MOTO-GUZZI V100 MANDELLO (2023 - on) Review

The Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello is no thrown-together parts bin special sports tourer. New from the ground-up, it’s beautifully crafted with design cues from Guzzi’s glittering history. Slits in its side panels mimic their 1976 Le Mans 850 and the top fairing tips a hat to the ‘81 Le Mans 850 III. It's evocative stuff, right down to the V100 Mandello’s name that pays tribute to it home and a celebration of Guzzi’s 100th birthday in 2021.

But it’s anything but a misty-eyed, two-wheeled reminisce. It’s thoroughly modern with a tasteful colour dash and lean sensitive rider aids. Go for the £15,750 S model and you get extra goodies like semi-active Öhlins Smart EC 2.0 semi-active suspension and an up/down quickshifter, too.

In terms of elegance and detailing the Guzzi puts its sports touring rivals in the shade, but what is the competition? The Kawasaki Ninja 1000SX, Suzuki GSX-S1000GT and BMW R1250RS are obvious rivals, but in the flesh, it looks like a ‘low-rider’ Yamaha Tracer 9, or Honda NT1100. The Moto Guzzi’s upright riding position even has shades of Aprilia Tuono V4 about it, which is no surprise as they’re both developed by Piaggio at their Noale factory near Venice.

Technically the Mandello is a different beast to any previous Guzzi. Not only is it fitted with electronics that wouldn’t look out of place on a superbike and a new engine, it’s also the first production bike to have adaptive aerodynamics, although their effect is minimal.

Flappy wings aside, Moto Guzzi has created a tasteful sports tourer that’s neither bland, nor shouty and offers the perfect mix of comfort, sportiness, tech and character.

It’s pricey, but the V100 Mandello is well made with great attention to detail and feels like a machine that’s come from the heart rather than just a model produced to fill a gap in a model range. It’s like nothing else around, which is all part of its appeal and you never get the sense, either by riding or looking at it, that any corners were cut during its journey from design sketch to showroom floor.

Watch: Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello review

Although the Mandello might look chunky in pictures with its bold styling, larger than life powertrain and chunky exhausts, it sits surprising low. Shorter riders will feel immediately confident being able to get feet flat on the floor and if the standard 815mm seat height is still too lofty, there’s a low accessory seat available.

The riding position itself is nigh on perfect. Pegs are sporty without cramping knees, even for six footers like me (a higher accessory seat is available for even more legroom) and its tall bars are placed naturally towards the rider so there’s no awkward stretch or excess pressure on your wrists.

The seat is comfy and scalloped at the rear to hold you in under acceleration, the screen offers decent wind protection and with its injection system inside the ‘V’ of the engine, now that the cylinder heads have been turned round 90 degrees, there’s lots more knee room.

Ride quality on this semi-active Öhlins clad S model is as plush or sporty as you want it to be, depending on the riding mode you choose and there’s a handy remote rear preload adjuster to twiddle for carrying heavy loads.

With its shorter engine the Mandello is sportier and more agile than previous Guzzis and thanks to its long swingarm and low pivot point there’s little up/down shaft drive pitching on and off the throttle.

Yes, you can feel the back-end rise and fall when you ride aggressively, but like the engine’s rocking it’s a slight movement and a sensation that quickly melts into the background. But what feeling you lose with a chain you gain with the clean, maintenance-free convenience of that shaft, which is especially useful on a big tour.

Through corners the Guzzi is natural steering and composed. Damp roads stop us from pushing on, but the Mandello is always reassuring thanks to the grip of Pirelli’s superb Angel GT sports touring tyres (now with a fatter 190/55 x 17 rear) and the knowledge the lean sensitive traction control and ABS will quickly step in, just in case.

Its brakes deserve a special mention, too. Brembo M4 32 calipers are incredibly powerful and tactile, something sadly missing from most ABS set-ups nowadays.

And what about the adaptive aero? Well, flaps fitted to the front edges of the tank automatically open to direct air around the rider and pillion. Guzzi says they reduce wind pressure by 22% and working with the standard electrically adjustable screen, keep you in a still bubble of air, away from the elements.

The flaps open to a 30-degree angle in Touring mode at 43mph or can be customised via the dash menu to deploy between 19mph and 56mph. They stay permanently out in Rain mode and tucked away in Street and Sport. The effects are small and almost undetectable on the open road.

⏱️ Join @Neevesy33 for quite a lot more than #60secondswith the new Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello. Full review: https://t.co/CuLzFC3fSd pic.twitter.com/PUb2asHLKK

— Motor Cycle News (@MCNnews) October 24, 2022

Guzzi have given the V100 Mandello a 21st century twist with new tech and modern engine design, but they haven’t erased its character. It still rocks from side to side when you blip the throttle, but the motion is slight and unobtrusive, thanks to the motor’s new counter balance shaft that almost cancels out the rock when you roll.

