Four stroke,
V twin, longitudinally mounted, OHV, 2 valve per cylinder.
Capacity
948.8 cc / 57.8 cu-in
Cooling System
Air cooled
Bore x Stroke
88 x 78 mm
Compression Ratio
9.5:1
Lubrication
By pressure pump
Induction
Weber-Marelli electronic fuel injection
Ignition
Digital CDI
Starting
Electric
Max Power
69 hp / 51 kW @ 6600 rpm
Max Torque
79 Nm / 58.5 lb-ft @ 6000 rpm
Clutch
Double disc dry type
Transmission
5 Speed
Final Drive
Shaft
Front Suspension
41.7mm Marzocchi forks adjustable type
Front Wheel Travel
220 mm / 8.6 in
Rear Suspension
Single shock adjustable for preload rebound and
compression damping
Front Brakes
2x 280mm discs 4 piston calipers
Rear Brakes
Single 260mm disc 1 piston caliper
Front Tyre
90/90-2 1
Rear Tyre
130/80- 17
Seat Height
865 mm / 34.0 in
Dry Weight
210 kg / 464 lbs
Fuel Capacity
20 Litres / 5.3 US gal
Consumption Average
18.3 km/kit
Braking 60 - 0 / 100 - 0
14.6 m / 42.33m
Standing
¼ Mile
13.0 sec / 160.9 km/h
Top Speed
191.1 km/h
TRANSLATE 'Quota' into
English and you get something like 'heights'. If this means seat height,
fine, but if it refers to the peaks this new big off-road tourer from Guzzi
is expected to 1990s-style suspension travel needed explore, we don't know.
What we do know is the Quota s the first real Guzzi off-roader with :he
big V. (Forget the old TT650 and NTX650, everyone else did.)
The engine is standard big Guzzi: :wo valves per cylinder on top of iSnim
Nigusil cylinders displacing the decreed 948cc. What is new is the iwitch
from the traditionally wrist-wrenching Dell'ortos to the Webcr-Marelli
injection system previously only available on the California III. Unlike
that, however, the Quota also gets a majestic two-into-one exhaust
collecting under the gearbox before wrapping round to a monster, upswept
stainless steel silencer on the right side.
But the real news is found in the :hassis. The old steel tube frame which
has served Guzzis for so long, bad to go, for the simple reason there was no
way to accommodate the in a design drawn up before Man Utd. last won the
championship.
Instead two, powerful-looking box-section steel beams connect the
swinging arm to the steering head with the lower rails unboltablc so the
engine can be dropped out.
Up front are a pair of Marzocchi 42mm teles with 240mm of travel and
preload and damping adjusters. At the rear a Deltabox-lookalike swing-arm
works a rising-rate linkage onto a single Marzocchi shock.
Elsewhere the Quota is equally state-of-the-art Very Big Trailie: the
21-inch, straight spoked aluminium front hoop is complimented by a similar
17-incher rear wearing a fat 130-section tyre. Twin 280mm front discs and
four piston calipers give an alternative way of using all that fork travel.
A 260mm disc operates independently (is Guzzi's linked brake system now
dead?) and powerfully enough to provide its own brand of jollies at the
rear.
And jollies most certainly can be had. Despite a very un-VBT-likc
four-and-a-half gallon tank, the Quota remains a bit of a fatty at over
5601b before you even think about adding any four star. Mostly, however,
it's very manageable.
That 'mostly' bit is its height, or, in Italian, the quota of the Quota.
880mm above ground level is one thing, wide handlebars positioned somewhere
in front of the tank is something else. But despite these intimidating
measurements the Quota is well balanced, can be easily balanced on your toes
and at walking speeds there is never any insecurity. With that weight, this
is not an unimportant factor.
Those with first-hand experience of Guzzis will be impressed by the
clutch. Although unchanged, the easy lever action is a vast improvement
which the engineers put down to revised gearbox ratios.
