In the Beginning

This is a record of my restoration of a Moto Guzzi Super Alce.

First, some history:

The Super Alce was derived from the earlier Alce in 1946.The model was designed for the Army in dark olive-green and the one for the Carabinieri was painted a light olive-green. It was produced till 1957 with an automatic magneto fitted in 1952 and a cylindrical silencer replacing the unique double barrel silencer in 1955. The price for a two seater version in 1949 was 480,000 lire but was never made available for sale to the general public. This information was taken from, and a lot more history can be found in Mario Colombo's English edition of "Moto Guzzi" published by Giorgio Nada Editore. I took the color photograph above of the single-exhaust model that was displayed in the Moto Guzzi musuem at Mandello del Lario. I have also attached the "official" factory specs.

This particular bike with engine number AV 79119 and frame number 25054 was produced on November 13, 1948 and shipped to S.A.J in Buenos Aires on January 27, 1949. The bike was brought into the US on December 4, 1996 by Dr. Ruben Nasio who then sold it to me. The Moto Guzzi factory authenticated it when I visited the museum.

The bike was in a terrible condition. The frame had been hacked off at the rear and was missing its rear dampers. The front and rear mudguards were not authentic Super Alce items. In fact, at first I could not identify the bike, noting some similarities but a lot more differences to the "standard" Super Alce I saw at Mandello del Lario and the photos in Mario Colombo's book. The dynamo and battery were missing as was any hint of wiring of any sort. It did not run and the Mikuni carb clearly did not start life with that engine many years ago. The US Customs papers showed it as a 1939 model which compounded my confusion. The next blog shows some photos of the unrestored bike.