What does it mean to ride a Moto Guzzi? It means embracing a history that has been almost one hundred years in the making, but above all it means writing new stories every time you climb on the bike and start up the engine.
Many of these stories we keep for ourselves, but many others instead deserve be told to those who, like us guys of The Clan, share that same profound passion for the “Eagle”, and Jürgen’s experience is a prime example.
A voyage that has been ongoing for thirty years, proof of an individual’s love of Moto Guzzi and of Italy, written up for us by Luigi, a member of the community who was one of the first to remain truly amazed by the serene beauty of this genuine Guzzi story.
Thanks a ton to Jürgen and Luigi, enjoy the read!
Köln 1982. The dream that came true.
The best thing about this story is that we are able to narrate it from the start. The story begins in Cologne back in 1982. On an unspecified day of that year, Jürgen went down to a bike workshop. A dear friend had told him that an elderly lady had dropped off her son’s motorcycle at the workshop with the intention of selling it. Left standing and never started up since the owner died tragically, the bike just lay there, virtually abandoned. This said, this story bears all the hallmarks of the most classic stories that every fan, not only of motorcycles, has heard numerous times in their lives. Stories that sound surreal, but that is not the case here. Yes, because on that day, Jürgen had actually gone down to that workshop to take a look at that very bike, without knowing either the make or model. Once inside, he saw the bike almost entirely hidden under a heavy blanket, the only trace of care and loving kindness that she had been shown over many years of indifference. When Jürgen reached the bike, he lifted a corner of the dusty blanket and saw the left side of the bike. Still visibly excited to this day, he tells me that, at the sight of the “750-S3” badge, he did not have the slightest hesitation and all he said to the mechanic was «All right, I’ll take it».
Muscular, clear-eyed and with facial features that reveal his Eastern European origins, these days Jürgen is a well-established journalist, husband and father of five children, two of whom have given him three splendid grandchildren. At the time, however, he was a penniless student like so many others, who had only previously owned a few 50cc and 125cc bikes; the kind of bikes that people buy not so much because they truly desire them, but simply because they are affordable. Jürgen, however, had clear ideas and a dream that he felt was unattainable. Every day he saw and heard an S3 going by, one that belonged to his neighbour who, to be honest, was not even a very nice guy. Jürgen says that every time the neighbour’s S3 passed by, he asked himself a question to which there was no easy answer and which thus remained unanswered: «How can any motorcycle be so beautiful?». These days, when talking about those years he adds that «It seemed enormous, long, but at the same time very agile and powerful. To me it was the most beautiful bike in the world». A few days after that fateful workshop visit, Jürgen bought the S3 and thus fulfilled his dream. Having brought it home, our neo-Guzzi owner began to give the bike the kind of care and attention that she deserved and did some work on her since she had not even been started up for a very long time. Jürgen certainly did not even begin to imagine what fate had in store for him from then on: just think how he would have felt if he had known that the 750-S3 would be responsible for a meeting that would literally change his life. Years passed, five years to be precise, and the time had come for his Italienische Reise.
