In 2010 I had a pretty serious motorcycle accident, the kind that keeps you in the hospital and rehab for better than a month and unable to walk for a couple more. While recovering, and unable to do much, I was surfing ebay and Craigslist looking at bikes. For some reason I zeroed in on Moto Guzzi, looking particularly for a 750S or 1000S, primarily because of their racing stripe tanks. Silly, I know, but true enough.

By December I was able to walk and more importantly, ride. I spotted an ebay ad for a V7 Sport for sale in OK. The photos weren't great but I was intrgued. Fellow Riding Into History volunteer John Duss has one, he gave me a lot of info on valuation and what to look for. Thus armed, I contacted the seller to get the history on the bike. Turns out it was the personal pride of the owner of Atlas Cycles in Tulsa OK, an old time Moto Guzzi dealer, who bought it new. When he retired in 2007, a couple of friends bought out his stock. They sold off most all of the old bikes they found, as well as the parts inventory. But they kept this V7, indeed it was the main reason they did the deal. In going through the inventory they found, in the original, old Factory boxes, brand new NOS tins for the V7, tank and both side covers. The owner had purchased them back in the seventies for just this bike. The bike had only a bit over 9,000 miles from new, still had the original Michelins and everything else as delivered. Gerald and his partner operated a small motorcycle museum (Seaba Station) in Warwick, OK, they installed the new bodywork and parked it there.

When Gerald's Suzuki dealership ran into financial issues in 2009-10, he was forced to sell some bikes. The Guzzi was the last to go. There was a lot of interest in the bike, a dozen bidders placed 27 bids, but armed with my newfound knowledge, I knew I wanted it, and I got it. Getting it home was the next challenge, but I had previously used Dan Lawson, a motorcycle transporter, and was very satisfied with his service and professionalism. Dan got it here to FL in fine shape.

The bike was filthy but it ran. There were a couple of small pieces that I needed to fix or replace. But overall it was as advertised. I commenced to perform what I would refer to as a "sensitive recommissioning".

Since then I have shown it several times with remarkable success. Here's the record to date:
2011 - Hilton Head Concours d' Elegance, First Place International Motorcycles
2012 - Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show, First European Motorcycle
2012 - Riding Into History, Best European Classic
2013 - AMCA Sunshine Chapter National Meet, 99.5 points, First Junior
2013 - AMCA Chesapeake Chapter National Meet, 100.0 points, First Senior
2014 - AMCA Perkiomen National, 99.75 points, inducted into Winners Circle

UPDATE: After several years of fun showing the Guzzi, and realizing I was not about to ride it, in early 2015 I sold it to a Moto Guzzi collector from Ohio.

The original  brochure for the Moto Guzzi V7 Sport.
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