Review Summary
- The Moto Guzzi N100 Mandello S is an all-new, top-shelf sports tourer for the Moto Guzzi brand that is a technical tour-de-force while also giving you a large Italian serving of “passione” that really makes you fall in love with it
- It not only looks great, the engine is a genuinely great v-twin power plant that has clearly had some help from sister company Aprilia in its development. And that exhaust note is jaw-dropping
- The fancy active aerodynamics and premium Öhlins semi-active suspension really make the bike feel special, and they’ll give you some ego-boosting bragging rights at you local il caffè, too
I’m standing with a cup of bad black coffee in my hand. It’s properly dark now and the neon petrol station forecourt is eerily vacant. The only sounds I can hear are the roar from the distant freeway and the metallic clicks and cracks of the still-hot Moto Guzzi V100 next to me. Like a weird scene from a road movie, I’m expecting a flaming car to slide sideways into the scene followed closely by a hectic squad of police cars. Or maybe some mythical beasts will appear in silhouette against the night sky amongst the trees behind the structure and all the lights will go out. But instead, nothing happens. Nothing at all. Sydney is still many hours away and I’m tired, sore and the initial thrill of riding a motorcycle between Melbourne and Sydney – a trip of almost 900 kms (450 mi) – has well and truly worn off. I just want this to be over.
Ahead of me is one final blast and I’ll be home. But the culmination of the day’s mileage on my not-so-young body and my deep fried mind is readily apparent. And the fact that I’ll be battling Sydney traffic at night will mean it’ll be the most demanding part of the epic journey which up until now has mostly been nonstop empty freeway and me trying very hard not to go too fast. But now I need to focus; if only I could magic the trip backwards so that all the annoying stuff was at the start when I was well rested and much, much fresher than I am now. Forget most accidents happening at 3pm when you are unfocused and tired. I’m five full hours past that point and wishing hard for my fourteenth wind to kick in.
But let’s not rush this. Like Homer’s Odyssey, this one is worth teasing out. Rewind things a few months and I first laid eyes on the new V100 Mandello (and this, its S variant) banging around my social media feed as you do. Taken by its looks and realising that I haven’t ridden a new Guzzi for many years, I reached out to my mate who’s now in the enviable position of looking after the PR and Marketing for Guzzi Down here in Australia. He’s also the guy whose Aprilia Tuono got hit by a bus during a recent review, so hats off to him for the continued support. “All the media bikes are in Melbourne,” was his reply. Being a Sydneysider, that was a bit of a pain and although bikes are regularly transported up and down the east coast for media and dealers, I wasn’t expecting them to do that just for me. They’d have to take it back once I was finished with it, too. But sleeping on the challenge a thought crossed my mind. Without knowing too much about the bike’s intended “use case,” I was pretty sure it looked a bit roadster-ish. I wonder if they would be into me riding it from Melbourne to Sydney as part of the review?
A few emails later and the stage was set. I’d fly down to the warehouse on Web Bike World’s dime, grab an S model V100 from their Melbourne stockpile and ride it back home. That way I’d both get some serious saddle-time on the thing and I’d have it for a few weeks here in Sydney to photograph and run it through some of my regular test roads. I toy with the idea of taking the slow way home via the coast road, but my calendar puts pay to that as does the increased costs of staying somewhere overnight. Everyone agrees. It’s sorted. And it’d give me something interesting to write about, too. Forms were filled out and airfares were purchased. Ubers were booked and alarms were set for times in the morning that no one in their right mind should have to wake up at. But the red eyes would be worth it; it’s not every day you get to ride an expensive, beautiful Italian motorcycle on an epic road trip now is it?
Features of the 2023 Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S
Seemingly an all-new “Sports Tourer” model for the brand with an emphasis on the sports part, the Moto Guzzi marketing blurb calls it, “the perfect fusion of the dynamism of a Roadster and the comfort of an authentic Tourer.” Personally, I can see a touch of the factory’s old “Grisso” in there, but I’d be prepared to admit that this may be more of a visual design influence than suggesting that the V100 has Grisso DNA. What we do know is that this is the S model of the new V100 Mandello – named after Guzzi’s home town and as a celebration for their 100th year anniversary making bikes here – gives you everything the stock V100 has plus some nice additional bells and whistles that will no doubt impress strangers and make you a happier camper on longer rides.
