Moto Guzzi V85 TT First Ride Review

Hello everyone, my name is Rob. I normally make videos for my own channel Motobob, but recently I was lucky enough to go out on the launch of the new Moto Guzzi V85 TT on behalf of Bike World and I'm here today at LV Custom in South London to tell you all about it. So when you hear about a new Moto Guzzi you might imagine something that's a little bit old school or unrefined and something that's firmly planted in the retro end of the market, but the new V85 TT mid-capacity adventure bike might surprise you. So of course being a Moto Guzzi it's still a transverse mounted 90 degree V-twin and shaft drive and it's definitely a retro looking bike especially the model in the white, yellow, red and black which is based on the V65 from 1985, the Dakar Rally bike. As soon as you jump on the bike though you'll notice that there's a good array of equipment there that puts it on a par with most modern adventure bikes. First thing you'll notice is the TFT display and that's really comprehensive and it adapts to different lighting conditions so there's good visibility wherever you're riding, but you've also got things like a USB charging socket, cruise control and a ride-by-wire throttle. That ride-by-wire throttle is going to give you riding modes so three riding modes there's rain, road and off-road and they're going to vary the ABS, traction control, throttle response and those kinds of things based on the conditions and you've also got the option to fully disable traction control and ABS. The technology continues with things like the Bluetooth connectivity so you can hook up your phone and do things like turn-by-turn navigation, control your music, take calls through the switch gear and then you've got LED lighting all around and I really like that Maranello Eagle daytime running light and in the tech presentation they also said that the rear taillights are based on the thrusters of a fighter jet which I can kind of see and I think they look pretty good. So overall it's a pretty up-to-date technological package but that kind of refinement continues on the road as well. The motor's based on the V9 which you'll find in the Boba and the Roma but there's been some changes to the internals so things like titanium intake valves, aluminium push rods and a redesigned crankshaft to name but a few and all those things mean that the power has been lifted from that original V9. This new motor is 80 horsepower and 80 newton meters and I think realistically 80 horsepower is probably the bare minimum for a touring adventure bike like this especially if you're two up with luggage and doing some decent miles that's going to be as I say the minimum that you're going to need but it's actually a really nice motor I really kind of got to like it as the day went on you can see from things like the dyno chart that the torque and power delivery is very predictable and linear but if you keep the revs up there's enough there to have a really good time and we were riding on some of those coastal roads in Sardinia that kind of switched back and forth really twisty and then up into the mountains and dropped down on some mountain roads and I think with that kind of power on this size of bike you're never feeling like you're just riding at 50% you could you feel like you're giving it a good flogging. The other equipment on the bike as well is really well set up for handling on those twisties so we've got KYB suspension it's 41mm upside down forks and then a monoshock off to one side of the rear which I think looks really good and those are both preload and rebound adjustable but it was well set up from the off I think my only qualm perhaps was that it dives a little bit under braking but I do understand that there's got to be a balance between comfort and handling and maybe you could dial it in with a little bit of twiddling with those adjustments but overall I felt like it was a really nice handling bike. Braking is great as well it's got twin Brembos radially mounted calipers up front they're four pot and there's 320mm discs so plenty of stopping power there nice bike nice and predictable so for riding the twisties and that kind of more spirited riding I think it's a good bike but of course if it's going to be a genuine adventure bike you need to be able to do a little bit of off-roading and also plenty of touring miles so let's start with off-roading not my forte I'm not a particularly good or experienced off-road rider but the equipment's there so on the rally themed colour of bike which is a few hundred quid more expensive you get Michelin Anarchy Adventure tyres whereas the solid colour bike you get Metzeler Tourance and those Metzlers are from my experience anyway of that day riding both bikes much better on the road much more feel but if you are planning to go off-roading that might be a better option with the Michelins because they're going to give you a little bit more grip so you get things like handguards as well and a skid plate and those are included on the standard bike so you're not paying for those as options it's got a nice standing position you've got the off-road mode that I've already mentioned and things like the removable rubbers in the footpeg so there's plenty of off-road equipment on the bike and like I say I'm not the most experienced but if you're like me where you're going to use the bike for commuting and road riding and a bit of touring but you might see a gravel road and think I fancy a go I felt totally confident on the short stretch of gravel and stuff that we did and I think you know that's the most I can recommend it so as well as the off-roading we've got touring and we spent eight hours on the bike pretty much that day and I found it really comfortable one thing that makes it quite accessible I think is the seat height so it's 830 mils which is not particularly tall for an adventure bike and for me having quite short legs that's quite a good thing and I think if you've got the bike loaded up with luggage you're two up it might be a nice thing to be able to get your feet down easily in town and get the bike nice and steady once you roll in there I found the the bars are nice and wide and high the leg angle was very comfortable and the seat's great you know it's flat across and you've got a bit of room to slide back and forth but it's got a nice bucket shape at the back so if you are going a bit quicker it feels quite secure you're not slipping too far back pillion seat was good and there's good grab rails and the pegs are in a nice spot so that's great if you're riding two up but also it's got a 23 litre tank so that's going to give you about 400 kilometres or 250 miles capacity so that's legitimate touring capabilities there the screen that comes as standard is about a half screen and I ride mainly on this bike with no fairings so that felt fine to me but I think really if you're doing decent miles over the course of a day you might go for the slightly taller screen option so there's plenty that I liked about this bike it was fun to ride I think it's a decent off-roader and it's a good touring bike was there anything I didn't like well I did find the switchgear a little bit fiddly from the off things like you change the riding mode by double tapping the starter button which I found a little bit unusual there's also a mode button but that's not for the riding modes that for the mode of the menu now I don't know if that's a legitimate concern because as soon as you've owned a bike for like a week or two it becomes second nature you don't even need to look where the switchgear are I think the only other negative perhaps is when you're looking at this price range of 10 and a half to 11 grand you've got loads of bikes like the Multistrada 950 the Tiger 800 the F850GS all of those bikes I think give you a little bit more power for your money there's always going to be something out there that goes a little bit quicker for that kind of cash but do I really think that this bike is going to be sold on total utilitarian mindset where you're trying to get the most horsepower for your money probably not I think it's just going to be the looks of it the brand the fact that it's still produced in Italy the character and probably the motor so even if you're slightly considering this bike I'd fully recommend taking it for a spin and I'm sure you'll enjoy it I feel like I would probably need a few more miles on the bike to figure out if that vibey v-twin is going to be really comfortable over the long run when you start it up you do get that side to side wobble it does feel a little bit tractor-y and so obviously doing a lot of miles that that kind of vibration might be a little bit fatiguing but I'm sure for some people as well that's going to be a selling point that is the character of a moto guzzi that's what they want out of it and if you do want something a bit different to your average adventure bike something that stands out both visually but also the character of the motor then perhaps this is the bike for you so quick thanks to LV custom for letting us shoot here today you can find them on Instagram I'd really recommend checking out all their great custom bikes you can also see some moto vlog footage of the v85 launch on my own channel motobob so search for that on youtube to find that and if you want to see more videos like this launches reviews on bike world then hit subscribe