Moto Guzzi: Bellissimo bike

The Italian 744cc Moto Guzzi Stelvio 1200 will suit shorter or casual riders. Photo / Supplied

The Historic Italian Moto Guzzi brand has relaunched in New Zealand, with a line-up that starts with the classic-themed shaft drive V7 and tops out - literally, given its height - with the mighty Stelvio 1200.

The $17,990 V7 uses a remapped 744cc Nevada engine and shaft drive, and will suit shorter or casual riders.

The $27,990 Stelvio, pictured, is Guzzi's answer to BMW's 1200GS, but the bike doesn't take itself too seriously, and focuses on all-roads touring rather than any pretence of off-road derring-do. Meanwhile, the $29,990 Norge is the full-fat tourer, the expanses of fairing rather obscuring the bike's quirky underpinnings.

These are thoroughly modern machines built by a marque with an enviable heritage. Established in 1921, Moto Guzzi is the oldest European motorcycle brand in continuous production, although in recent years it produced its machines for love, not for profit.

But in 2004 Piaggio bought both Moto Guzzi and Aprilia, with a massive funding injection rapidly producing a series of new models.

Each uses the immediately recognisable V-twin format with the engine set across the frame, the cylinders protruding into the wind. It's a format that suits the famously quirky brand, which has long been known for its innovative approach.

Moto Guzzi put shaft drive into a prototype before BMW, first fitted linked brakes to a motorcycle, first supplied a centre stand - back in 1921 - and first fitted a V8 engine to a racing bike.

Introduced in 1955, the GP V8 was a short-lived 500cc machine capable of hitting 280kph some 30 years before that speed was again achieved in GP racing. The bike proved difficult to ride and maintain, and by 1957 it sank into obscurity after racers refused to ride it.

That's not a fate likely to meet the current line-up, despite temporary supply hiccups when factory refurbishment interrupted shipments for the local distributor.