Engine
The S engine is no different to the stock bike’s powerplant and from what I could tell that’s a very good thing. It’s a brand new design, called a “compact block” by the press release, and while it keeps the classic Guzzi 90° v-twin, the engine and the bike itself are clearly an exercise in both trying out new tech and opening up new categories for the company. Just like the Stelvio. The donk is a real corker, and while the number of horses it chucks out isn’t going to scare too many seasoned riders, its exhaust note and power delivery oozes bad-assery and attitude. Like my recent R18 review, I’m happy to say that the V100’s engine is the star of the show here and I only grew more fond of it the longer I rode it.
Electronics
Fork out for the S model, and you’ll get all the modern gubbins that you’d expect from a new bike that’s not exactly aimed at the budget end of the market. Naturally there’s a ride-by-wire system with four Riding Modes, a 6-axis inertial sensor, ABS with cornering, a cruise control, a 5-inch colour TFT display, Öhlins Smart EC 2.0 semi-active suspension and Guzzi’s own multi-media connection system to connect you mobile phone to the bike.
But you’ll also get LED lights, a quickshifter system, traction control, a tyre pressure monitoring system, heated grips, cornering lights, auto headlights and a very convenient electrically-adjustable windscreen that I played with endlessly on my trip. And I’ve saved the best to last; both versions of the bike have what Guzzi is calling “Adaptive Aerodynamics.”
Other Features
What do they mean by Adaptive Aerodynamics? Well, put simply, the bike has two small wings on its tank that rise up at a set speed like some sort of spaceship going into attack mode. It’s a very neat party trick. Surprisingly, it’s also fitted to the non-S models as well, which is probably an indication of just how much Guzzi likes the idea. And although I never did quite manage to figure out how to make them deploy at a standstill so I could show people, Guzzi says it’s designed – in conjunction with the windscreen – to reduce the windblast on the rider during long trips. How does it work and is it a game changer? More on that later…
Specs
The all-new engine is a 1042cc transversal 90° V-twin, with four valves per cylinder, liquid-cooling and ride-by-wire. Compression is a fairly high 12.6:1. Power is 115hp (84.5kW) at 8800 rpm with a maximum torque of 105 Nm at 6750 rpm. The tank has a 17 ltr (4.5 gal) capacity with an included reserve of 3.5 ltrs. Fully fueled and oiled, the bike weighs in at a very serious 233 kg (513 lbs) and the seat height is a high-ish 815 mm (32 in). My bike was shod with Pirelli Gran Turismo Angel GT II rubber, with a 120/70 B21 on the front and a 180/55 B168 at the rear. And yes, the word “Angel” is a weird one to include in a tyre name, just in case you’re thinking the same thing as me.
Initial Impressions of the 2023 Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S
After the early-morning flight from Sydney to Melbourne and an Uber to the Guzzi warehouse on Melbourne’s industrial south-western outskirts, I made it to the warehouse. As is commonly the case here, the skies are grey and the temperature is a few degrees down on Sydney’s. I’m asked to don a high viz vest and am escorted past countless rows of boxed motorcycles stacked high by the forklifts that are whizzing around us. Safety first and all that. Soon, I’m at the back of the warehouse and pointed in the direction of a rear exit. Silhouetted in the enormous doorway is my V100.
And it’s every bit as attractive as it is in the photos. Maybe even more so. This news just in: Italians really know how to design motorcycles. Of course, I’m being sarcastic here. My guide was a gentleman named Andy, who immediately launched into a technical briefing on the bike. At first I was all “I got this, man,” but as the briefing went on, I realised that I probably didn’t have this. The bike is so chock full of tech and settings and automations that he was very right in trying to get me across it. Hell, you can customise each and every riding mode so that (say) the active aero kicks in at the exact speed you want it too, along with the amount of traction control, throttle response, if the headlights turn on automatically or manually, and the colour and depth of the crema on your morning ristretto.
