Bobber Dazzler?

Bertie Simmonds rides a characterful Moto Guzzi, but asks if this is just a fad too far?

- Bertie Simmonds

Biking fads seem to be the way things areheading and one is the Bobber. In the sameway that café racers seem to pop up from time to time, these stripped-down machines hark back to an era that marketing people seem to think we really want to relive. A ‘Bobber’ itself was a ‘pared back’ American machine, more often than not a Harley-Davidson. When the men came back from the Second World War, they could pick up ex-War Department hogs and strip them back, make them look more aggressive and make them unique. Today ‘hipsters’ love them and make them from anything and everything.

That’s all well and good, but some bikes are more suited to this than others, so what on Earth is Europe’s oldest motorcycle manufacturer doing making an American Bobber anyways? Thankfully the look is very Guzzi – but then again, how can it not be with that trademark longitudinal V-twin proudly jutting out front?

Ahhh, that motor, I’ve always been a fan. For this creation (and its sibling, the Roamer – see boxout) much of it is new. The 853cc lump has new barrels (rounded ones, compared to the sharperedged V7s) new heads and pistons. Enigmatic and characterful are two words that could have been coined for this 90º Vee, after all it still has pushrods, two valves per-pot and is an air-cooled affair… Of course it has had to move with the (Euro 4 compliant) times, hell there’s even traction control so there is tech inside, but let’s fire her up and take her for a spin.