There’s less mechanical boom, too, thanks to lighter engine internals and sound-deadening water jackets, but there’s still a satisfying burble at tickover that morphs into a deep bellow when you let it sing. Engine vibes are greatly reduced, too, but it still rumbles to remind you it has soul.

Sure, 113bhp may not sound much on paper, especially for a bike weighing 233kg, fully fuelled, but Guzzis have always been about churning out low down torque and not peak power.

But the Mandello isn’t slow and performance is never lacking. A sports tourer doesn’t need to have face melting acceleration, anyway. Instead, it needs to have a wide spread of smooth power and enough grunt to punch out of corners without having to dance on the gear lever. The Mandello delivers all this with a hefty dose of character thrown in for good measure.

Bolted to the back of the V-twin is the Mandello’s new six speed gearbox. It’s slicker and more accurate than Guzzis of old, but you must still take your time shifting in the lower cogs to make sure they slot home and need a firm foot on the lever. On the flip side, the mechanical satisfaction you get from operating spinning pieces of metal is a nice contrast to the electronic control you get elsewhere.

New ‘compact block’ V-twin

This is Moto Guzzi’s smoothest, quietest, cleanest and most powerful engine. It’s also their first with liquid cooling, not that you’d know with its pipework neatly hidden away. The completely new 1042cc (96 x 72mm bore and stroke) DOHC (with finger followers), 8v ‘compact block’ 90° V-twin makes a claimed 113bhp@8700rpm and 77lb-ft of torque - 82% of which made as low as 3500rpm.

A host of lightweight internals are now used to produce 50% less inertia than Guzzi’s old 1200cc 8v lump as well as being 103mm shorter, which allows a more compact wheelbase for sharper handling. Cylinders are also turned round by 90 degrees, so the exhausts now exit from the side instead of the front. Throttle bodies now live between ‘V’, freeing up space for the rider’s knees, as does the engine being tilted forward by 5 degrees.

A counter rotating balance crankshaft is also used for the first time to cancel out the side-to-side rocking movement associated with a transverse engine on and off the throttle.

Service intervals are every 7500 miles and Guzzi claim 60mpg and 224 miles from its 17-litre tank that extends under the seat. Expect a raft of new models powered by the new engine in the coming years.

Build quality, fit and finish are all top notch out of the crate, but it’s too early to say how the new engine, electronics and chassis components will stand the test of time. That said, MCN’s owners’ reviews of recent Guzzis, like the V85 TT are generally positive, so there shouldn’t be any major concerns over reliability.

We don't currently have any Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello owners' reviews on the site.

The Guzzi is pricier and less powerful than the £12,349 Kawasaki Ninja 1000SX and £11,999 Suzuki GSX-S1000GT, but it’s more upright, comfortable and characterful.

It’s more engaging than a £12,499 Honda NT1100, has significantly less wind buffeting than a £10,700 Yamaha Tracer 9 and with its superior chassis parts, rides and handles better than any of its Japanese rivals. It’s along the same lines as the BMW R1250RS, right down to its engine layout and shaft drive, but it’s sportier, more agile and slightly less of a tourer.

And as for extreme high-performance tall rounders like the £15,080 BMW S1000XR, £16,995 Ducati Multistrada V4 and £17,949 KTM 1290 Super Duke GT, the Guzzi is lower, calmer and more relaxed.

In fact, it’s hard to pigeonhole the V100 Mandello and that’s one of its appeals. It’s a superbly made sports tourer loaded with charm, tech and one of the most iconic tank badges of them all.

Even in base trim the V100 Mandello is well equipped with an electric screen, classy 5in colour TFT Bluetooth enabled dash, Kayaba suspension (adjustable for preload and rebound damping) electronic rider modes, LED lighting and flappy wings included in the price. It comes in red or white with gold wheels. The S model has semi-active Öhlins, heated grips, up/down quickshifter, tyre pressure monitor and smartphone compatibility. It comes in green or grey with black wheels.

Accessories include hard panniers (59-litres overall capacity) that clip on without the need for a frame. There’s also a top box, rack, taller screen, various height rider and passenger seats, heated grips (not the hottest in the world), crash protectors, centre stand, auxiliary light kit, USB port, tyre pressure monitor, Bluetooth connectivity, quickshifter and alarm.

New generation electronics

Ride-by-wire and sophisticated rider aids make their first appearance on a Guzzi. A six-axis Marelli 11MP ECU facilitates lean sensitive ABS and traction control, cornering headlights, cruise control, riding modes (Tour, Rain, Road and Sport), semi-active suspension and the up/down quickshifter fitted to the S model.