Moto Guzzi V85 TT Review: The Adventure Bike Everyone Overlooks
Air-cooled. Pushrods. 80 horsepower, about 500 pounds and a 19-inch front wheel. On paper that is the recipe for a slow, lazy motorcycle, so it is fair to ask why I came home from Italy and bought one.
The short answer is the front end. On a fast paved mountain road, the Moto Guzzi V85 TT steers far better than any adventure bike has a right to, and the reason is hiding in a couple of geometry numbers most reviews never mention. If I had to sum the bike up in one word, it would be authentic. It looks like an air-cooled, shaft-driven Italian adventure bike with a bit of 1980s Dakar in its blood, and that is exactly what it is.
| Engine | 853cc air-cooled 90° transverse V-twin, pushrods |
| Claimed output | 80 hp / 61 lb-ft |
| Final drive | Shaft |
| Wet weight | 507 lb |
| Seat height | Just under 33 in |
| Wheelbase | 60.2 in |
| Rake / trail | 25.7° / 128 mm (5 in) |
| Wheels | Tubeless spoked, 19 in front with a 110-section tire |
| Brakes | Dual 320mm discs, radial Brembo monoblocks; single 260mm rear; cornering ABS |
| Suspension | 41mm fork and single shock, preload and rebound adjustable, remote rear preload |
| Tank / range | About 6 gal / 200 to 250 miles |
| Price (TT) | $12,790 |
The Front End That Won Me Over
What sold me on the first day was the feedback. I turn in and the bars tell me what the tire is doing and how much grip is under it. It talks constantly, but it never feels nervous, and it never seems to be looking for an excuse to do anything dramatic.
If that sounds familiar, I said almost exactly the same thing about the Aprilia Tuareg I tested last year. Piaggio owns both brands, and pushed properly hard on pavement, neither bike has any business behaving this well on a big front wheel with knobby ambitions. I like to imagine someone from Aprilia’s MotoGP team in Noale drove over to Mandello one afternoon with a clipboard, a torque wrench and some very strong opinions, and nobody at Moto Guzzi was brave enough to ask him to leave.
There is also a twist if you saw my visit to the Mandello del Lario factory: this is the actual bike I am giving away.
A Basset Hound That Went to the Sahara
Moto Guzzi has built motorcycles in Mandello del Lario, on the shore of Lake Como, since 1921, which makes it the oldest European motorcycle brand in continuous production. It has been part of the Piaggio Group, alongside Aprilia, since 2004, and that matters once we get to the handling.
The V85’s look comes from the desert. Guzzi had been turning up at the Paris-Dakar since 1979, mostly as privateer efforts with some factory help, and finishing was rare. In 1985 an architect from Bergamo named Claudio Torri took a Guzzi, a brand known for big comfortable road bikes, and pointed it at the Sahara. That is roughly like entering a basset hound in the Iditarod, and it went about as well as you would expect: the heat killed his battery and he did not finish.
Torri’s bike was the V65 Baja, with long-travel suspension and a 50-liter tank. He came back in 1986 on a V75-based version with the same luck. Later came the NTX and Quota adventure bikes with their tall front fenders, and when Guzzi showed the V85 concept at EICMA in 2017 (on sale in 2019) it borrowed straight from all of them. That big tank and tall fender are a basset hound that never quite made it to the finish, but came home with stories anyway.
The Engine: Pushrods, a Shaft and Third Gear
Blip the throttle and the whole bike rocks to the right. That is the crankshaft, which runs front to back like a car’s, so the bike twists against it when the engine revs. Some people find it strange. I find it charming. It hiccups, it coughs, it sounds like an old man clearing his throat before telling you the same story for the fourth time, and on a cold morning it flatly refuses to go anywhere until it has warmed up. I cannot hold that against it, because I am exactly the same.
The engine is an 853cc air-cooled 90-degree V-twin mounted across the frame, the way Guzzi has done it since the 1960s, with pushrods and shaft drive. Claimed output is 80 hp and 61 lb-ft. For 2024 it gained variable ignition timing and a knock sensor on each cylinder, so it is more tolerant of the fuel you feed it, and peak power rose by 4 hp. The more useful change is lower down, where torque went up a claimed 10 percent, which is where most of us actually ride.