Seeing Doppio
Then, and almost simultaneously, I notice that the V100 has some Aprilia parts bolted on. Specifically, the left hand-side ’bar controls are identical to the Aprilia Tuono 660 I rode a few months ago. Of course, this is no biggie. Both Moto Guzzi and Aprilia are owned by the Piaggio Group which also owns Vespa and (obviously) Piaggo. The second I notice this, Andy points out the very same thing to me by noting that the bike has a certain Aprilia vibe to it. I connect the dots and assume that the design and dev team for the bike might be one that works across the group’s four brands, and not specifically on Moto Guzzi bikes. But back to the here and now. The bike is totally packed with tech. Active aero, semi-active suspension, powered windscreen, active lighting, tyre pressure sensors, quickshifter… It’s like a world tech expo on two wheels. Of course, many modern bikes have similar spec sheets, but for me it’s the active aerodynamics and the Ohlins that really tip the scales here.
Andy cranks the bike over and I instantly forget every word he’s told me as the exhaust note fills both the silence of the early morning warehouse and my short term memory’s pitiful buffer. Wow. I’ll admit to always having liked the v-twin Guzzi engines; they remind me of why I like V8s in muscle cars. They ooze character, have a killer exhaust note and I love the way they rock a bike at the lights. They are everything Japanese inline fours aren’t, and just like V8s they also manage to convince you they mean business even if their on-paper stats aren’t game-changing. Torque and a great exhaust note count for so much with motorcycle “user experience.” One thing that’s not here is the bike’s luggage. An option extra on the V100, there had been talk of them being fitted to the bike but alas and alack, they weren’t available on the day.
Riding the 2023 Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S
Riding in the City
Burning daylight and acutely aware that I don’t want to be riding at dusk in rural areas thanks in very large part to the local wildlife’s impressive ability to get butchered by vehicles at around that time, I head off. Thinking I know how a 230 kg bike will feel through the ’bars, my expectations are immediately dashed against the rocks of Italian engineering. I’m not sure how they did it, but the steering on the V100 is as light as can be. If I had to guess by feeling alone, I’d say that it was probably the same feedback that a 180 kg sportsbike might give you. How they achieved this I do not know, but it was as supple and flickable as you like with a whole bunch of feel and feedback to boot. Impressive. As is the engine. Not holding back and aware that I’ll soon be in cruise control mode and not able to test acceleration, I get on the throttle a few times as I pull away from suburban lights and go around low speed corners. And the engine delivers on its exhaust note’s idle promises. Of course it’s not snap your neck vertebrae fast, but for what I suspect it’s designed to do, it’s impressive.
Of course, along with the quick blips of the throttle I also give the quick shifter a bash. In my mind, BMW’s M-spec quick shifters are setting the pace for road-going bikes in 2023 and that’s the standard I tend to judge most bikes on. Of course, that’s not a cheap option on not a cheap bike, so I get that there is some leeway here. And while the V100 does seem to be able to pull off a slick gear change – especially higher up in the gears – it also manages to drop a few real clunkers into the mix. Some are just a little rough, while others feel like Thanos has just punched the Guzzi’s rear tyre with his power disco gauntlet thingy. It’s enough to make you swear inside your helmet and wonder if it’s doing damage to the gearbox. Still, I’ve been here before and sometimes it’s just about getting used to how the bike wants you to change gears. Let’s see how this pans out.
Pushing through the morning traffic and towards the freeway to Sydney, I’m consciously stopping myself from pissing around with all the gadgets for fear of me and the V100 ending up in the back seat of a soccer mum’s SUV. The Guzzi’s interface is designed in such a way as to require you to be on a certain menu screen to make things happen. So as opposed to, say, just giving you a “windscreen up and down” button, this function is associated with a set of navigation buttons on the left grip controls. Want the windscreen to go up? You have to navigate to the TFT’s windscreen page first, and then use the nav buttons to raise or lower it. I don’t see this as a good or a bad thing mind you, just as a way of doing things. And if it’s also a way to stop a bike’s bars being covered with way too many buttons, switches and dials then I’m all for it.
Riding on the Freeway
I’m on the freeway proper now and it’s cruise control time. In another similarity to the Aprilia Tuono 660, the common switchblock shared between both bikes means that the V100’s cruise controls are identical to its relative. Sure, all bikes have slightly different cruise control implementations to each other. And they all take some getting used to. The design here works as its intended to, but there’s just enough Italian eccentricity to make it a little confusing – especially at first. I cancel it when I want it to set. I set it when I want to cancel it. I turn it off completely when I want to speed up. After a while I manage to get it to do what I want, but if you sat me down at that point and asked me to explain to you how it all works, I’m not sure that I could. Later on in the day I’d laugh to myself as I yet again manage to get the cruise control to do the exact of what I want it to. It’s no black mark against the bike, and your mileage may vary.
