Moto Guzzi 1000 SPIII
Moto Guzzi 1000SPIII
. .IT looks like being a case of "third time lucky" for Moto Guzzi's Spada III.The Italian motorcycle manufacturer's third attempt at a gentleman's tourer witha bit of oomph is by far its most successful. The original Spada, which came outin 1979, was let down by a poor quality of finish. Paint flaked and exhaustsrusted quicker than was acceptable. The original Spada also had a spartan seatwhich was uncomfortable for both rider and passenger. But the pillion was doublyuncomfortable because upswept exhausts reduced leg room to a minimum. The SpadaII, discontinued at the end of 1987, was a contradiction in terms.
Moto Guzzi's traditionally stable handling was undermined by a 16-inch frontwheel and a handlebar-mounted fairing. The small wheel was supposed to makesteering quicker but instead it just made the front end twitchy. When the windgot up the fairing added to the problem making riding the second Spada anythingbut gentlemanly. To be fair the technically more advanced Japanese were alsoexperimenting unsuccessfully with 16-inch wheels. But they soon returned to 17and 18-inch sizes. Meanwhile there has been a hole in Moto Guzzi's model rangefor more than one riding and buying season while the Italians cameup with a new Spada.
It now looks as if the wait was worthwhile. The Spada III, which sees areturn to 18 inch wheels front and rear, is a different bike to itspredecessors. Of course its engine is Moto Guzzi's famous across-the-frameV-twin. But this has been uprated to compare favourably with the specificationsof Moto Guzzi's top sports bike, the Le Mans 1000. The bore and stroke is thesame as on all 948.8 cc Guzzis at 88 x 78mm. But the inlet valves are bigger andthe exhaust valves smaller to match those on the Le Mans. The Spada III also hasa sportier camshaft like the Le Mans'. Only the carburettors are the same as onthe older Spadas at 36mm in diameter instead of the Le Mans' 40mm. This is tomake the bike more civilised at lower revs.
The Spada III is the first Moto Guzzi to have old-fashioned timing pointsreplaced by an electronic ignition. The new ignition works by "magnetic- pulse",which means, as its name suggests, that a rotor passes over a magnet and sends apulse to an amplifier which is then fed to a normal coil which produces thespark. An electric starter has been carried over from the Spada II. The tubularsteel frame is the same except that it now has mounts to take the impressivelooking full fairing. The fairing is made of fibreglass but instead of beinglayered it is injected to give a smoother finish. The fairing makes the SpadaIII look like a rival for BMW's KI00LT and Norton's Commander probably becauseit is tall and painted in oh-so-subtle grey.
But the Italians typically beat the Germans and Britons on flair by usingdifferent shades of grey. There is a band of light grey across the middlegradually darkening to near-black at the top and bottom.
The windscreen sweeps back further than on any other touring machine. MotoGuzzi has disposed of its own forks on all its big models in favour of ones byspecialist maker and fellow Italian firm, Bitubo. But true to Moto Guzzi'sphilosophy of "simplicity sells" there is no anti-dive or any other superfluousgadgets on the new telescopies. Rear suspension is provided by traditional twinshock absorbers from Dutch firm Koni. Spring tension and rebound damping can beadjusted both front and rear. On the top of the forks is a knurled knob whichaffects the flow of hydraulic oil through the forks, adjusting rebound dampingboth up and down. Underneath the knurled knob is a nut which screws directlyinto the spring to adjust tension. At the top of the Konis is a four-position "diai-a-ride"knob for adjusting the hydraulic rebound damping while at the bottom is athree-position spring tensioner, adjusted by the traditional C-spanner.
The switchgear, awkWard to use on previous Guzzis, has been changed to lookand function like Japanese controls. All the switches now fall easily to hand.The Spada III comes with a pair of panniers made by Italian firm Givi. CalledMonokey, because one key unlocks the panniers and also releases them from thebike,.they are typically latin: large and round. Not particularly attractive tolook at, in fact.
