There is something about the new Moto Guzzi V85 that makes you want to smile. The new bike is the latest entry into what could loosely be described as the burgeoning retro off-road / ADV segment. It is a segment that began a long time and a couple of motors ago with the Triumph Bonneville Scrambler. That machine while long-lived doesn’t have quite the smile factor. Maybe it is the length of time the bike has been around, perhaps it is because the 
scrambler never came as a surprise but an expected extension to the Bonneville family.
Then there is the Ducati Scrambler that is said to exist somewhere in the “Land of Joy”. That land of joy thing looks like way too much work with the need to stay eternally young, eat gelato and be a little too casually stylish. Way to tiring an effort to smile after all that. Then there is the scrambler version of the rNineT which is without a doubt a funky machine but is just a little too precise to crack a smile, a little too serious perhaps – oddly more so than the original rNineT.
The new Moto Guzzi V85 seems to be another matter. Looking at 
the machine we can’t decide if it is suppose to be retro or simply unencumbered with doodads. And the fact that it less like a motorcycle with an engine than an engine with a motorcycle bolted to it is definitely a plus. The engine by the way is a new 855cc mill with around 80hp. Should be enough to get this retro / enduro / ADV machine rolling. We love the red trellis frame and the suggestion of grab handles around the headlight. Guzzi hasn’t release too much in the way of specifics about the bike but we know that it is going to be a little quirky and worth a smile or two.
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