic. Possibly a bit more fantastic than it ought to? Either way... At that price its a steal...

Yep, I hear what your'e saying...a mate of mine in Cambridge was the importer of Ducati's in the early 70's and he was telling me about the first couple of 750's they bought in. One they hung onto and raced in the Castrol six-hour a couple of times, the other went to a customer. Years later they had to rebuild the engine (40,000 odd miles later) and low and behold the big end pin had NEVER been drilled for oil feed to the big-end.

[TLDV8]

The 82 Monzas are Guzisil or summit....similar to the BMW Nikasil but probably not as good.

Would be a good idea to replace the valves as I have yet to see pistons for sale.

At $4500 I think its about 1k overpriced for what is basically a Guzzi novelty item.

Quite rare in the States, only about 150 of the Monza sold there, due to price and the Ducati Pantah being more popular/better.

There was a V50 Monza a while back on US eBay with only around 1800 miles (iirc) on the clock but might have said it had some form of final drive hicup.
Those square head jobbies are far to new anyway.

The Eldorado is down for the count,a service the other week ended up with the crankshaft sitting on the bench,time to fit the Gilardoni cylinders and find a new final drive universal.
Anyone know if there is a New Zealand contact for Maxxis tyres (120/90/18 whitewall) ??

[TLDV8]

As for being mad to buy an older Moto Guzzi,they are what they are and that is (round head) a fairly straight forward,robust engine and transmission.
Anything with previous owners (main problem a lot of the time like Brit bikes) and old can have a few hiccups to be resolved.
Part and parcel it can be.....

[tonup]

I had a MK4 for a short time and thought it was a great bike, bit of an ugly duckling of the Le Mans range but I'd be happy to own one again!