In the late sixties and early seventies, European motorcycle manufacturers were producing bikes with the emphasis on the combination of power and handling, as opposed to the Japanese obsession of delivering bikes with more and more power.
This was evident with the forerunner of the Le Mans, the Moto Guzzi S3. A new linked braking system, race derived frame and 750 V-twin engine meant that the S3 could outperform something like Kawasaki's flagship 900cc Z1 in real world conditions, where bends and corners are involved, rather than a straight line blast.
The problem with the S3 had been that its relative lack of outright power meant that it was not as quick as its competition from a standing start.
The Le Mans changed all this.
Laverda, Ducati and Moto Guzzi all outperformed their Japanese competition in the mid 70s, with the Moto Guzzi, in many people's minds, the best of the bunch.
The same transverse V-twin of the S3 had been bored out to 844cc, bigger 36mm Dell'Orto carburettors and redesigned exhaust pipes gave this machine a claimed peak power output of 80bhp, just 2bhp short of the Z1s claimed output of 82bhp.
The Le Mans retained the S3s frame and linked brake system, this time with 300mm discs.
It was also long, low and again had shaft drive, but rather than make the bike difficult to handle as one might expect, the Le Mans was the complete package, but at the same time a little "quirky".
The burbling big V-twin, a slow gear change and a rather outdated twin plate clutch gave the bike a slightly agricultural feel at slow speed, in common with a lot of twin machines of the day, but a top speed of 132mph and a 13.09 standing quarter made it one of the fastest and best handling machines of its day.
On top of that, it just looked fantastic! It is now a rare and much sought after classic.
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