With a chill in the air and Melbourne still relatively close behind, I decide that some heated grips might be in order. Like the windscreen adjustments, there’s no dedicated buttons so I navigate to the heated grips page and turn them on. And I wait. And I wait. And I wait some more. Are they working? Can I feel a little heat? My mind’s playing tricks with me, but after 30 minutes I come to the conclusion that they are in fact borked. That’s not good. In subsequent research I realise that they are a dealer-fitted option so rather than me spending a paragraph here slamming Moto Guzzi for quality control, I’ll just say I came to the conclusion that on this particular bike the heated grips hadn’t been correctly fitted locally. I’m not sure if it’s a software or a hardware thing, but I’d suggest that it’d be a quick fix and a red-faced dealer and they’d be good to go.
Just as the enormity of the task before me is starting to set in, the bike displays a fuel warning light and it’s time to put some liquid brontosauruses in the tank. It’ll also be a chance for me to punch a Red Bull and take some notes. Frustratingly, taking notes is a necessity on all bike reviews. One day I’ll find a set-up that will allow me to take verbal audio notes while I ride and have them auto-transcribed so that I don’t actually have to stop the bike. Until then, you’ll see me at random Petrol Stations up and down Australia’s east coast. I’ll be the one standing next to the bike sipping on an energy drink with the annoyed look on my face as I try to write detailed notes into my phone. I fill the tank on the Guzzi and add an additional note; it’s a tricky bike to fill up cleanly. I give it a squirt and it splashes back. I change the angle and the (ahem) insertion depth and try again. Splash back. Damn. It takes quite the effort to fill it up while not accidentally recreating the Freak Gasoline Fight Accident scene from Zoolander. With the tank brimming and back out on the freeway, the range display on the TFT says 355 km (220 miles) to empty.
And I’m back. With the cruise control set for 120 kmh (75 mph) in 6th gear the bike purrs along at around 4,500 rpm. As with every other Melbourne to Sydney (or vice-versa) trip I’ve ever taken, I realise quite early on in the piece that it’s a damn long way. Like childbirth, there must be some kind of dopamine or psychological protection that the body uses to conveniently erase the pain after the event, because I’m always excited by the prospect of doing it but once I’m on the bike/in the car and in the midst of the trip, it always occurs to me just how long, tedious and tiring it actually is. Having to take notes and photos and refuel and eat and drink is really killing my scheduling, too. Lunchtime comes and goes and I’m still not even halfway there.
I stop for a bite to eat in the small town of Holbrook, famous only for the fact that it has an ex-Australian Navy submarine half buried in its central park. Like Radiator Springs from the Cars movie, it used to be on the main route between Melbourne and Sydney but it was bypassed when people realised that no one wants to slow down to walking speed every 30 minutes. Especially when you consider the kangaroos…
It Takes Guts
Why kangaroos? As mentioned, they have a nasty habit of getting hit by vehicles. Apparently, their brains are wired up a certain way that means in the hour or so after the sun sets they are easily confused by headlights and will often jump into the path of oncoming traffic rather than away from it. It’s no issue near big cities, but the way this trip is going the sun will be down many hours before I hit the “Safe zone” south of Sydney. Hit one in a car (which I have) at any serious speed and the damage can be horrific. They will very easily break radiators and shatter windscreens, meaning that you’ll be stuck in the middle of nowhere until the car can be towed and/or repaired. But do the same on a bike and you are taking your life in your hands, or rather you are handing it over to a creature that is more than happy to fight you if it’s in a bad mood and would just as likely kick you hard in the family jewels as make friends.
I decide to take a photo of some ’roo road kill to gross out the non-Aussies reading the story and more time is burned. And a word of warning to you all. A dead kangaroo is gross enough as you ride past it doing freeway speeds. But if like me, you are silly enough to stop and approach it for a photograph you’ll realise that the flies, maggots, entrails and stench of standing right next to one is infinitely worse. I dry retch as I take the photo and curse out loud as I realise that I’ve just wasted yet more precious time.
