Anyone here owned a reasonably recent Moto Guzzi ?
No, but I've lusted for a few. I always thought the engine layout of the Guzzis was the proper way to go for two cylinders - 90 degree twins are well-balanced mechanically, and the cylinders are splayed out for good airflow and easy maintenance. And I solidly prefer shaft drive over a chain.
However, Guzzis were never a thing where I live, and in over fifty years of riding, I've never seen one on the road, or even parked or for sale. Though I did see a Guzzi in a traveling museum exhibit at the Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. It was one of the V8 racing bikes, and since there was nobody nearby to object, I put my greasy fingerprints on it. If they didn't want people to touch the motorcycles they should have made the barriers higher.
Moto Guzzi made a handful of nice-looking bikes, but most of them - at least the ones that hit the American market, ranged from "unfortunate" to "fugly" to "WTF!?" I'm not partial to manga-on-meth or fake-chopper styling, which seems wildly inappropriate for them.
I recently became aware of the V100, which is very interesting, mechanically. It's sad, but I understand why they went to water cooling, and it looks like they did a good job with the new engine considering the regulatory burden the engineers had to accomodate. Still, though I wouldn't kick one out of my garage, I can't say I'm impressed with the styling of any of the models I've seen so far.
