Moto Guzzi V10 Centauro

Moto Guzzi V10 Centauro

CW RIDING IMPRESSIONS

The Goose takes wing

ALAN CATHCART

IT’S BEEN ONE HELL OF A long time since Moto Guzzi took the starring role at a major motorcycle show, but that’s exactly what happened at last November’s Milan Motorcycle Exposition. Italy’s oldest motorcycle manufacturer, bursting with the vitality of new management after more than a decade of slumber, took top billing with the launch of its V10 Centauro.

What, a motorcycle named for the fanciful halfman, half-horse of Greek mythology? Sure, and why not for a fanciful half-standard, half-sportbike like this one? The Centauro is the first of 12 new models that Guzzi plans to launch during the next five years as it marches down a product-

directed path the company’s management fervently hopes will lead to profitability.

Though new Guzzi boss Arnolfo Sacchi has decreed that each of these new models must only be unveiled when it’s ready for production, the Centauro was the company’s calling card to let the world know that the wings of the Guzzi eagle are beating again. Hence the gap between the bike’s debut at Milan last year and the start of production in September.

Penned by Italian industrial designer Luciano Marabese, the Centauro is based on Guzzi’s John Wittner-developed eightvalve Daytona RS sportbike. For this application, chief engineer Angelo Ferrari

detuned the fuel-injected, cam-in-head, 992cc motor so that it delivers a claimed 94 horsepower at 8200 rpm-a drop of about 8 peak ponies. The softer cams and revised injection and ignition mapping he specified did, however, boost torque to an awesome 72 footpounds at 5500 rpm. This 7-pound increase fattens the powerband in a way that befits a bike born for the boulevard.

The frame is the same chrome-moly, rectangularsection spine-type fitted to the Daytona RS. A 26degree head angle and 58.1 -inch wheelbase deliver the same conservative geometry as the Guzzi sportbikes, and the Daytona’s fully adjustable WP 40mm inverted fork and shock are used.

One major change is the riding position, which is much more upright thanks to the raised, flat handlebar. Also noticeable are the lower seat height of just 28.3 inches and footpegs that are farther forward than the Daytona’s semirearsets. The seat curvature is quite shallow, allowing the rider to slide fore and aft depending on circumstance and inclination. For a 6-footer, though, the footpegs are maybe 2 inches too far forward, the handlebar is much too wide and a little too high, and the seat padding too thin to make a day in the saddle anything but tiring.

But if the Centauro’s riding position needs to be less custom and more roadster-at high speeds, you have to hang on to stay aboard-you can’t say the same about the dynamics. Under its flashy clothes, the Centauro is a take-no-prisoners sportbike. Thanks to the torque increase, the VI0 actually accelerates harder than the Daytona. Feeling lazy and shiftless? The Centauro is happy pulling cleanly away in top gear from as low as 2000 rpm-that’s just 30 mph-without snatching the transmission. Even better, the Centauro will out-accelerate almost any other musclebike thanks to that megatorque motor and the precise, instant response delivered by the fuel-injection and light-action throttle.

Part of that pulling power comes because the Centauro’s five-speed gearbox is different from the Daytona’s, with a lower first and second gear, the same third, and lower fourth and fifth. This not only delivers a close-ratio gearbox that helps acceleration, but also shortens the final-drive ratio and makes the Centauro happy to lope around at medium speeds in fourth or fifth gear without straining at the leash. This gearing combines with the meaty extra midrange to deliver impressive punch off the line or in roll-ons.

Too bad the Centauro’s 12.6-inch Brembo front discs aren’t the cast-iron variety fitted to the sport

model. Instead, they’re the budget stainless-steel variety. In spite of having stainless-steel brake lines and the latest four-piston calipers, the brakes have the same slightly dead feel found on other bikes fitted with these discs, rather than the controlled bite of the costlier cast-iron parts. Pity. But at least you can use the Guzzi’s hefty engine braking to get yourself out of a jam if you go in too deep while careening downhill. Stomping on the rear 11.1-inch disc helps, too.

All in all, once the suspension had been tweaked to dial out the standard soft cruiser settings and dial in a more controlled response-especially more rebound damping to stop the bike pogoing over bumps-the Centauro ended up offering a pretty good handling package by transverse VTwin shaftie standards.

The V10 is a true allrounder, which makes the point about the riding position even more worth addressing. Instead of being a gussied-up “Cruzzi Guzzi,” this is a tamed sportbike like Ducati’s Monster, and needs to be presented as such. The price certainly seems about right: It works out to the equivalent of about $14,000 in Italy. (That sounds steep because it includes Italy’s 19-percent value-added tax; it’s more like $11,300 with the tax deducted.) Will that be the Centauro’s price tag in the U.S.? We’ll have to wait and see. European deliveries are scheduled to begin early in October. A successful launch could just presage the rebirth of Moto Guzzi as a viable company.