big J Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 I've just read Gregs excellent book "Moto Guzzi big twins" which I thoroughly enjoyed. The chapters which got my attention were the ones with anecdotes from Dr John about the racing and development,but I'd love to know a bit more. Has there been a book written about Dr John?(no,not Mac Rebennac ) I've got the Guzzi racers book by Mick Walker but was pretty disappointed,it seemed to be little more than a vague overview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtucker Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 Funny story - A year or 2 ago, a friend of mine was out riding his Ducati in the countryside outside Philly and somehow managed to run out of gas. A guy came along in a pickup truck and gave him a lift to the nearest gas station. Along the way they got to talking about bikes, and the stranger had alot to talk about... it was Dr. John himself. I've never met him, but I know a fair number of folks who have. Sounds like a great guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Field Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Yes, a great guy. Guzzi could use him again. He could be the face of the company. Pity that the company never really used his talents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docc Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Greg Fields' book is the definitive work. It's as if Walker is so busy cranking out books on everything that the details are mighty unimportant. And, after all, it's the details we get these books for. Another good resource is The Moto Guzzi Story by Ian Falloon. Greg's book is a gem and especially for the interviews with Witner and also Umberto Todero who is now gone from us. Even with the dubious origins of the spine frame and the eary work of Tony Foale, we would not have 10 years of production spine frame variants without the work of Dr. John. It is somehow fittingly Italian for DeTomaso to use money from Maserati to fund an American to smuggle off and develop an idea we've all come to enjoy ( and pay for). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeeve Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Greg Fields' book is the definitive work. It's as if Walker is so busy cranking out books on everything that the details are mighty unimportant. And, after all, it's the details we get these books for. Another good resource is The Moto Guzzi Story by Ian Falloon. 2nd'ed on how sucky anything by Mick Walker is [altho', I admit he's got some great photo archives so one or two of the pics in his books are worth more than all the text put together...], as well as a 2nd on Ian Falloon's excellent output. Greg's book is a gem and especially for the interviews with Witner and also Umberto Todero who is now gone from us. Again, strongly 2nd'ed. To make my case further: I got my library to interlibrary loan me everything I could find on Guzzi, so I had a chance to read these books for little more than being patient. I now own Greg's book, as it's well worth the price! Even with the dubious origins of the spine frame and the eary work of Tony Foale, we would not have 10 years of production spine frame variants without the work of Dr. John. It is somehow fittingly Italian for DeTomaso to use money from Maserati to fund an American to smuggle off and develop an idea we've all come to enjoy ( and pay for). I can't comment on any Tony Foale/Dr. John provenance issues wrt inventing the spine frame, altho' I'm curious as to why they never took the spine frame to it's obvious conclusion, which on a Guzzi would be a sheetmetal box of triangular cross-section, to make most effective use of the space between cylinders while providing greater rigidity & lighter weight? Yes, it would be more ex$pen$ive to set up initial production, since it would require extra fabrication vs. just buying rectangular steel tube in 3m lengths, but I would think they would have at least experimented with it, if only because of Dr. John's ties to endurance racing... One of life's little unsolved mysteries... Ride on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docc Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 Skeeve said: I can't comment on any Tony Foale/Dr. John provenance issues wrt inventing the spine frame . . . One of life's little unsolved mysteries... Ride on! There was an old thread in 24/7 : "Who designed the Spine Frame?" I can't get the search engine to bring it up. It must have fallen prey to The Pruning. The story goes Tony Foale had designed a spine frame for the Guzzi which predated the Wittner effort. Wittner showed a good bit of interest in the design and apparently took lots of photos, asked lots of questions. Within a year or so the Wittner spine frame appeared with the help of Detomaso and funding from Maserati of North America. This is only a vague synopsis and I apologize for any inaccuracy. Although here is a photo of the Foale bike: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docc Posted July 27, 2006 Share Posted July 27, 2006 And another: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeeve Posted July 28, 2006 Share Posted July 28, 2006 (Skeeve @ Jul 26 2006, 11:51 AM) I'm curious as to why they never took the spine frame to it's obvious conclusion, which on a Guzzi would be a sheetmetal box of triangular cross-section, to make most effective use of the space between cylinders while providing greater rigidity & lighter weight? Ghezzi Brian completed a full development of the idea some 20 or so years later: Well, rather not, since in this case the sheetmetal box is just that, a sheetmetal airbox? (maybe gas tank?), as opposed to the structural unit I was alluding to in my post. But thanks for the great pix of the stripped down MGS-01! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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