Out on the road the Spada III inspires confidence. (Yes I know it's amotorcycle journalism cliche but it's true about this particular bike.) For atourer the handling is excellent and the performance reasonable. The brakes aregood. The Spada Ill's traditional frame, 18-inch wheels and long wheelbase makefor very stable, predictable handling. The rider can choose a line around acorner, sweeping or tight, and know the bike will stick to it. But the Spada IIIis also light for its I.OOOcc tourer class. At 506lbs it weighs less than five-sixths as much as a BMW KI00LT (6221b) and has a 63 lbs advantage overKawasaki's GTRI000 (569lbs). It weighs only I6lbs more than Honda's sportssuperbike, the CBR 1000. The result is the Guzzi leans more like the Honda thanthe BMW or Kawasaki. On even slow corners I found myself at angles I would nothave believed possible for a big touring bike.
The 949cc twin gurgles like a BMW boxer upto 3,000 revolutions per minute.Between 4,000 and 5,000 rpm the engine is transmitting its worst vibrations,especially through the handlebars. But while this is in the range where mostriding will be done it is quite bearable. Beyond 6,000rpm, through theinnovative (but is it necessary?) yellow warning line at 7,000rpm to the orange"redlme" at 8,000rpm the revs are going so fast the bike becomes smooth. Trustthe Italians' colourful sense of style to interfere with even a rev counter.
On the empty country roads around importer Three Cross Motorcycles' main shopnear Bournemouth, Dorset, I was able to enjoy the Spada Ill's handlingcapabilities to the full. I was not however able to reach top speed although Idid touch 110mph on a couple of occasions. (The A354 Salisbury to Blandford andA37 Dorchester to Yeovil are great roads.) Moto Guzzi claim the Spada IIIpumps out 72 horse power and that it is good for a top speed of I22mph. I wouldestimate both figures to be only slightly on the high side as the bike easilyreached the low 100s and still had more to go.
Braking is by Moto Guzzi's linked system which has been around since 1975.The brake pedal operates both the rear disc and the front near-side disc. Thisworks well for progressive controlled braking. It is possible to use just thebrake pedal to bring the bike to a controlled, though not rapid, halt. But it ismuch better to pull on the front brake lever as well as this adds the force ofapplying the front off-side disc for a quick stop. The flip side to this unusualbut impressive system is that during fast riding riders may want to use only thetraditional "front brake" in the Guzzi's case only one of two front discsand they could find this woefully inadequate.
The gearbox was sweet. Virtually every change went in without complainingdespite the gears being widely spaced with "long throws" between them. I onlyfound one false neutral and then only once. It did not require any excuses like"positive" footwork.
The shaft-drive, which was introduced on Guzzis with the V-twin engine backin the 60s, did its job without being noticed. There were none of the quirks,such as back-end sideways lurching, associated with some other shaft-drivemotorcycles. At first the swept-back windscreen unnerved me because it pointsdirectly at the rider's face and its turned-up edge is only a few inches away.But it works (at least for riders of average height like me). My helmetwas not buffeted by the wind and it is easy for any rider to get down behind thescreen boy-racer style if he is that way inclined. I found minimum damping andspring tension in the rear Konis, supposed to give a "smooth, luxurious ride",were far too soft even for solo riding. It made the Spada Ill's well-roundedItalian rear, which looks like it has had a little too much pasta, bouncearound. However, although the Spada III has nowhere near as many suspensionadjustments as Kawasaki's ZXR-750 most riders should be able to find acombination to suit them. I settled for the second damping setting and middlespring tension to cope with undulating country roads. This left higher settingsfor carrying a passenger or luggage or both. Pillions complained of a slipperyseat and a flimsy grabrail (I prefer women holding on to me anyway) but hadplenty of legroom unlike the first Spada.
Source Motorcycle News 1988
The powerful quartz halogen headlamp penetrates the darkness well so it ispossible to keep up a good progressive pace at night as well as during the day.The panniers were much better than their appearance suggested. Full-face helmetsand other bulky luggage fitted in easily. They were easy to lock and to removefrom the bike (BMW please note). Turn the key one way and they locked. Turn thekey the other way and push a button and they came off. Bliss. The panniersseemed to be waterproof. I rode during a rainy spell and no water seeped inbetween the lips probably because they overlap by about a centimetre. Puttingthe Spada III on either stand is a pain. To use the sidestand either the bikemust be parked up a hill so that it can be rolled back onto the stand or, if itis on the level, it must be leaned away from the rider so that the long standcan be swung into place without jamming on the ground. The centrestand becauseit is positioned towards the back of the bike belongs in the hard-to-put-on,easy-to-get-off category.