The familiar twin runs cultivated and strong, thanks to the injection
system, yet it's true power is, as always,' masked by the enormous flywheel
effect: acceleration seems slow, the engine feels a bit tired, but don't
doubt for a moment the factory's claim of a 181kph (113mph) top speed —
identical, interestingly enough, to that claimed for the BMW R100GS. My
short excursion on an Autostrada had the speedo well over 190kph.
The chassis is rock steady, even at top speed, which is maybe no wonder
given a wheelbase as long as a small motorhome. But the Quota is also a joy
on twisty B roads and not-too-serious excursions into the shrubbery. The suspension package is
well put together and responds smoothly to very small changes in the road.
Even jumps can be dallied with without the suspension bottoming out. The
only real glitch off-road, apart from its size, is the elevator effect
typical of shaftdrivc bikes. It's not as bad as on the pre-Paralever GS BMs,
but it is there.
Ultimately, however, one major problem stands head and shoulders above
any minor niggles. At a likely price (should it come into the UK) the wrong
side of £7000, the new Quota is an expensive toy and much more expensive
than the competition from Honda, Yamaha and even BMW. True, the Guzzi is
made up of high-quality components, but in view of the strong competition,
the Quota will have its work cut out for it in the fight for buyers. D
Source Bike Magazine of 1982
A Never mind calling it the Quota, surely the perfect name for a big-bore
Moto Guzzi trailbike would be the Arnold 1000 - after that big, handsome,
musclebound, slightly backWard poseur in the movies.
Apart from not being built in Austria or styled in the States, it's the complete
two-wheeled equivalent of Schwarzenegger.
You could even imagine him riding it, stripped to the waist and brandishing a
blazing machine-gun while mumbling in that stupid accent. Guzzi have got the
name just right, though, because the first definition of Quota in my Italian
dictionary is 'height'. Ho bloody ho.
Presumably that's someone at the factory's idea of a joke - and they'd have been
splitting their sides had they been watching as I spent what seemed like several
back-breaking minutes straining to get the bloody great monster onto its
centrestand on a rough, stony surface. Big is not the word for the Quota. This
motorcycle is HUUUUGE.
Its seat is 890mm off the deck, making it around neck-high to the average
Italian. I'm 6"4" and felt short. Wheelbase is 1620mm - several inches longer
than bruisers like BMW's R100GS and Yamaha's Super Tenere. Just to make life
really interesting, there's no sidestand on the Quota.
But you know what his friends say about Arnie - he's such a sweet, gentle guy at
heart. Real soft; great with kids. Sounds like bulls**t, but the Quota really is
just like that too. Getting on it's the difficult part.
Once you've done that you've passed the entrance-exam to a world of impossibly
light controls, tractable power, nimble handling and comfortable cruising. Like
its Daytona sister, the Quota has been a long time in the pipeline. Unlike the
Daytona it's still not here yet, having been delayed still further by the
plastic fuel tank that annoyingly means it's not strictly road-legal in this
country - But if you ask your local Guzzi dealer nicely they'll probably be able
to order you one for just over £7000, (1994 price ) which puts the Quota on a
par with Cagiva's equally well-named 900 Elefant.
The Quota doesn't share the Daytona's new eight-valve motor, instead relying on
the old 948cc Spada lump with its pushrods and two valves per pot. Like the
sportster, though, the Quota is fitted with a Weber-Marelli fuel-injection
system which helps give a peak power output of 70bhp at 6600rpm.
The healthy torque maximum of 58.5ft.lb arrives 600rpm earlier. Perhaps more
revealingly, at just 3400rpm the big V-twin grunts out 56ft.lb - which is more
than the aforementioned Super Ten makes even at its 6750rpm maximum.