Moto Guzzi says 90 percent of the torque is there by 3,500 rpm, and you feel it every time you open the throttle. It makes me want to short-shift and ride the wave, and it pulls so cleanly from low revs that I barely think about gear selection, which is handy, because on this bike the answer is almost always third. It is happy to rev too, though I have kept it out of the upper rpm while I break in the engine for whoever wins it. It is not as agricultural as an old boxer.
Pushrods opened valves in World War II airplanes and muscle cars, and most manufacturers abandoned them around the time color television showed up. Guzzi kept them, I suspect because they work and nobody in Mandello has ever been very interested in what anyone else is doing. Then there is the shaft: no chain to lube or adjust, and nothing flinging black goo onto your subframe or the back of your riding pants. On a bike built for long trips that is a big deal, and in this class it is rare.
It is not a powerhouse. Eighty horsepower pushing 507 pounds is a fair fight at best, and passing on a two-lane takes more planning than it would on a 1200, even more so with luggage or a passenger. But in the range where I spend most of my time, the torque does the work and I rarely find myself wanting more.
The gearing is a little odd. Third covers so much ground that I started thinking of it as the default setting, and I almost never use sixth. Sixth is like the good china at my grandmother’s house: everyone knows it is there, it is very nice, and nobody is allowed to use it. To be fair, it is a genuinely tall overdrive that makes long, fast slogs relaxed and economical.
Why a 507-Pound Adventure Bike Steers Like This
Weight is 507 pounds with fuel. Wheelbase is 60.2 inches. Trail is 128mm, or about 5 inches. Those numbers say stable: 60 inches is a long wheelbase, and 128mm is a lot of trail when a typical sport bike sits well under 100. More trail gives the front wheel a stronger urge to straighten itself, which is lovely for holding a line on a fast road or loose gravel. The classic trade-off is more effort to tip in.
Then there is the rake: 25.7 degrees, which is steep for an adventure bike and much closer to naked or sport-touring territory than you would expect from something this tall. Most magazines print 28 degrees for this bike, but Moto Guzzi’s own service manual says 25.7, and I am choosing to believe the service manual. A steeper steering head is one of the things that makes a bike quicker to turn.
Pair a quick steering angle with a big stabilizing trail number and you get a bike that is eager to turn and calm once it is leaned over.
The rake is not working alone. The V85 runs a skinny 110-section front tire where many big adventure bikes run a 120, and a narrower tire takes less effort to roll onto its edge. A 19-inch wheel has less gyroscopic resistance than the 21-inch wheels on dirt-focused bikes. The bars are wide for leverage, and that generous trail feeds more of the tire’s self-aligning force back through them, which is a big part of why the front end talks so much. It is not as scalpel-precise as a sport bike on a 17-inch front, but from first-gear hairpins to fast sweepers I never felt like I was wrestling it.
In tight switchbacks it drops in with very little effort, holds whatever line I give it, and if I need to tighten up mid-corner with a bit more front brake, it just does it. It is eager to please, like a new employee in their first week who has not learned how to say no yet. In fast sweepers it is calm and planted, although a chassis is not under much stress there when the engine politely makes sure you never arrive too quickly. The fastest I saw was 100 mph, on our private high-altitude test facility that is closed to the public and has no posted limit. I would like that entered into the record for my friends in the motor unit.
Ergonomics, the Seat Fix and a Few Gripes
Seat height is just under 33 inches, and with my 30-inch inseam I am on the balls of both feet at a stop, which is manageable. The frustrating part is how small the bike feels once it is moving: slim between the knees, with everything falling easily to hand. When I told Mrs. CanyonChaser how small it felt she got her hopes up, then sat on it and found it too tall, which is a shame because I think she would love it.
Here is a fix worth knowing. When the bike was new I could not get the center of the seat to latch onto the little hook under the subframe, no matter how hard I pushed. A Moto Guzzi representative told me you can lower the seat by removing the rubber grommet plugs on the bottom of the seat pan. I did, and now the seat sits slightly lower, is more stable on the pan and latches firmly. If your seat will not latch, or you want it a touch lower, that is your fix.
The riding position is nearly perfect. I rolled the bars forward a few degrees, adjusted the lever height, and that was it. It is not all roses, though:
- Footpeg rubbers. They are enormous, roughly the size of the feet on a retirement-home walker. Rubber and water are slippery, so pull them out (they come out easily). The metal pegs underneath are good.
- Passenger peg bracket. It is big, and it gets in the way when you rotate your foot outward onto the ball of your foot for assertive, sporty riding.
