Moto Guzzi seems to be working on a new entry-level model. The Italians have registered the Stornello naming rights, a light and, above all, cheap single-cylinder that was put on the market in the early 1960s after the market for heavy engines had declined sharply.
In the 1950s, Moto Guzzi was best known for its 500cc single-cylinder motorcycles, which had been produced since the brand’s founding in 1921, but the economy started to improve and that was bad news for the motorcycle industry: young Italians could buy a new Fiat 500 for 400,000 lire (€206), the same price as the 500cc Falcone Turismo.
After Moto Guzzi ended all racing activities in 1957, engineer Giulo Cesare Carcano, who had been put in charge of the racing department after the war, was tasked with designing a motorcycle that was light and also cheap to produce, in order to respond to the cars.
This resulted in the Stornello 125 in 1960, in good line with Guzzi’s tradition of giving almost all its models a bird name since 1939. Stornello means “starling” in Italian. Everything about the Stornello was aimed at savings: the crankcase was cast so that no expensive reworking was required, the block had a wet sump lubrication system that saved an oil tank, extra oil pump and oil lines and the valves were parallel to each other.
In addition, a new machine was put into use on the production line that could carry out all welding work on the frame, significantly reducing the production costs of the complete frame. The first Stornello was put on the market in 1960 for only 179,000 lira. Over the years, various variants were put on the market and the engine capacity was increased to 160cc, in 1974 it was withdrawn from the market.
Forty-two years later, the name Stornello returned to Moto Guzzi, but not as a model name, but as an indication of a special version of the second generation of the V7, the V7 II Stornello, which was released on the market in a limited edition of only 1,000 units. was put. The styling of the V7 II Stornello was very similar to the Stornello Scrambler America that was produced from 1965 to 1968.
The return of Stornello seemed like a one-off, until parent company Piaggio re-registered the naming rights of Stornello in the United States at the end of last year and there is plenty of speculation that a new Moto Guzzi Stornello is imminent in the near future. Nowadays, names are recorded continuously by all manufacturers, but not always anything is done with them, but in the US the rules are slightly stricter. Anyone who has naming rights but does nothing with them will lose the protection after a few years.
This suggests that we can expect a new Stornello in the foreseeable future and, judging by history, it could well be a new entry-level model. A light single-cylinder would fit perfectly into that picture, but it is certainly not inconceivable that the Italians have their sights set on the A2 segment and the new 457 Aprilia parallel twin will be the beating heart.
In terms of design, the choice could range from retro-classic naked to a scrambler version of the V7 (say, a small version of the V7 II Stornello), to a retro version of the V85TT. Or maybe we cheered too soon, Piaggio lets the naming rights in the US lapse again and none of this ever comes to fruition. Time will tell.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.