Moto Guzzi V10 Centauro Sport
MOTO GUZZI V10 CENTAURO SPORT
Quick Ride
Heavy horse
FEW MOTORCYCLES HAVE ever been more aptly named than Moto Guzzi's V1O Centauro. Just one look at the muscular V-Twin sport-cruiser triggers references to the mythological halfman/half-horse. First launched two years ago as Mandello's answer to the Ducati Monster and Buell S1 Lightning, the Centauro is unfortunately a Clydesdale compared to those two quarter horses-a fact that the new Centauro Sport means to address.
Available in Mini-Cooperrip-off livery with white stripes on a British Racing Green or Italian Red base, the Sport in corporates a host of detail im provements aimed at making the Centauro a more easy-han dling easy-rider. Indeed, my two biggest complaints have been rectified: The footpegs are now more rearset and the handlebar is lower and more pulled back, which together make the riding stance much less stretched-out.
These changes still don't make the big Twin feel exactly nimble. It does, after all, scale a claimed 493 pounds, with a 58inch wheelbase. Like many cruisers, the Centauro is happi est going with the flow. It dis plays excellent stability around long, fast sweepers. On a smooth road, the sheer weight of the bike lets it ride out the occa sional ripple satisfactorily. Throw in a couple of bumps or the odd pavement seam, though, and the oversprung WP monoshock will toss you up in the air before gravity returns you to the comfy seat.
The rectangular-section chrome-moly frame (which the Centauro shares with the Day tona RS sportbike) is pretty stiff, the chassis steers well at speed and the Pirelli Dragon tires give good grip-quite enough to ground the footpegs and especially the right exhaust pipe when cranked over. The twin Brembo four-piston front brakes are very effective, and the Centauro will dig in its hooves big time if you step on the rear brake pedal as well.
As is the case with the chas sis, the engine is nearly all there. It displays serious top-end performance, but struggles far ther down the rev scale. It's one thing for Guzzi to have trans planted the Daytona's fuel-in jected, eight-valve, high-cam motor to the Centauro, but to do so without altering the power delivery is a definite mistake. Guzzi ought to have made this a bike on which you can boule vard to the beach at low rpm. Instead, there's a big hole in the powerband between four and five, grand, which makes the Centauro less than ideal as a traffic tool.
Surely, in concocting the Cen tauro, a better bet would have been to use the fuel-injected, two-valve, pushrod motor from the Sport llOOi, which not only would have allowed a reduction in the Sport's asking price (the equivalent of $12,750 in Eu rope), but also would have been better suited to this kind of bike.
Unfortunately, I can't help feeling the Centauro Sport is a bit incongruous-a two-wheeled contradiction in terms destined to become a quirky sidebar to Motorcycling, The Italian Way.
Alan Cathcart
