It happened by accident, this strangely symmetrical mix of bike and destination. Needing to escape from a town with its population temporarily doubled by the Germans in laced leather trousers that inexplicably descend on any European bike event, I made some vague excuses to Guzzi’s press people, grabbed the keys to the new Stelvio NTX 8V and headed north up the shores of Lake Como. My destination? Alpine adventure. :continue:
The biggest complaint about the old Stelvio wasn’t that it was cross-eyed, it was the miniscule fuel range. The 2011 Moto Guzzi Stelvio cures that with a 32-liter/8.5-gallon tank that should more than double the existing fuel range to at least 450 miles. :continue:
Listen BMWR1200GS, I’m tired of you thinking you’re superior just because you’re German. You got your ass handed to you in the war just as badly as we did. And you, Ducati Multistrada 1200, I’m tired of you bragging about how fast you are. It’s no wonder considering the amount of coke it must have taken to collapse your septum. Screw you both, now that I’ve had my Strabismus corrected I don’t want to hear either of you talking shit till you get rid of that lazy eye or fly your broke ass to Miami and get a freakin Rhinoplasty. Oh, and I bought myself some cast wheels just for good measure.
Here’s an Intermot release that we forgot. Well, not so much forget, as ignored because it’s just the normal Moto Guzzi Stelvio with standard sump guard, engine protectors, handlebar bash guards , aluminum panniers and halogen spotlights, but hey, there’s a new “NTX” sticker too. Actually, dismissing the Moto Guzzi Stelvio 1200 NTX due to silly stickering doesn’t do it justice. In a class crowded by feature bloat and the kind of technology you wouldn’t want to rely on in deepest Mongolia, this Moto Guzzi is probably the most direct rival for the GS that there is. :continue:
Take the road-biased Moto Guzzi Stelvio 1200 and change the torque curve from 80lb/ft peaking at 6,400rpm to 83lb/ft at 5,800rpm, add a narrower 4.25×17″ rear rim (capable of accepting enduro rubber), an aluminum sump guard, brush guards, aluminum luggage, engine bars and auxiliary lights and you have the NTX. Add all that to the 1,151cc air-cooled 90° twin making 105bhp, the 18-liter tank capacity and a 251kg curb weight and you essentially have a BMW R1200GS Adventure without the pokey outey cylinders. We’d go with the NTX just to be different.
The new range of Guzzis is beginning to look strangely like BMWs, circa seven years ago. Named after the famous alpine pass, the Stelvio is the latest and will attempt to compete with other adventure tourers like the BMW R1200GS. All the big Guzzis are powered by the same ancient air-cooled twin. Aficionados claim it has character and history, but compare it to other bikes and it just feels slow. BMW was able to radically alter its similarly staid image and appeal to a younger audience by introducing exciting new bikes that weren’t limited by adhering to existing classes. We can’t help but feel that Moto Guzzi desperately needs to do the same.Moto Guzzi
