2008 MOTO GUZZI BELLAGIO 940 CUSTOM

by Al

My first ride on the Moto Guzzi Bellagio was as a pillion passenger.

It sucked. There is nothing to hang on to. Except the rider, of course, but he was large and tattooed, and not high on my list of things to hang on to. And the footpegs are about 200mm too high, so I got a cramp and always felt like I was going to fall off backwards under acceleration. And the seat is too small and seems to be at a weird angle when you sit on it.

Rules for Bellagio pillions:

1. Hang on to rider
2. Be small, flexible and lithe

My second ride on the Moto Guzzi Bellagio was as the pilot. It didn't suck.

It kind of bounces around a bit at idle, but the mirrors don't move as much as they did on the BMW R1200R. And it leans a bit to starboard when you blip the throttle, just like the BMW twins. It's light to steer at low speeds, and it's not as wide as the R1200R, and it's got quite wide handlebars, so you'd think it would make a reasonable commuter.

It's okay, but it's got heaps of wheelbase, so even if it's easy to turn with those wide bars, it takes a while for the rear wheel to get behind where you turned it to.

But, it's super punchy just off idle, one-up or two-up, and it's geared tall. The motor is so torquey that it never seems like it's going to stall, but when you get drive you stay in first a lot longer than on other bikes, and in built up areas you get to third or maybe fourth gear and you don't need to go any higher.

Your knees rest lightly on the cylinder heads. They get warm. You get used to moving them out and back in.

But the footpegs are positioned correctly for me (I'd expected them to be way forward), and the riding position works around town. The seat kind of bows downwards and you find yourself in this comfy place that lets you work the bike well. It suited me fine.

I was in a hurry the first time I got on it, and I didn't examine all the switchgear until I was on the road in peak hour traffic. Then I went to use the turn indicators, and honked the horn.

What the hell is it with these Euro-weirdos? The BMW R1200R I rode on the Xmas run had these weird-arse turn indicators, and the Moto Guzzi has weird ones as well. They kind of work like normal ones do, but the turn indicator switch is under the horn button, so it's easy to wipe the horn with a gloved hand when you're signalling, and people look at you askance. Yeah, you too. Turkey.

Five minutes later, I did it again. Aaaargh!

There's no tacho. There's a speedo that goes up to 240km/h, and a LCD screen that gives you a couple of tripmeters, ambient temperature, fuel consumption, battery charge and so on. The screen is controlled by a selector switch on top of the left switchblock and another button forward under your trigger finger on the left switchblock.

When I rode it into the underground carpark at home the LCD display showed off its cool red backlight, and I put it in the garage and looked at it.

I'm not a big fan of cruiser-style bikes, but this Guzzi kind of works. The handlebars look stupid, but the rest of the styling is, I don't know, clean. And the nice bits are visible: that parallelogram reactive shaft drive system, the big cylinders sticking out, the fat Marzocchi 45mm forks, the 320mm disks with Brembo twin piston calipers, the wide wire-spoked rims. And it's matte black. To repel homos.

It hasn't got a centrestand, but I guess there's no chain to adjust, so you probably don't need one THAT much. Who changes their own tyres these days anyway? The side stand is way forward and was hard to find for me, but only because I'm not used to it. And I worked out how to change modes on the trip computer and zeroed it, because one of the reports is "Max km/h" and I didn't want to get arrested for going that fast when, in fact, someone else had had all the fun.

So I left it overnight, had a good rest, and woke it up for the BIKE ME! 2008 Pilgrimage.

It's got a choke. It's fuel injected, so God knows why it's got a choke, but it's got a choke. It starts fine on a cool Sydney autumn morning without it.

Five minutes after leaving home I was on an expressway, revelling in the exhaust note and the torque. This motor has extraordinary amounts of torque at low revs. Guzzi say that the 940cc twin makes 78Nm of torque at 6,000rpm, but they also say that it makes 80% of that number between 2,800 and 4,800 rpm. It punches hard for a two-valver.

I was cruising along just nicely at about 120km/h, the motor sounded relaxed, then it occurred to me that I only remembered changing up four times. Sure enough, I was in fifth gear. I changed to sixth. The motor sounded even more relaxed. I forgot about top gear half a dozen times on the first day on the Bellagio. The motor is so punchy, and fifth is an overdrive already ("reduction" ratio 0.968:1). Not having a tacho makes it easy to forget about sixth gear, too.

I was four minutes late at the Pilgrimage Run departure site. Everyone had left. I decided I'd better make up some time, then; so of course the fuel light came on. I stopped for fuel. It took about 12.5 litres, and after that I REALLY had to make up some time.

The smooth climb up Bellbird Hill on the Bells Line of Road was a pleasure. I left the big Guzzi in third. It pulled out of the tight corners really hard, it's got heaps of ground clearance and sticky Metzeler Lasertec Z6 tyres, and it turns very well. Despite 28 degrees of rake and a 1570mm wheelbase, it's easy to turn, and easy to change lines on.

Later, when the road got rough, it would wallow hitting big bumps in corners. The forks are fully adjustable, though. There's a dial on the top of each fork: the left one sets compression damping, the right one sets rebound damping. I went up one notch on rebound. It stopped wallowing over bumps, but it would give a single headshake exiting corners under power when I hit a bump. It was better than wallowing: I left it.

