Armen
Serious Thumper
Offline
Half-Witted Wrench-Jockey from Jersey
Posts: 1432
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Isn't advertising wonderful? "Making the V7 for 50 years'. Not really. If I remember the history correctly... There are two distinct families of Guzzis. The big block ones and the small block ones. The original V7 was of the big block family, which evolved into todays big bikes. A smaller engine family was introduced with the 350, 500, 650, 750, and now 900 motors. In, general, the small block bikes were significantly lighter, and the designs were newer. One raging exception to 'new' was the use of Heron heads on the small block bikes. This is a design which uses parallel valves, a flat bottom cylinder head, and the combustion chamber carved into the top of the piston domes. AFAIK, this was considered a good idea for about 3 minutes one afternoon in the '70s. Except for older Jags, I can't think of anyone who uses Heron heads. Bad and wrong would be a polite way to describe the design. Apparently, the new V9 uses a conventional head, and actually makes some power, as opposed to the 700cc sub 50 HP gutless wonder. At least the small block bikes are light, so the few Shetland ponies they have corralled don't have much to haul around. So, a more accurate ad would be "Using the V7 name again, even though the bike has not much in common with it's namesake" Kinda like a modern Bonnie. Worked on a V7 the other day. Still a bunch of idiotic (I'm sorry, 'quirky') things to deal with on the bikes. To each his own.
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