Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

I visited the EICMA motorcycle exhibition in Milano 9-13 November 2011 to have a glimpse of what the motorcycle manufacturers are cooking up for us riders for 2012.

The Guzzi V7 Racer X prototype with fairing and drum brakes.

Milano is a nice city, and with the EICMA exhibition in town it's even nicer. I went there with a band of riders, organized by Askim MC, who is the workshop I use whenever I don't understand what is wrong with the bike. And then some.

The bike press has already shown you all the goodies, so I guess this will not be breaking news. The Guzzi stand displayed their new small block engine, which may be a heads-up for a design shift even with the big block twin. Also, Guzzi displayed a prototype of a V7 Racer X, including a fairing and drum brakes! Besides these novelties (?) there was only a Guzzi customized sidecar rig at their stand which was something out of the ordinary. No 1400 California nor scramblers.

Ducati had their Panigale as their main attraction, MV Agusta their new F3 triple sports bike, and Borile was there showing off their beautiful hand made small-displaced bikes. The most interesting Cagiva was their 900 Elefant Paris-Dakar contender from 1992...

The electric arena was pretty interesting though. With 180 km range per charge for Zero's bikes, it's starting to look good. The off-road selection is nice, and would be cool to try out. The future is electric! Or at least something else than fossil fuels.

Two days at the fair was pretty tiresome, but fun. I'll try to get there next year as well. Oh, and I got a couple of Guzzi T-shirts and a sweater, so I'm happy.

The new Guzzi small block engine - a glimpse also of the big block future?

A custom Guzzi sidecar build. Overdone and bling-bling'is, but still nice.

A stack of Guzzi Norges, used for the PR trip to North Cape last summer.

New Griso paint.

Griso, customized by German Stein Dinse parts.

Another customized Guzzi, this one by Millepercento.

Yet another custom build, this time using a 750 Nevada small block Guzzi as basis. It IS possible!

Magnificent Borile 450 Scrambler.

MV Agusta's new supersport contender, the F3 triple.

Zero's bike with their new battery pack, giving a range of some 180 kms per charge. Now it's starting to look pretty serious.

Not Italian, but still awesome: The prototype Husqvarna Moab.