The Moto Guzzi Stornello name could be on its way back for the first time in 50 years.
Well, sort of. There was that special edition V7 back in 2016, but ‘Guzzi hasn’t made a proper Stornello since 1974.
Whether you will be able to call whatever Moto Guzzi is reportedly cooking up to slap the Stornello name on “proper” will remain to be seen, since all we have to go on for now is that ‘Stornello’ has been registered by Moto Guzzi in the US, as reported by Motociclismo.
Moto Guzzi V7 Stone Ten.
The original Stornello was a two-stroke machine offered in capacities of either 125cc and 160cc. It was effectively to Moto Guzzi in the 1960s what the Monster was to Ducati in the 1990s, allowing the brand to remain operational in a difficult financial moment.
Moto Guzzi’s current smallest bike is the V7 that was used as the base of the aforementioned special edition. The V7 shares its 850cc twin-cylinder engine with the V85 but puts it in a more affordable package. So, a Stornello that is remotely close to replicating the small-capacity approachability of the original would undercut that current low end of ‘Guzzi’s range fairly substantially.
At the same time, though, Moto Guzzi’s contemporary brand is not built on high volume models, and rather more exclusive motorcycles. Either the manufacturer is about to pivot itself, somewhat, or the new Stornello is going to mark quite the departure from its two-stroke ancestor.
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