Another potential contributor to parking accidents is the neutral light,which comes on not only when the gearbox is in neutral but also sometimes whenit is in first. This can cause some surprises. A couple of times I pushed theelectric starter to lurch forward unexpectedly. Three Cross sales manager ConradPorter claims the "sticking" of the neutral light only happens on about one-in-20 bikes and should disappear after a while. But I think it should be curedfrom the start, although it is almost quaint to find Italian electrics have notlost all their individual charm. Italian chic has gone too far with thespeedometer; it was impossible to take in the bike's speed at a glance. Whitemph figures compete for attention with yellow kmph ones; one set should bedominant over the other depending on whether the machine is bought in Britain oron the Continent. There is even a highlighted figure 55mph, circled in red, toremind American riders of the out- of-date top speed they used to be restrictedto. (Old stock perhaps?) The mileometer and trip intrude into the speed figures.At the end of an intensive test, packing in a few hundred miles into 24 hours, Ifelt as fresh as the proverbial daisy, which is top marks for a tourer. Exceptthat is my right hand. Slightly turned-up handlebars that cannot be adjusted anda throttle that turns further than most (one third of the cirumference insteadof the Japanese's ususal quarter) combined to make the flesh between thumb andforefinger sore. There again if I had not been enjoying myself so much I wouldnot have twisted the throttle quite as often.
Moto Guzzi throttles turn further than Japanese ones because they operateDell-Orto carburettors, which are of the traditional slide variety, whileOriental carburettors are of the sophisticated constant vacuum type. This meansthat on Japanese bikes the vacuum helps to open the carburettors whereas onGuzzis the throttle and cable have to do all the work. Fuel consumption averagedabout 45mpg, which considering I was not hanging about, is not bad. And the bikeran on unleaded fuel so my green conscience was clear. The Spada Ill's targetcustomers are BMW boxer fans who are annoyed that the German maker has detunedits RI00 series to 60hp. At 5,895 plus 250 on- the-road costs, the Spada IIIcosts not much more than the tourer RI00RT and "sports tourer" RIOORT, whichboth cost nearly 6,000. And, for my money, the Spada III gives the better ride.But there has been a big price hike since the Spada II which may annoy Guzzifans. The Spada III is the second most expensive Moto Guzzi (only the CaliforniaFaired is more expensive, costing another 100 at 5,995) whereas the Spada II wasthe third most expensive Moto Guzzi (after the Le Mans and unfaired CaliforniaII; the Faired California did not exist), In 1986, the Spada II cost 4,199 whichwas often discounted to sell the unpopular bikes. Three Cross managing directorKeith Davies justifies the 2,000 increase by saying: "We had to sell the oldSpada on price but today's market has changed. Customers put specificationbefore price. If you've got what they want they are not as concerned aboutprice. This is all part of the motorcycles becoming a leisure industry." Perhapshe is right but I feel the Spada III is a good bike that should be cheaper thanits BMW rivals if it wishes to win over converts.
MOTO GUZZI is to introduce a computer engine management system including fuelinjection on its top-of-the-range faired California within the next few monthsas a forerunner to making it available on all its models. Keith Davis, head ofimporter Three Cross, said: "There is a demand for more sophisticated MotoGuzzis from some potential customers." The system will make it impossible forowners to do their own servicing, traditionally an attraction of Moto Guzzis.But Mr Davies was adamant the Italian manufacturer is not moving away from itspolicy of deliberately making its bikes simpler than other makes. "It will be anoption not part of the standard specification," said Mr Davies, who expects thesystem to add about 1,000 to the fully-dressed California's present 6,245on-the-road price.
The option will not be extended to the rest of Moto Guzzi's range until nextyear at the earliest. Moto Guzzi says the engine-management system goes furtherthan fuel injection. A fuel injection computer ensures the correct flow of fuelfor all rpm. But the brainier engine-management computer takes into account"everything that affects the running of the engine" including the weather! Ifthe ambient temperature (the weather) is cold it will feed through more fuelthan if it is hot. Three Cross's technical expert Mike Shorten said: "It willgive a more efficient engine all the way through its range." The system willadjust ignition timing as well as fuel flow. It is also claimed to make thethrottle "feather light", which would answer a criticism in our roadtest. •
Source Motorcycle News 1988