www.motoguzziforum.no

[Hans Petter]

På treffet i Olden satt jeg og diskuterte Quota vs andre reiseenduroer med et par Guzzi-veteraner. Jeg klarte nok ikke helt å redegjøre for hva som var så bra med Quota'n, men det jeg i alle fall prøvde å si, er noe i retning av denne (lange) postingen jeg fant på et forum. Det er skrevet av en amerikaner (tror jeg) med et veldig danskklingende navn, og jeg antar det han skriver er riktig.

Men altså: Derfor Quota. God lesning, for den som måtte være interessert.

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In the mid eighties Guzzi, (inspired by the success of the BMW R80GS) made an off road/adventure/rally bike called the 650 NTX which subsequently morphed into the NTX 750 and that model continued in production through 1993/94/95 depending on who you ask, (The Alejandro De'Tommaso years were always as quirky as his business deals).

The NTX's appropriately had 30 liter tanks (versus the Q's 20 liters?) and were based on the small block engines which supported the swing arm setup from the back of the transmission.

So Guzzi took advantage of that design and build a bike without a backbone, in other words a bike where the steering head is not directly connected to the swing arm by a frame but uses the engine to make the connection.

So in 1995 it was BMW's turn to be inspired by Guzzi and build an off road/adventure/rally bike without a backbone, the R1100GS with a radically new front end suspension. However, it was heavier and more complicated than the prior R80/100GS models.

I was fortunate enough to get to ride a R1100GS for a couple of months in early 1995, courtesy of the then existing "Dual Sporter Magazine" and BMW North America.

I liked the R1100GS for its seemingly impossible off road capabilities, as long as the going was relatively slow with the stock suspension and once I figured out that the owners manual was located under the rear seat, thereby enabling me to switch off the bloody ABS brake system for off roading. The other impressive factor was the R1100GS's solid poise on the highway, definitely a great all rounder.

However, once I stripped all off the plastic of the beast, I was less impressed. There was no doubt that BMW had added a ton of weight to the engine for the sake of not having a backbone i.e. the frame connecting the steering head with the swing arm. They had bolted the Telelever "steering head" to the front of the engine way above the engine block, necessitating a very heavy engine/tranmission casting instead off using a light steel backbone, probably for some marketing reason.

Well, the NTX Guzzi's at least had a light steel rail mounted from the top off the steering head to the rear off the engine casing so they did not have too many problems, although there were several failures of engine/transmisson casings during the North African and South American Rally's and also the Australian Safari's. in the early nineties. As a matter of fact, the NXT 750 sitting in my storage suffered such a failure during the Acerbies "Adventure in Peru" in 1987 or was it 1988?

The early R1100GS's also had their failures, in spite of being 100 pounds heavier that the NTX 750's. Several of my friends went to Patagonia in 1996, I believe it was, and a few R1100GS's came back with broken case mounting points for the foot pegs and rear sub frames. One actually had an Argentinean shovel blade welded in place to support the pegs and the sub frame. If you look at a Touratech catalog from that vintage it was full of fixes for R1100 GS's structural failures.

The "proof in the pudding" is off course that BMW finally woke up and produced the R1200GS which has a light steel backbone and the engine lost an astonishing claimed 65 pounds!

Back to the Q, it was supposedly developed for North African police and military duty, much like the famed Lamborgini LM 03 and 04 monster four wheel drive vehicles were originally developed for the Saudi border patrol and military. They can still make a Hummer H1 weep let alone an H2.

The design brief was for a robust vehicle, capable of 20 years of service on rough to non-existing roads with a 100 mile an hour top speed which supposedly originated from Tunisia and was subsequently adopted by Libya.

Anybody who has stripped the plastic of a Q cannot have missed the absolutely massive backbone structure. First time I saw it, I wondered if they got the drawings from a 30 ton Fiat dump truck, it is that bloody massive.

Than again, it makes sense, having lived in the Middle East and Africa for 10 years , I have broken lots of truck frames going over bad to non existing roads and desert trails marked only by oil drums painted red and white and they are invisible in a sand storm, no GPS back then.

When you look closely at the Q, it is obvious that Guzzi learned from the NTX series and decided the recipe for successfully filling the design brief was to un-stress the engine and hang everything from a massive backbone, remember we are not talking desert racers here but absolute longevity and reliability, however, Guzzi still managed to match the R1100Gs's overall weight.

So my conclusion is that when BMW decided to build an avant-garde design, deviating big time from their previously successful simple and robust designs (probably caused by the "Ultimate Driving Machine" big headed car people, who at the time were considering slaughtering the motorcycle division), Guzzi successfully filled their design brief and created one hell of a robust design, just look at the rear suspension mounts, they will never break in my lifetime which is one reason I choose the Q over a Beemer at the time and I would do it again if feasible.

Alfred Jorgensen
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1990 SPIII
1999 California EV 1100 m/ (planlagt) Dnepr-vogn
2004 Breva 750 (Sølvis)
2015 KTM 690 Dottori Rally Replica

[T3racer]

Hei Hans Petter.

Svaret er enkelt - derfor

Smak er veldig individuellt, og Guzzister er antakelig mer individuelle enn andre. Og det kan vi være stolte av (!)

For min del er jeg lavere enn setehøyden på Quota'n og hadde aldri kommet opp på en (jeg har prøvekjørt en på MC-Bua i "gamle dager", men da kunne jeg starte og stoppe fra en lasterampe)
Men for meg er kanskje det aller viktigste argumentet for å kjøpe en Quota produksjonstallet - iflg. "The history of Moto Guzzi" av Hugo Wilson er ble det produsert kun 174 (correct me if I'm wrong) Quota 1000 (!)

Så kos deg med din sjeldne svale, Hans Petter.
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Andreas (1062)
Moto Guzzi T3/T5 (for road use)
Moto Guzzi T3 Eeyore (for trackdays only)
Yamaha TR1 (for road & track)

[Hans Petter]

Hvor mange som egentlig ble produsert spriker i alle himmelretninger. Fabrikken oppgir 682 fra 1992 til 1997, da produksjonen ble stoppet pga elendig salg. Den ble erstattet av ES 1100 Quota som i sin tur ble produsert i 780 eksemplarer fra 1997 til 2001. Men som sagt: Anslagene spriker i vilden sky...
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1990 SPIII
1999 California EV 1100 m/ (planlagt) Dnepr-vogn
2004 Breva 750 (Sølvis)
2015 KTM 690 Dottori Rally Replica