- Soft rear. Even for a plush adventure bike the rear felt a little soft with me aboard. Three clicks on the remote preload adjuster fixed it: no tools, no C-spanner, no swearing, no bleeding knuckles.
Tubeless Spoked Wheels and the Shifting Myth
Tubeless spoked wheels are a big deal. If you like leaving civilization behind for the road less traveled, a tubeless spoked wheel is my first choice: it is more likely to survive an unexpected hit from a rock or a hidden pothole than a cast or even forged wheel. That alone would push me away from the cast-wheel Strada and toward the TT or the TT Travel.
Then there is the shifting. I kept reading complaints about how badly this bike shifts, and I think the internet is wrong here. It shifts like a dream as long as you shift it the way it wants to be shifted. The throw is long, so give it some patience: preload the lever before the shift, add a little blip and half a clutch, and it moves through the gears like the advance lever on an old film camera. Long and deliberate, and it ends every time in a clean, solid click. I find it very satisfying. There is no quickshifter on offer, which you might expect me to complain about, but on this bike it feels on-brand.
What Owners Complain About, and What I Found
Since this one is mine, at least for now, I read a lot of owner reviews to find out what I had signed up for.
Wind. The most common complaint. Owners of earlier bikes reported buffeting and helmet noise, and plenty went through two or three aftermarket screens trying to fix it. The 2024 update helped a lot, though some still mention noise at freeway speeds. My take goes the other direction: bigger is not better. The new screen has five positions, and this is one of the very few I have tested where the lowest position is actually low. Most manufacturers lower it just enough to call it adjustable. For riders who like clean air around the helmet, that matters.
Vibration around 5,000 to 5,500 rpm, supposedly blurring the mirrors. I have not noticed it.
The gearbox, described as clunky and loud. You already know where I stand.
Recalls. If you are shopping for a used 2020, make sure the two recalls were done: one for an oil seep from the final drive and one for a footpeg retaining pin.
Reliability. I asked the certified Moto Guzzi technicians at Eurosports Utah, who I have lunch with every week. Their answer, more or less: take care of one of these and it will take care of you. The engine is overbuilt and only moderately powered, so it cannot do itself much harm.
On the other side of the ledger, owners are close to unanimous about the character and comfort. They love the shaft drive and the range: 200 to 250 miles from the tank is commonly reported, and even with my heavy wrist I can confirm it, especially on ethanol-free fuel. Cruise control makes the freeway easy, and while I do not love freeways on anything, the V85 will happily do the boring miles to get you to the good roads.
Brakes, Electronics and Suspension
Up front are dual 320mm discs with radial-mount Brembo monoblock calipers, and they work fantastically. Out back is a single 260mm rotor. The 2024 update added a six-axis IMU, so ABS and traction control now work at lean, and there are plenty of ride modes. The dash is the same system as the Tuareg’s, so I felt at home almost immediately. If you have never used it, give it a day. It is far friendlier than systems that seem designed by someone paid by the submenu.
The suspension is a good example of why you should not judge this bike on paper. A 41mm fork and a single shock, both adjustable for preload and rebound, will not make anyone at Öhlins nervous. On the road, though, damping front and rear is extremely good: controlled and composed, letting the front end do its talking without the chassis getting flustered.
Zach at Common Tread noted that the fork dives hard under braking, and it does. The brakes are strong and the initial fork travel is soft. To avoid the dramatic dive when you drop anchor into a corner, a little rear brake encourages the bike to squat instead. I do not think that is a flaw so much as a characteristic of this kind of motorcycle.
Light Off-Road
I have not taken it anywhere technical, only dirt roads and a bit of two-track. On the Michelin Anakee Adventure tires it was fun and completely unintimidating, and the bike stays as calm in the dirt as on pavement. Off-road mode turns off the rear ABS, lets you switch off the front and relaxes the traction control. Moto Guzzi has never claimed this is a hardcore trail bike and I would not pretend it is. Gravel roads, forest service roads, the dirt you cross to reach the campsite: that is its world, and it seems very happy there.
The Details
Fit and finish are incredibly good. I love the red stripe with the V85 in negative space, the grey across the rest of the bike, and the real metal eagle wings on the tank honoring Giovanni Ravelli. Look closely and the eagle flies forward on both sides of the tank, which tells you how much attention went into this thing. It feels like every part was put on by someone whose grandfather also worked at the factory and would hear about it at Sunday dinner if it were not done properly.
