Moto Guzzi 500 Twin
Racing Bikes Moto Guzzi 500 Twin | |
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Moto Guzzi 500 Twin 1935
1935 GUZZI 500 TWIN. Four secondsthat was the tiny margin by
which Stanley Woods won the 1935 Senior T.T. on a Guzzi, scoring the first
foreign victory since the 1911 race. He finished shortly after Jimmy Guthrie
(Norton), who had led the race on the first six laps, had come in to the pits to
be acclaimed the winnerand to be congratulated by all and sundry, including the
Isle of Man Governor!
Woods had been in second berth for most of the race and at the
start of the last lap his pit was, apparently, all ready to refuel him, but he
roared straight down the Glencrutchery Roadto the apparent consternation of his
attendants. Whether this was guile, intended to lull the Norton camp into a
sense of false security, no one can tell, but the Guzzi finished with nearly a
gallon of fuel aboardunpenalized by the pit stop upon which everybody,
including Nortons, had counted.
Finished in the still-familiar Guzzi bright red, the 500 c.c.
model was virtually a double-up of the already successful "250". It was unusual
in being a wide-angle, 1200 Vee-twin with the front "pot" horizontal and the
magneto between the cylinders. It was claimed to produce 51 b.h.p. at 7,500
r.p.m., a staggering figure for a 1935 unit, and to have a maximum speed of 112
m.p.h. It weighed 375 lb., including in its specification one of the first
spring frames to be used by Guzziand, incidentally, it was the first springer
to win a "Senior"! The system used a pivoting-fork controlled by coil springs
under the engine-gear unit and had friction dampers on each side. These could be
altered by the rider when in motion by a large lever on the left of the tank.
The twin Guzzi never won another "Senior", but in 1948 and
1949 its descendants, still with the 1200 engine, recorded fastest laps of the
races. Whilst the later ones were very fast indeed, they proved generally
unreliable in the Island.
The first foreign machine to win the Senior T.T. since 1911*
this Guzzi was al first winner to employ rear springing in the races. It had
alloy rims and hand-adu friction dampers on the rear suspensioncontrolled by
the large lever near the fi the petrol tank.
SPECIFICATION
Engine: 1200 Vee-twin 500 c.c. o.h.c. camshaft drive by
shaft and bevels. Ignition: magneto.
Transmission: four-speed gearbox in unit with engine;
final drive by chain. Frame: open type with pivoting-fork rear suspension
controlled by coil springs and hand-adjustable
friction dampers. Forks: girder pattern with single compression spring.