Love affair with an Italian Californian

No one will ever accuse me of being methodical or pragmatic either. But believe or not, I've gotten better over the years! So the motorcycle selection process was pretty much par for the course. Really, I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted going in. I was looking for one of the bikes I lusted after when I last road... when I was a kid. So at the top of the list was a Moto Guzi. Preferably the Californian model but possibly an Ambassador model. I test drove one of the latter as a college kid and was totally hooked. I just loved everything about it... the look, the massiveness of it, the inside joke that constantly had me chuckling of how Italians viewed big Harley dressers. Ultimately though, I never got beyond looking at a few on eBay this time around. Why? A number of factors: There aren't very many around of course and I didn't happen to see a local one available at the time I was looking. The idea of buying and transporting one knowing so little on the topic in general just seemed too daunting. The scarcity while being attractive from a novelty aspect also played into my decision not to pursue a Guzi at this juncture. There isn't a Moto Guzi dealership in my town. As far as I know, there is only one in all of Colorado. At the time I was looking I only knew of a handful of folks who would be “willing” to work on one but weren't primarily Guzi mechanics by any means. I suspected that parts for an old Moto Guzi might be hard to come by. So instead of acting on the primary impulse, I shelved the idea for a later date. I still might get one as a second bike that I can fiddle with and restore. But what I wanted right then was something I could ride first and tinker with second.