The next day it was only firing on one cylinder. Off with the tank to empty it – and sludge and mud oozed out. The last 2-3 liters were a thick brown substance only remotely resembling gasoline. Had the tank emptied and cleaned out. The petrol cocks werent worth much, the filters had partly rusted away and were completely clogged up, and the reserve position was out of working order – probably because the pipes were full of mud, so I bought two new ones.

Furthermore the filters on the carburettor were clogged as well, the petrol tubes were crumbling and I had a sneaking suspicion about the general condition of the Guzzi.

When all the above was fixed petrol reached the carburettors. The fact remained that the engine was running like a bag of peanuts.

Carb cleaning.

I bought a Haynes workshop manual, and started reading.

Okay – not that hard – only few things are needed to get an engine running.

It needs petrol and air – in an appropriate mix – compression and sparks in the plugs – at the right time.

It was running on one cylinder – and was sometimes able to fart through the exhaust pipe from the other cylinder. The only good thing about that was that the magpies next door were frightened out of their feathers.

As a Moto Guzzi running on one cylinder is a nuisance – a bloody nuisance – something had to be done.

The petrol is available, I dont know anything about compression so well have to forget about that for a while, but how about the sparks?

Not impressing. Acceptable at one side compared to my lawn mower and my Nimbus. At the other side the sparks were non existent.

Off with the petrol tank, off with the cover to the distributor – and lo and behold – exactly as in the picture in Haynes – two points. The contacts were cleaned, and ended up looking quite acceptable. A set of feeler gauges were bought and after some trial and error the opening was adjusted. I remember clearly how I hated to adjust contact breakers– but Ill tell you more about that later. Nothing helped – the sparks were only acceptable at the one side.

I asked friends who are a lot more knowledgeable than I am. One suggested switching the ignition coils to see whether the fault moved.

I didnt feel very much like messing with it – but felt even less like visiting a mechanic. This was something I should be able to fix myself.

After about an hour including a bottle of beer and a few fags I was ready to try. And sure enough, now the other side had the biggest sparks.

2 new ignition coils, 2 condensers, spark plug cable, 2 caps as well as two new plugs were acquired. Luckily the former Danish importer of Moto Guzzi – Moto de Voss – lives in Slangerup, not far away from my home, so it is easy to drop by if I need a part.

While I was messing about with all this on the porch, my wife was enjoying herself talking about “men and their bikes”. I chose – and wisely so I think – to neglect her talking to a friend about men in a certain age needing a bike, and what a wreck I had ended up with.

Ill show her. One of these days……

At this stage two important things happened simultaneously.

First of all I realized that there were lots of sites on the internet about Moto Guzzis – some of them even in Danish, my natural language.

News:dk.fritid.motorcykel is all about bikes, but the noise level here is sizeable. It is, however, possible to strike gold from time to time. But Ive quit reading this news group as my knowledge and interest in Japanese bikes is limited.

When you have a Guzzi you are considered weird. Its like having a green dog, so I can recommend the more specialized sites.

http://www.motoguzzi.dk is the Danish Guzzi clubs home site, but at that time it was affected by numerous breakdowns and when it was working, it had a lot of “dead” links. For the time being it is, however, working and they have even added a discussion forum. However, I HATE the one they are using – why on earth do they have to show ads for womens underwear there? It is beyond my comprehension.

The Norwegian Guzzi clubs home site was better in my opinion, and they had a discussion forum when I needed it. Strangely enough nobody laughed when I asked which kind of oil my Guzzi would benefit from. That was before I realized what fanaticism particularly oil questions will generate J

If you speak English well enough, Australia – of all places – is the place to go. http://www.morini.com.au/index2.html

Here youll find anyone from happy amateurs like me to world class Guzzi mechanics. The tone is bluff but never without humour. Often great fun to read. But people are extremely helpful and if you are struggling with a problem there will always be someone else whove either solved it or who has an educated guess as to what might be wrong. Ive benefited greatly from this site and have often put up a question and had competent answers. I owe more than one guy out there a beer.

And then of course there is the site of Jens Lyck – http://www.guzzitech.dk

Lots of info – especially about Le Mans. Jens has a Le Mans himself – but you have to look carefully to find an original part. By the way he has now sold his bike – when will he ever learn that bikes are something you buy – not sell?

Jens site is still enveloping and is getting better and better. If only he would pull himself together and make a decent discussion forum instead of linking to that stupid site the Moto Guzzi club uses – but I guess a forum – even with adds for ladies undies – where something is going on, is better than two half dead ones.

By the way - Ive nothing against the Moto Guzzi Club Denmark – Im a member myself.

The other thing that happened while I was fiddling with high voltage – ignition coils and the likes, was that my brother in law came by to see my Guzzi. I handed him a can of beer and talked forever about “real bikes” – in particular Italian thoroughbreds. All the time he kept scratching his belly – and I could see that he was not all uninterested. As a youngster he had had a small 125 cc 2-stroke Japanese. But he was not blind to the fact that this was a mans bike.

A couple of beers later everything was assembled and ready for at test run. Fat blue sparks! On with the plugs, turn on the taps, choke on, turn the key and push the button.

Miracle of miracles – it started! And what a sound on the terrace. A big resounding V2 with almost no resistance in the mufflers. Man – this is hot!

It was still not able to idle but now it was at least firing on both cylinders. My wife and sister-in-law did not find it particularly amusing with all that noise in the garden, but as you know women are different from the rest of us.

When the trial run was over and the engine stopped, I believe I was all smiles. My brother in law had apparently been attacked by flees – at least his belly-scratching had become quite distinct.

He said to his wife: “I need one of those”. Go ahead – she said – but dont expect me to ride with you. YES!! Almost too easy. The next day he was off buying a helmet, clothes and gloves.

Not until then did we start the search for a bike for him. We found a similar Le Mans mark 2 for sale in Løgstør. Phoned and set up a date. Drove over there one cold day in November. My brother in law took me along as “the expert”, who had to see whether everything was alright – what a joke….

But after a short ride my brother in law was all for it, and it ran perfectly. Even at idle! It was – however – not very pretty. Was a faded sort of white – but that was fixable. He drove it back home on trial license plates without any problems what so ever. And he just couldnt stop smiling.

And now I suddenly had another Guzzi to compare with which is a good thing.

Brother in law - 2 minutes into Guzzi ownership.