Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Guzzi Military Prototype

I took this for its first run beyond round the block today. Rebuilt wheels and better brakes gave me the confidence for a little run to Old Warden.

I’ll probably take it down next weekend for the Military Show.

I'm sure Richard V6 will comment given his prior occupation.
It looks nice to me but then I am a Guzzi fan

Interesting David. Presently staying with family in Yorkshire so can't check it out in Mario Colombo book I have at home. Looks like a larger version of Lodola engine. Is it a 500?

Looks great. Bet Peter (Gambalunga) and Alis would like to see more photos

That's intriguing, tell us more about it please.

Sweet ride! Want to know more about it.

Long time ago I have seen a Guzzi with an almost horizontal cylinder (Superalce?).

I am not a Guzzi specialist but your version seems to be very rare.

From the outset in 1921 until the 1960's road production was of horizontal single cylinder design starting with exhaust over inlet overhead/side valve and integral gearbox before settling on overhead valves for both. Most had external flywheels as well. EOI example below, I believe a 500S.



There were almost every conceivable design for racing though including the famous 500 V8, water cooled triples, fore/aft boxer twins etc. A wide range of military equipment as well.

Peter (Gambalunga) is the expert on TM though as his late FIL, Duilio Agostini raced them as a works rider.

There is a picture of the previous prototype in the Colombo book, page 403 in my copy, and they have one of those in the Guzzi museum.

It's a 350, apparently a few were made for a trial but Bianchi won the contract. I would love to find out more but so far I can find nothing. It seems to have had quite a bit of use, maybe as a farm bike. I think someone did a bit of work on it in the early '80s as the front rim, now replaced, was marked 10-82.

I saw it in an auction catalogue where it was listed as a V7 850. It clearly wasn't one of those and as someone was wrong on the Internet I had to find out more. After drawing a blank I asked Peter (Gambalunga) and fortunately Alis had some photos that the factory were dumping, and a photo of this model was included, annotated 1959 type 4 military prototype.

With that information I went along to the auction and was the only real bidder. I've paid more for laptops.

I spent a while trying to understand the electrics, maybe not there yet, and found that it has a low tension magneto driving a coil under the tank. The wiring for the battery was all removed/hidden, which seemed odd. When I put a battery in and turned the key smoke escaped. I fixed a few iffy connections and tried again, this time I noticed that the key got hot. Dismantling the key switch I realised it was missing an insulator, so it was grounding the main feed to the headlamp shell. It now has a 3D printed insulator.

After that it started but didn't run well.

I cleaned out and lined the tank, ultrasonic cleaned the carb and enlisted my brother to fettle it.

As it could be a runner I started the process to get it registered. I applied for a NOVA (Notification of vehicle arrival) from HMRC but was told the auction house should provide it as they had imported it. They gave me the run-around so I was stymied until I heard that they had gone into receivership. At that point I called HMRC and discussed home working, this was 2020, with the nice lady who agreed that they could probably sort something. A week later I got a letter saying I could have a NOVA if I paid VAT on the auction price. That enabled me, with a dating letter from MGOC GB, to get it registered.

Next stop tyres, as the originals looked every bit of their 60+ years. I wanted something that looked like the original Pirellis and ended up with a pair of Vietnamese tyres with tubes for an MZ 250, which look very similar to the originals. There is a company making replicas of old Pirellis but not yet the ones I need.

With a little adjustment the lights worked but the brake light showed that the brakes weren't on. I eventually found the same brake light switch but with the opposite logic NOS from the US for the price of a pub dinner evening for two.

My first few laps of the block involved a couple of stalls, some gear puzzlement and a firm conviction that Italian soldiers could never have ridden it unless they wore dancing pumps. The leg shield supports get in the way. I also realised that I needed something with at least some braking.

Looking more closely at the wheels II decided that I needed to replace the wheel rims and skim the drums. That began a long search for an 18" 32 spoke WM1 rim, finally sourced this year from Guzzi retro in Mandello. I cleaned the black paint from the rear rim and it didn't look too bad so that was ok for reuse. I sent samples of the spokes to Hagon and got a shiny new set just a few days later. Fortunately my brother has plenty of wheel building experience and a lathe that could easily cope with skimming the drums. He also fitted new bearings while he was at it.

That pretty much bring it up to date, my first ride, other than round the block between brake adjustments was to Old Warden. I'll be back there on Sunday for the Shuttleworth Military Airshow, all being well.

Huge thanks again to Peter and Alis for identifying this wonderfully rare machine for me.

More pictures on Flickr

BTW, I think the Italian Army added a requirement to the spec for this version. There are at least 4 features of the bike that address that requirement, can you spot them from the picture and my description?