Le Mans Redux: The 2002 Moto Guzzi V11 Le Mans. (Ridden & Rated).(Evaluation)

Publication: Rider

Publication Date: 01-JAN-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Ehlert Publishing Group

Buying a motorcycle is most often a matter of personal choice, which is quite subjective by nature. Instead of deferring to logic, to the more objective numbers we read on a spec sheet, we let our simple, often uninformed preferences seduce and sway us. And purchasing a Moto Guzzi definitely involves personal taste, since these bikes--in this case the new Le Mans model--are certainly not every-one's tazza di te, or cup of tea.

Most of us look forward to a plate of spaghetti alla Bolognese, with a tomato and ground-beef sauce, but if we are presented with a risotto nero, or black rice mixed with chopped cuttlefish and their black ink, we might pause. So be it with a Moto Guzzi.

The Le Mans model designation has a proud role in the Italian Guzzi tradition. This civilian version of the company's endurance racer first came out as an 850 model in 1976, then became a 1000 in the '80s, the name being officially retired late in 1992. The Le Mans was more or less supplanted by the ill-fated Daytona and Centauro models,...

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