Moto Guzzi 850 V7 Stone 75° Oro Olimpico 2023 — Specifications

Some motorcycles are not meant to be ridden. This one never appeared in any official catalogue, was never displayed in a dealership, and has had only a single owner in the entire world. The V7 Stone 75° Oro Olimpico is a one-off, born from a story that even the most devoted Guzzi enthusiasts are largely unaware of.

Mandello del Lario, on the shores of Lake Como, 1929. Carlo Guzzi, Giorgio Parodi and Giovanni Ravelli found a rowing club for their workers. Not a corporate communications gimmick ahead of its time, but a genuine sporting practice, encouraged and lived. The factory workers row, and they row well. So well that in 1948, at the London Olympic Games, a factory team claimed the gold medal in rowing. Giuseppe Moioli, Francesco Faggi, Elio Morille and Giovanni Invernizzi returned home as Olympic champions. The owner, in gratitude, gave each of them a 175cc motorcycle and eight days of paid leave. Seventy-five years later, Moto Guzzi commemorates this singular episode with this V7 dressed in blood red and gold.

The livery strikes before the engine even turns over. The cylinder heads of the 90° V-twin receive a gold finish that contrasts sharply with the Guzzi red of the tank. The wheels share the same treatment, pinstripes run along the flanks, and the seat gets matching stitching. The result is less ostentatious than one might fear: it is coherent, controlled, almost restrained in its excess. A gold medal sticker on the tank acknowledges the occasion without overdoing it. Beneath this ceremonial bodywork, the mechanics are those of the standard V7 Stone — 853cc, a steel double-cradle frame, a 40mm fork, and that shaft drive that has been a Guzzi signature for decades. The seat sits at 770mm, the wet weight reaches 218kg, the tank holds 21 litres. Nothing surprising for anyone familiar with the range.

The Oro Olimpico version does benefit from one additional treatment: a pair of Arrow silencers, accompanied by an updated engine map. The gains on paper remain modest — 1.5hp and 2Nm more — bringing the twin to 66.5hp at 6,800rpm and 75.5Nm at 5,000rpm. Top speed is capped at 170km/h. Two new pipes don't turn a Stone into a sportbike, but the sound changes, and so does the personality. Measured against a Triumph Bonneville T100 or a Royal Enfield Super Meteor, the Guzzi retains its technical edge with the shaft drive — that clean, maintenance-free transmission that inspires confidence over the long haul. It does cede ground, however, on raw engine feel; the transalpine twin pulls in a linear fashion, never stirring the emotions in the mid-range.

Sold at auction on the CharityStars platform, this one-of-a-kind V7 found a buyer at €16,200 — roughly twice the price of a catalogue V7 Stone. The entire sum went to the Canottieri Moto Guzzi rowing club, which has since broadened its mission beyond sport to support young people and individuals with disabilities. This is not, then, really a motorcycle one buys to ride; it is a collector's piece in service of a cause, carried by a story that few manufacturers would have the elegance to tell. For the collector who acquired it, the entry price is steep, but the symbolic value far exceeds the figure on the invoice.