Mounted longways in the chassis, in typical Moto Guzzi tradition, the big air-cooled, fuel-injected 1151cc V-twin motor sounds and goes a lot like an original Ducati 916, which is a pretty good place to start. Both engine and gearbox are very smooth, but it doesn’t have the grunt of the older 95bhp two-valve motor, which used to be in this bike. It does have more top-end power if you’re prepared to rev it, though. For a machine like this, which despite its ‘Sport’ tag prefers to cruise rather than scratch, we think Guzzi should have left the old engine in. That aside, it’s still a superb powerplant with excellent fuelling from its fuel-injection system.