There's a knob down near the left sidecover that you can turn to change preload on the rear shock spring. The rear never gave me any problems. The tyre followed the road well, but there seemed to be a lot of road shock transmitted to the rider, and bumpy roads were uncomfortable. I can only put it down to spring rate. I thought the unsprung weight in the shaft drive might have something to do with it, but FJRs and R1200Rs don't kick like that at the back, and they're shaft drive. The R1200R even has BMW's version of the reactive shaft drive system and doesn't kick like that. And I doubt it's the sprung side of the sprung/unsprung weight ratio: the Bellagio is a bit of a porker at 224kg dry compared to the R1200R's 198 kg. And compared to a Jap 900? The Honda Hornet weights 194kg dry.

I caught up to the BIKE ME! Pilgrims at their first fuel stop somewhere near Bilpin. They were leaving. I slid in with the first four or five and helped them straighten out the road to Lithgow. The Guzzi acquitted itself well against some pretty serious sports bikes. Mainly because I didn't have to work hard: with these big twins you don't have to worry about what gear you're in. It will come out of corners hard in any gear; and the sticky tyres, good suspension and bulk ground clearance mean you probably went into the corner pretty hard too.

I spent some time following a Kawasaki-green looking thing, passed and came up behind Biffa's FZR-1, lined up a passing manoeuvre and Biffa went very weird indeed, slowed, changed line dramatically. I looked up from Biffa's back wheel: a large black and white terrier was standing ON the road, maybe a metre in from the side watching the bikes go past. Somehow, we missed it.

There was a stop at Lithgow: some got gas, but mainly a social stop. I caught up with people I haven't seen for a while. A few people said "Did you see that bloody dog?" A few others told the story of how young Nick went wide and banged his knee into the Armco but didn't drop his KTM. And we proceeded to the next stop: the pub at Capertee. Another great ride along the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range.

Two or three kilometres before Capertee, I hit a bump while slightly leaned over to the left and heard a strange noise. I couldn't work out what it was. A few hundred metres later I heard the same noise, again when hitting a bump while banking left slightly. I stopped outside the pub at Capertee and investigated.

The Bellagio's exhaust was no longer attached to the frame at the back. The two bolts which support the bracket that holds the left pillion footpeg and the exhaust mount had disappeared, and the bracket was hanging about 100mm below where it should be, still attached to the pipes. The noise I had heard was the lower muffler grounding on bumps.

The right hand footpeg uses similar bolts. I removed the seat and checked the toolkit. It included an Allen key that fitted. I took the right hand pillion footpeg off, put it in my tankbag, and used the bolts to secure the left pillion footpeg and exhaust mount. It was a long job. Because the pipe was hot, and I had to drink beer while waiting for the pipe to cool.

Source of that graunching sound revealed: two missing Allen bolts

We left Capertee, turned at Ilford, and had a blast on the curving road that joins Ilford and Sofala. I hadn't been on it since it was mainly dirt. It isn't anymore, and it's a great road to attack on a big road bike.

I checked the exhaust bracket at Sofala. It was still tight.

It was about 11:30. The Southern Clan trickled in: Island Mick, Leigh, Busababe, Wayne, others. The Canberrans likewise. There were stories of heavy police presence on the Bathurst road. Boris decided to defer the Pilgrimage to Mount Panorama to Sunday. Thommo arrived from Rockhampton, Oddjob, Quoll from the Hunter with a mate. The main street of Sofala was lined with thirty-something motorcycles.

After a few beers, we adjourned to the camp site about 5km east of Sofala; raised tents, unloaded motorcycles, collected firewood. There were two cars: the expedition photographers Martin and Suzie had one, the other was a ute which had an Aprilia with an electrical problem on the back.

After camp was established most went back to Sofala with the intention of eating lunch and buying much booze to stock the campsite. It was time for me to leave. The Guzzi must have known, because its fuel light went on.

I said my goodbyes and went south to Willow Flat, where I paid some outrageous amount of money for twelve and a half litres of petrol. I was seriously not impressed with the Bellagio's range. I checked the exhaust bracket. It was still tight. Looks like someone didn't tighten the other side up at assembly.

I turned back north and re-traced my earlier ride, but slightly slower. The curves on the Sofala/Ilford Road, the Mudgee Road and the Bells Line of Road were just as good. I only encountered two bikes on the way back: a pair of Harleys who weren't interested in going fast.

I was starting to get a bit uncomfortable, too. The seat on the Bellagio is firm and supportive, but the upright riding position and wide bars mean you're acting like a big windsock. I was getting a sore neck from holding my head against that wind. A lower handlebar would really help, allowing the rider to lean on the wind and take some of the stress off the neck and wrists. Failing that, a fairing would really help for covering long distances fast, too.

Less than three hours later I was at home in Sydney thinking about the Bellagio. The fuel light had come on twenty or so kilometres back. I looked up the specs. Apparently the fuel tank has a 19 litre capacity which includes a 4 litre reserve. I was relying on the warning light, and didn't even know that it had a reserve. And I put less than thirteen litres in each time I filled up.

The Bellagio's got enough range. It's just got a prematurely excitable fuel warning light.

The looks don't particularly appeal to me, but they will to many. It's not Moto Guzzi's fault, I just don't find the cruiser look aesthetically pleasing.

The engine's great. It works on every level except raw numbers: proven reliable design, two-valve simplicity, attractive appearance, usable and fun power.

The frame, suspension, brakes are among the best components money can buy.

But it still wouldn't make my list. My main motorcycle use is sports/touring. I tend to ride somewhere between 400 and 1,000 km on a day, but I want to have fun on any nice roads I find. The Bellagio isn't practical for me due to its lack of luggage capacity, and isn't comfortable due to its upright seating position and lack of wind protection.

But for those who take the majority of their pleasure closer to home, the Bellagio is a stylish street weapon that acquits itself well even on difficult roads. At $17,990 it's reasonably affordable exotica, too.

The Bellagio in the main street of Sofala