If the engine's not new then the frame certainly is. It consists of two
large-section steel beams running from headstock to swing arm pivot, plus a
duplex-cradle made from smaller square-section steel tubes. Forks are 42mm
Marzocchi units with a suitably laid-back angle of attack. The same firm's shock
works via a rising-rate crank, but the swing arm has no Daytona-style
parallelogram system to counter drive-shaft reaction.Each end has a full 200mm
of travel, which goes some way to explaining the beast's ludicrous height. But
once you've clambered aboard - and provided your inside-leg measurement is up to
putting at least one foot on terra firma - the Quota's crows nest is a pleasant
place to be.
Bars are high and wide, but there's shelter of sorts behind the twin- headlamp
fairing's stubby screen. Riding position is roomy, with a decent flat perch for
a pillion, and there's a small carrier on the tailpiece.
First ride on the big dipper is a memorable experience. It fires-up with that
time-honoured earthy thud, rocking and rolling with each warming flick of the
wrist. And as you pull away the back-end rises round the drive-shaft, extending
the shock to lift your seat still higher and give a view almost like that from
the top of a double-decker bus.
In this fuel-injected form, Guzzi's V-twin is an amazingly sophisticated motor
for something that started life powering an ancient armoured car. Those torque
figures barely do the Quota justice, because its low-rev delivery is fantastic.
You can happily tool along as low as 1500rpm in top gear. Then when the
light-action throttle is snapped open the bike dob-dobs crisply away, vibration
disappearing at three grand while the tacho needle twirls towards the yellow
warning mark set at 7000rpm.
The redline's at nine thou but with so much low-down muscle available there was
no point in revving that high. Better to short-shift up another gear - the
five-speed box needs a cautious prod, especially on downchanges - and let the
monster torque do the rest. Best I saw on the black-faced speedo was 180km/h,
about a ton-ten, at which point on a crowded lakeside dual-carriageway the Quota
was still pulling hard enough to make me think that Guzzi's claim of 125mph is
not that far out.
The chassis is good too, and not just because much of the motor's increased
smoothness is apparently down to the rigidity of the new frame. Approaching its
top speed the Quota felt very stable, despite its long legs and exposed riding
position. And although I wouldn't be surprised to find a slight high-speed weave
appearing when the tyres get worn, the big Guzzi's broad seat is a relaxing
place from which to watch a fast road disappear beneath your wheels.
Despite its size the Quota is not that heavy, at 210kg dry, and on twisty roads
it handles surprisingly well. Front tyre is all of 21 inches in diameter but
it's quite narrow. With the help of those wide bars and a low centre of gravity
the Guzzi was easy to flick round even the tightest of bends. And although both
ends were set-up soft there was enough damping to make attacking even the local
brand of tight blind bends enjoyable.
By trail-tyre standards the Pirelli MT50s put plenty of rubber on the road, and
held on well. Even so, front-tyre grip would probably be what limited
stopping-power on tarmac, given the bite of the four-pot front calipers on their
twin 280mm discs. I barely used the footbrake, and can't say I missed having to
do so to work Guzzi's traditional but seemingly abandoned linked braking set-up.
A few laps of the factory's private motocross track showed the Quota to be a
demon off-road iron, too. All that smooth power made it easy to slide the back
wheel out of bends with a huge rooster-tail of dirt, and the suspension kept
control as I made a perfect landing after flying over the big triple-jump.
Actually, that last paragraph's a lie.
Given knobblier tyres on its alloy rims and a burly motocross expert at the
controls, the Quota might prove a great bike for off-road explorations. Or it
might not. As for me, I didn't even contemplate venturing an inch off the tarmac
with that big bugger waiting to leap on me.
The Quota is road-biased even by the standards of big trailies, which is why
it's a shame that what is basically a very good bike should be compromised
unnecessarily by its sheer size. Once it's under way there's no problem, but at
a standstill...
Perhaps I'm being unduly sensitive on behalf of short people, but surely the
Quota would be a handier tool if Guzzi shrunk it a bit by fitting firmer,
shorter-travel suspension. As things stand, the Quota's blend of comfort, looks,
power-delivery and agility make for a very desirable motorcycle. Provided you're
built like Conan the Barbarian.