Golden hour is here and now I’m properly late. I ride past a marker denoting the exact halfway point between Melbourne and Sydney. It’s 5pm and I’m shattered. This was a stupid idea. Maybe Mtot Guzzi would have just sent a bike to Sydney for me? Adventure my arse. It’s just a long, tedious slog with a real element of danger thrown in. And what does it teach me about the bike? It’s 99% cruise control and trying to not lose focus. I should’ve gone via the coast road. At least there’d be corners. What am I testing here? Tank range? Yes, the self-doubt part of the trip had well and truly kicked in. Maybe I just call it and spend some money on a cheap motel room for the night? But where’s the fun-slash-story there?
I’m back standing with a cup of bad black coffee in my hand. It’s properly dark now and the neon petrol station forecourt is eerily vacant. The only sounds I can hear are the roar from the distant freeway and the metallic clicks and cracks of the still-hot Moto Guzzi V100 next to me. I’m awake now, but it’s that “too much coffee” awake that means my attention span is only seconds long. At least I have some attention. I now have enough fuel to make it all the way home, which by my calculations is about two hours away. The ’roos will be out in force, but so will the trucks. With any luck, they will tear a hole through any wildlife big enough that I can duck through. It’s a naive and silly idea, but at this point in the trip it’s all I have. The v-twin spins back into life and although I;’m tired, it still impresses. So does the rest of the bike. I like this bike. Let’s hope it’s not the last one I ever ride…
Tron with Trucks
Like some 14-year-old twitch freak on Playstation, I’m in the zone now. It’s just me and the glowing road markings. I’m hunched down on the V100’s tank to stay out of the windblast. The screen is down, but only because it’s so completely covered in bug guts that I can no longer see through it. The active aero is deployed and I’m just riding the fancy, Italian pants of the thing. Trucks are passed in seconds and entire hours go by without me seeing another vehicle on the road. Or are they minutes? I’m not sure I know any more. It’s all white line fever and twitchy movements of the bike’s ’bars as I flit between lanes to ensure that my all-important velocity is uninterrupted. Freshly killed ’roos zip past in the periphery of my vision, but I am beyond caring about that now. Besides, when have I ever heard of any biker ever hitting one? Oh, that’s right. A journalist I know called Boris did. He survived, but only because he was on an enormous Victory Vision. I saw the photos. He had to tear the animal’s entrails out of the bike’s front faring after the animal’s instantly dead body punched a hole right through it. Jesus no.
As I change lanes, the bike’s active headlights momentarily switch on and off to throw a pool of light into the blackness of the fast-approaching bitumen. In a straight line, the light on the road before me resembles some kind of giant, surreal teddy bear head. It’s oval-shaped and with two protruding shapes on top that strangely resemble ears. Or am I imagining it? Am I even still awake? Maybe it’s a fever dream brought on by too much caffeine and taurine? What would falling asleep on a bike at high speed be like? I’m pretty sure it’d mean a hospital trip, and that would be the best possible outcome. At worst, you’d end up under a Melbourne to Sydney Road Train and the cops wouldn’t even bother calling an ambulance. Then suddenly it dawns on me. This is actually OK. Did I say OK? No. It’s awesome. My mind’s too fried to operate at any setting other than pure survival. I’m just so in the moment that it’s all I’m thinking about. No thoughts on my busy work schedule or what bills I need to pay. I’m at 110% now. And the Guzzi is, too. Weirdly, it seems to be made for this. I’m comfortable. The wind is flowing around us like a cocoon. The bike is perfectly poised and that engine is so on song, we may as well be on stage in some famous Milan opera house. I could do this until the sun comes up. And so could the bike. Everything is in its right place.
In a jump cut flash the bike is parked in my driveway and I’m home. I can’t really tell you what happened between the last paragraph and this one. All I know is that we made it in one piece. I roll the V100 into my garage. Again it pops and creaks as it cools down. The bugs and other assorted filth covering it makes it look like it’s just emerged from the 1960’s jungles of North Vietnam after a particularly furious firefight. There must be one thousand dead bugs on that windscreen and I’m the poor sap who will have to clean them off due to the fact that I still need to photograph the bike for the shots you see here. It’s almost too dirty to have inside. Of course, my helmet and jacket look the same, and the expression my wife gives me as she enters the garage is one straight out of a horror movie.
