We’ve come a long, long way together.

I bought my Moto Guzzi Le Mans MK1 in August 1988 when I was 26, you do the math, from a motorcycle electrician who was canny enough to mark the bill of sale “sold as seen”.  I was living in an end of terrace house in Charlton, London and already had a Guzzi Monza 500 so figured that I knew a bit about the breed. At the time there was an under-the-arches Moto Guzzi mechanic behind Deptford Market, Moto Mania, run by a lovely man, who’s name I don’t recall,  He shared his knowledge and I shared my income in exchange for whatever tuning parts, Agostini rearsets, straight cut timing gears, sump extension, flat top carbs, dynamically balanced crank and pistons, that he recommended.  The bike got rebuilt in my front room and I got the satisfaction that comes from learning and improving.

In 1992 I got married and moved to Finchley, my lovely children turned up in 93 and 95 and the Le Mans dropped off the rosta, evidenced by it’s last tax disc expiring in November 1997. It languished in the shed up until my divorce in 2005 when we shared the ignominious journey on foot to my new house where it has sat, loved but ignored for 13 years while I came to terms with my reality and the march of time.

21 Years off the road

This is the story of my journey to put the Le Mans, and perhaps myself, back on the road and ship ourselves to America for an adventure.  I hope that you like it and that perhaps we’ll all learn something, about ourselves or, at very least about classic Italian machinery.

Here are my kids and their friends reliving their youth.