A few more things I noticed walking around it:
- The red, progressively wound shock spring matches the red frame (some bikes have black springs; red is better). The tightly wound section takes less energy to compress, which is part of why the initial travel feels so compliant.
- The white fork guards match the negative-space styling, and they protect the fork seals from bugs and stone chips, so they look good and make the seals last longer.
- The twin round taillights look fantastic, especially lit. The seat lock sits right below them, though, which is usually a dirty spot in bad weather. Owners, does it get gunked up over time?
- The exhaust exits on the right, which is the wrong side as far as I am concerned. I wonder whether you will burn your hand putting it on a center stand.
- The black tip on the front fender, the little “Mandello del Lario since 1921” sticker, and the eagle-wing shape in the headlight that appears on every modern Guzzi.
V85 TT vs. Strada vs. TT Travel, and Which Years to Buy
There are three current versions. The TT and the TT Travel are the same motorcycle underneath, so almost everything in this review applies to both. The Travel adds a pile of touring accessories, some very tasteful contour lines on the tank (I am a sucker for contour lines) and about 30 pounds, and I am told it is the best seller.
| V85 Strada | Cast wheels, road tires | $12,390 |
| V85 TT | Tubeless spoked wheels (the bike in this review) | $12,790 |
| V85 TT Travel | TT plus touring accessories, about 30 lb heavier | $14,390 |
Moto Guzzi updates its motorcycles the way the Vatican updates doctrine: slowly, carefully and only after a great deal of discussion. So there are really only three generations to know:
- 2019 to 2020: the originals, with spoked wheels that ran tubes.
- 2021 to 2023: Euro 5 compliance, tubeless spoked wheels, more riding modes and standard cruise control.
- 2024 and later: the big update. Variable ignition timing, 80 hp, an IMU with cornering ABS and traction control, a new 5-inch TFT and switchgear, a five-position screen Guzzi says cuts pressure on the rider by 37 percent, new cylinder head covers with more knee room, a flatter seat and the remote rear preload adjuster.
If your budget allows, the 2024 and later bikes are the ones to have. If not, a 2021 to 2023 bike still gets you the tubeless wheels, cruise control and most of what makes this bike great.
Verdict: Does the “Adventure Icon” Live Up to It?
The V85 looks like an 80s rally bike because it is built on the same idea: a big tank, a tall front fender, an air-cooled twin hanging out in the breeze, and a shaft where everyone else has a chain. In a class full of bikes that look designed by an engineer who just discovered ChatGPT, it is refreshing to find one designed by someone who remembers the great motorcycles of the past.
The closest comparison I cannot get out of my head is an 80s Toyota pickup sitting tall on chunky tires. Nothing on that truck was there to impress anybody, everything on it was there to do a job, and somehow that made it the coolest vehicle in Back to the Future, which is quite an achievement when the other car in the movie was a time machine. The V85 has that same quality, and people walk across parking lots to talk to me about it.
If you are tired of generative AI, algorithms, bots and surveillance, this bike does not care about any of it. It does not want a subscription or your data. It has a key, two cylinders sticking out into the breeze and a driveshaft, and every time you open the throttle it gives you exactly what you asked for.
Moto Guzzi calls the V85 TT the adventure icon. That is a big claim, since icons are usually earned rather than declared. Does it perform as advertised? Yes, and in a couple of places it does more. The low-down torque is real, the fuel range is real, and the shaft makes it easy to live with. The surprise was the handling. I expected a stable but slightly lazy 19-inch adventure bike, and got a front end that tells me everything and a chassis willing to do whatever I ask. It may not be the best at anything, but I love how eager it is.
In Italy I also rode the Stelvio, Guzzi’s bigger adventure bike with more power, more weight and more of everything, and it was a ton of fun. But when it came time to swap, I had to wrestle the V85 keys away from the Guzzi employee riding with us as control rider. These are people with access to everything Moto Guzzi makes, and they were bickering over the V85 like kids fighting over the front seat. When the people who can ride anything keep choosing the middle child, that tells you something.
Authentic. The V85 TT is exactly what it looks like, and after a few weeks with it I am even happier I bought it, which makes giving it away bittersweet. It might end up in your garage, or under your Christmas tree. If so, measure the living room door first.
Gear in This Video
What I wore riding the V85 TT. These are RevZilla affiliate links.
