Remembrances under a tarpaulin.

Since I had moved two blocks to the South in Amsterdam it didn't happen anymore that I passed the Moto Guzzi that I'd seen parked two blocks to the North when I walked downtown. I always wondered who'd be riding them legendary wheels, kinda guy like me when I rode my Guzzi? All these years the owner - could be a girl as well I realized - had clung to the legend while I had swapped marques several times, finally becoming a definitive Harley owner for life.
This Sunday I thought I saw the white Guzzi again, underneath a tarpaulin. Round thirty years had gone by after it must have been standing in the showroom, presumably on the Stadhouderskade, where I remember once being struck by a flaming red Moto Guzzi Falcone, with a very special type of scissor-like chromed rear suspension but that must even have been twenty years earlier, in the fifties. I recognized the wheels by the rim and the spokes, could be no other bike than the old Guzzi V7, same as my old police bike, on which I toured to the Palace on a Queen's Birthday once, looking like a motorcycle cop, wearing my orange open helmet and black leathers, discovering my authority and power passing the festive traffic jams sternly waving - in order to get on swiftly in safety - directional gestures to the people driving in cars in line to get a glimpse of the queen waving from the steps. Giving a salute was the peak of my orange helmet experience. From there I drove on to the village in Belgium where my family lived, glorious days I had on my Guzzi, remembrances came back, amongst others of a memorable ride with my second oldest daughter, and also the ride with the girlfriend who asked a lift to her mother who lived in the country.
I had been riding on the V7 for only a year or so, but seeing her under the tarpaulin in the quiet street in the still deserted part of the city, hearing the heavy v-twin, feeling the rock-steady rumble, feeling the vibes, brought back a virtual illustrated book of little and great adventures. I lifted a part of the cover hiding the motorcycle from sight, and it was true, same Guzzi V7.

Hans Arend de Wit

To the Phlog

Other features.