Beschreibung:

While today Moto Guzzi is best known for its big V-twins, the company was founded and flourished building flat single-cylinder machines between 1921 and 1976. The pride of this long lineage is the Falcone, the 500cc sporting variant introduced in 1950 and produced until 1963, when it was replaced by, naturally, the Nuovo Falcone. The Falcone proper was an advance on previous models, using a fully-enclosed cylinder head and more importantly, telescopic forks up front. The rear suspension remained the Guzzi trademark swingarm with a pair of springs boxed beneath the engine, with adjustable scissor-type friction dampers at the back. The overall effect of the new forks and an improved big single engine is an amazingly civilized and genteel motorcycle, smooth in operation, mechanically very quiet, and exuding quality from every casting. The Falcone was the ultimate development of a long sporting tradition, and embodies all Moto Guzzi's experience in racing and long-distance endurance events, making this machine a very comfortable and stable ride, with a seemingly tireless engine producing almost no vibration at all. In its day it was the pride of the Italian motorcycle industry, and one of the few large-capacity motorcycles built there, until the advent of Italian multi-cylinder street racers in the late 1960s, a trend to which Moto Guzzi, and the Falcone, succumbed in 1968 with the V7 V-twin, and the death of our beautiful falcon. The machine offered is an exceptional restoration of a first-year Falcone model, and was overhauled completely in a Sienna workshop in 2000. Around 200 Falcones were produced in 1950, most of which were delivered to the Italian police and military. These first machines had a chrome-plated fuel tank and aluminum rims as standard; all shared traditional Guzzi engine dimension of 88x82mm bore/stroke with its distinctive outside flywheel, plus a full cradle tube frame and 4 speed foot-shift gearbox. Such an exceptional restoration of an elegant machine from Italy's heyday represents a rare opportunity for a lucky new owner, who will surely cherish the absolute quality and beauty the Falcone delivers in spades.