Anvil Motociclette’s '85 Moto Guzzi SP 1000 - “Mille ELR”

It's been quite a while between drinks for Milan's rather talented Marco and Phonz and their shop, Anvil Motociclette Costruttori. We featured them in an interview in April of 2011 and they teased us with some whispered, golden words concerning the next few projects they were undertaking. One of those was a slight departure from their Nihon-centric portfolio, a nice big Moto Guzzi. Excited, we made them promise to give us first dibs on the bike once it was finished, and low and behold, here she is. Meet the creama de la creama (see what I did there?) of Italian custom bikes, the "Mille ELR".

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1975 Moto Guzzi 850T

There's nothing quite like the sight of a super clean Moto Guzzi. To my eyes, when done right, they are the most pulchritudinous of all the motorcycle species. And this one is up there with the best of them. Built by Jason Wonder from Wonder Customs who received world wide recognition for his V-ROD custom a few years ago. "I don't build show bikes, even though I built the Rev-2 that was in the AMD show in 2009" he says. "I build bikes you can ride". Jason is a "one man shop" based in Texas and has been building bikes professionally for the past 8 years – not bad for a 27 year old. Jason builds both new and old bikes from vintage Ducati's and Guzzi's through to new American V-twins and racers. His Dad was a flat track racer so motorcycles have always been in his blood – and it looks like he's put a bit of that blood into this ride...

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Venier Customs '87 Moto Guzzi V35 C - “Diabola”

As if the gods are screwing with us, the post immediately after the world's greatest Firestone Squigglies poll turns out to be a bike that looks so good wearing the things, there ought to be a law against it. Meet one of Moto Guzzi's lesser-known creations; the weird little brother of the V7 who doesn't speak much and likes ot set things on fire... the V35 C. In original “C” form it was, believe it or not, a cruiser (Harley Davidson - so much to answer for). But thanks to NYC's Stefano Venier and his shop Venier Customs Motorcycles, it's no longer a lardy 80s misfit, but rather a lean, mean ridin' machine. Which still starts fires.

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Moto Guzzi Cafe Racer - ‘Kaffeemaschine 5’

An alchemist, in case you didn't already know, is defined as a person who possesses (amongst other things) the capability of turning base metals into the noble metals. Put simply, that's turning iron, nickle, led, or zinc into gold and silver - called noble metals because they seem to have an almost magical ability to resist ever looking old and dated. Now fast forward 1000 years and consider the modern-day work of Hamburg's Axel Budde. Given a rather scrappy collection of basic parts, some of which had well and truly been turned into near scrap before they reached his lab, he has managed to materialise the very precious bike you see before you here. Magic? Science? A product of the dark arts? Sadly for those of us looking to emulate his creation, it turns out that it's nothing more than sheer determination, skill, and hard work. Damn.

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Raven Motorcycles - Moto Guzzi

Moto artist Jeff Gundlach has designed many magazine covers for publications like Cycle Magazine and Cycle News over the years, but he recently finished designing and building his biggest project yet - the first Raven Motorcycle. To say it's been a long time in the making is an understatement. "About 15 years ago I thought of the possibility of designing a bike using the Moto Guzzi engine and the Norton transmission" says Jeff. "Sketches were made and it went to the back burner". Fast forward to 2 years ago and Jeff decided he had the skills and tools to proceed with the design he scribbled all those years ago.  "I wanted to build something unique, powerful, light, functional, and a classic look. Choppers, bobbers and sportbikes are very cool but, I did not want to build from an existing engine/trans/frame package." This is how Jeff describes how the Raven came to life.

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Moto Guzzi Le Mans 3 - Kaffeemaschine

Imagine you are a really fast cyclist. So fast that you won a silver medal in the 2008 Olympics. One day you realize your feet can't peddle any faster but you still want more speed. Lots more. So you do what every self respecting speed junkie does and you purchase a motorcycle. You decide on a Buell xb12s which you love but unfortunately ends up getting stolen. So you go looking on the interweb for a new motorcycle. And then you see it. A bike that stops you in your tracks and you just know the search is over. This is what happened to Swedish Olympian cyclist Gustav Larsson. After seeing a few pics on a website of a stunning Guzzi cafe racer built by German perfectionist Axel Budde, he knew he had found the guy to build his new bike. "I saw Axels race bike and I decided I wanted something similar!" says Gustav. "I had some different ideas from the beginning. But it turned more and more into a 60's style cafe racer." After a few conversations with Axel from the Guzzi specialist shop Kaffeemaschine (Coffee Machine - isn't German cool?), he knew what the basic brief was. "Red frame, raw alloy tank, black Lafranconi's - although it started with golden cast wheels" says Axel. So he got to work...

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Review: 2011 Moto Guzzi V7 Racer

Most countries have their associated stereotypes. Apparently Australia is full of lunatic blonde animal hunters, the U.S. is populated solely by gun-toting Christians and the UK is full of pasty people who constantly complain about the weather and finish every sentence with the word “Guv’nor”. Of course, for the most part that is all baloney. Turns out that McCartney and Wonder were right – people are the same wherever you go. But there’s one particular cliché I have found to be true. Italians do dress well - very well indeed.

Enter stage left the Moto Guzzi V7 Racer – a very dapper version of the already pretty damn suave V7 Café. If the standard model is meant to conjure long-forgotten images of the “good ol’ days” with it’s upswept pipes and obvious design cues from the original 70’s V7, the Racer looks about as subtle as the moon hitting your eye like a big pizza pie. But is it "amore", or is it just a one-ride stand?

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1973 Moto Guzzi GT 850

The words "Gran Turismo" never seemed more apt. Click for a larger image

For those of you who missed out on signing up for the 2011 Pipeburn Meat Burn & Burn (it's this weekend, guys!) or for the rest of you overseas types, we've been sending out regular updates on the day to all those who put up their hands. In the last one we mentioned that we'd be riding on dirt for a small part of the day. Cue about 27 frantic questions from some of the attendees sweating bullets about riding their bikes off-road. I duly diffused the panic (hello Mike if you're reading) and went on my merry way, which on this particular day involved shooting the beautiful Guzzi you see before you. Imagine then the internal chuckles that I enjoyed when I asked the owner of this 250kg (550 lbs) beauty, the super cool and most friendly David Ottesen, how she handled. "Beautifully. I even take her off-road; she's great fun to ride on the dirt." Damn straight, brother.

Can you introduce yourself?

Dave Ottesen. I am an Aircraft Mechanic (I detect a trend here - Andrew), I work on Helicopter gas turbine engines. I live in the Wollindilly Shire about 90ks south of Sydney, great country roads and really suited to the Guzzi.

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Interview: Matt Machine

At the recent Deus V-Twin Festival I had the pleasure of chewing the fat with renowned Australian bike builder Matt Machine. Not only is he a friggin talented bike builder who has built some of the most outstanding bikes in the Southern Hemisphere, but he is also an established architect. Is there anything he can't build? I wanted to find out more about this humble recluse and luckily he was up for answering a couple of questions:

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background? 

I'm an architect that has always wanted to be a carpenter, or a builder, or a boiler maker, or something else other than that so I could use my hands and make things. I live in the bush in south New South Wales with my wife and our dog and our cows and our landscape and our weather.

Does living on a farm help your creative process?

It almost is my creative process...you cant help but be inspired by the need to be real with whatever you do, to be direct with your decisions, and committed...thats living in the bush.

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