Remember when adventure bikes were less cushy, more brutish? Back when you saw big-bore machines winning Dakar, instead of riding to Starbucks? Well, the Moto Guzzi Concept V85 harks back to those days.
The V85 is built around a new air-cooled 850 cc transverse V-twin, with shaft drive. Max power is a modest 80 hp. The frame is steel, with engine as a stressed member, and the swingarm is aluminum.
But that’s pretty much all we know for solid details. Moto Guzzi does say “This is another step by Moto Guzzi towards the future, which will bring the Como Eagle to celebrate its 100-year anniversary in 2021 with a new range of motorcycles built on the technical base of the Concept V85.” In other words, Moto Guzzi plans to use this as the basis for future models, even if the Concept V85 never makes it to production? That’s what it sounds like.
GALLERY
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Perhaps cylinders mounted transversely then?
That is not a transverse V-twin engine. The crankshaft is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the motorcycle making it a longitudinal engine.
That’s what people always call them, though …
People call them that for good reason: “A transverse engine is an engine mounted in a vehicle so that the engine’s crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the long axis of the vehicle.” – Wikipedia
I think the confusion for most people lay in confusing the crankshaft orientation vs the V itself.