1976 Moto Guzzi California 850 T3 – $13,500 (Sold)
Moto Guzzi California T3 for sale
SELLER SAYS : This T3 is an ex-Western Australian Police bike, hence the Convert dash cluster. I have owned and maintained it for the last 17 years. The motor has been rebuilt at some stage before me acquiring it. It runs and rides very well and needs nothing spent on it. Just enjoy the ride. It’s currently on WA C4C rego but can be put back on full rego if required. 23,482 km. Contact 0481 xxx xxx SOLD (Huntingdale, Perth WA).
EDITOR TERLICK SAYS: When most of us think about Moto Guzzi, it’s usually two models that spring to mind – the LeMans and the California. The LeMans, the early ones I mean, were as sexy as Elle McPherson in a bikini. The Californias on the other hand were not, thanks to way-big fuel tanks, way-boxy luggage and way-tall windscreens. They were, however, wonderful motorcycles. The first Californias were aimed squarely at the American market and were developed in cahoots with American police departments; initially the LAPD and later the California Highway Patrol. The American coppers were mightily impressed with the Guzzi which made their traditional Harleys seem evil handling, overweight, underpowered and under-braked. Built for long hours in the saddle, those early Guzzi police bikes made marvellous highway bikes. And so the police bikes and civilian tourers evolved together, with both iterations selling successfully all over the world. The ‘T’ in the T3 model name stands for Touring (well, Turismo actually) and the ‘3’ celebrates the linked three-disc brake system that made its debut with this model. The hand brake operates the front right disc, the foot brake operates the rear disc and the front left. I rode a late 1980s LeMans for several years with the same system and it worked very well indeed. Honda picked up the idea and used it on their RCB1000 endurance racer in the mid-1970s, and a higher-tech version has graced modern GoldWings. This bike is something of a crossover machine – an ex-cop bike that’s spending its retirement years chasing the horizon instead of ill-behaved motorists. Nice one.