With a full night’s sleep on board and two more weeks of loan time up my sleeve, I get to ride the bike around sydney and also through my regular test circuit in Sydney’s Royal National Park. The bike never fails to deliver and its looks never fail to impress. Strangers stop and stare. The exhaust note shocks passers-by and makes me smile the 672nd time I hear it just as much as the first. I think you know where this is going…
What Could Be Better on the 2023 Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S
That additional ride time I got around Sydney after the Kangaroo Odyssey that was my Melbourne to Sydney ride proved invaluable. I got better at filling it up and (as mentioned) I rationalised the faulty heated grips as not such a big deal. But what I never managed to figure out was how to avoid the rough gear changes delivered by the bike’s quickshifter. Some were silky-smooth miracles that impressed, while others were back to the brutal, bike-jarring explosions that I originally encountered in the first hour of my ride out of Melbourne. There seemed to be no logic to them and in the end, I just resorted to using the clutch unless I was both higher up in the gears and applying a decent amount of throttle. Slow-moving traffic would be the kryptonite of the V100’s quickshifter. And no, it’s probably not meant to be used like that. It’s the one fly in the V100 ointment and hopefully it’s also one that can be software or adjusted away in a future scheduled service.
Final Thoughts on the 2023 Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S
“It’s really very good.” That’s what I wrote as my last note on the V100. There’s just so many things that are right with the bike. The engine is a flat-out classic. No fancy word mincing here. Its power delivery, its character, its sound. Sure, it’s much more refined than the Guzzi twins of yore. It doesn’t have that rough-and-ready, “is this a new engine or is it just one left over from the 1970s?” vibe that many of the last decade’s Guzzi twins possessed. There’s more than a touch of Aprilia at play here, too. That’s not a criticism of the V100; with the Aprilia engineers having a truckload of experience in road-goping sports bikes, you’d have to be a very daft Guzzi design and development team member to not consult them, or use them for that matter. And the proof is in the pudding. It’s superbly good at both sports and touring; so much so that it almost seems like it’s not fair to the competition.
Of course, it’s not going to out-sport a sports bike. One of the strangers that wandered up to me in Sydney remarked that he would consider buying one “if it just had a larger capacity than one litre.” Riding it, I thought the capacity was bang on. No, it’s not going to beat a Tuono V4. The fact that it’ll cost you about the same as a V4 if you want one is a decision only you can answer. And while they definitely aren’t chalk and cheese choices, there’s a charm to the V100 that the Tuono’s “it’s got a V4 in it! What more do you want!” appeal just can’t match. The V100 seems to me to be more of a long-term relationship than an amazing one night stand, too.
And as for the active aero, you could well argue that it’s more for show than go – or for “22% more rider wind protection” as Guzzi say – but it’s definitely great to see a manufacturer trying new things and taking chances. On that basis alone, I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and my thumbs up, too.
So, if you’re shopping list current has the words, “buy a top shelf European sport tourer motorcycle that has all the latest tech on it and comes with a little panache that the Japanese can’t really match,” on it, then I guess your choice is going to be the V100 or a Ducati Multistrada V4. Sure, there’s also a BMW R1250 RS and the KTM 1290 Super Duke GT, but to me they both lack the magic and passion that the Italian bikes exude. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be on your list but if your your here to read up on the V100 and you’re also considering some more “Germanic,” I’d suggest you need to make a call between cold, calculating reliability and the passion and soul that the Italian bikes will no doubt supply in very generous amounts. But for me, It’d be the Guzzi. Thanks for the memories, Mandello.
The 2023 Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S at a Glance
General Info
Key Features:
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Main Specs
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Competitors
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See Also: 2023 Moto Guzzi Model Lineup
Pros
- The engine, the engine and the engine. And did I mention the engine?
- Stunning Italian looks
- Every moto gizmo included and then they added active aerodynamics as well
- Handles and feels like a bike that’s much, much lighter
Cons
- Quickshifter can be surprisingly rough, especially in lower gears
- Heated grips weren’t installed properly
- Weirdly difficult to refuel without making a mess
2023 Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S Photo Gallery
