Two new Falcones in the States

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Jeff Buick

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Nov 9, 2022, 9:26:14 AM11/9/22
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Hey group,
I drove out to New Jersey last week and hauled 2 Falcones back to Detroit with me!  My friend and I purchased the bikes in Italy from Garlatti Motors, inspected them during the 100th celebration in September, and had them crated up and shipped over.  It was a bit of a tedious process but we are very happy with the bikes.  Mine is an original blue paint 1967 Ex-Polizia Falcone NT that served in Rome's Ministry of Interior.  My friend purchased a 1952(?) Falcone Sport that is very similar to one that his dad owned in Rome back in the 70's/80's.  Garlatti is a very nice guy and represented both bikes honestly on his website and in emails.  He also referred us to a shipper that he works with that did a great job crating the bikes and safely shipping them to the States.  The dollar is very strong against the Euro right now so that helped to keep expenses down a bit, as did shipping two bikes as the same time, but total costs for crating, shipping, and port/customs fees still added up to about $2600/bike.  Anyway, I am very excited to have the Polizia bike in my garage and was lucky enough to also find an original 6 volt Marelli siren to mount on it (Thanks Marco!).  Here are a few pics.
Happy motoring,
Jeff Buick
Detroit, Michigan  
IMG_0886.jpgIMG_0894.jpgIMG_0902.jpg

Rick Yamane

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Nov 9, 2022, 9:48:02 AM11/9/22
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Congrats! Very nice!

From: guzzi-...@googlegroups.com <guzzi-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jeff Buick <jeff...@comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2022 6:26:13 AM
To: Guzzi Singles <guzzi-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [guzzi-singles] Two new Falcones in the States
 
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Dave Knaack

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Nov 9, 2022, 10:43:55 AM11/9/22
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Nice story with a happy ending.   Once you get over the apprehension of importing a bike it’s not a huge deal   Just lots of t’s to cross an i’s to dot !

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On Nov 9, 2022, at 6:48 AM, 'Rick Yamane' via Guzzi Singles <guzzi-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



guzz...@aol.com

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Nov 9, 2022, 10:44:39 AM11/9/22
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Nice Job there Jeffery ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, have fun and enjoy the ride !

Tim


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Buick <jeff...@comcast.net>
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Sent: Wed, Nov 9, 2022 8:26 am
Subject: [guzzi-singles] Two new Falcones in the States

guzz...@aol.com

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Nov 9, 2022, 10:46:49 AM11/9/22
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One question ,,,,,,,,,, did they fly here or come over on a boat ?

Tim


Alan Comfort

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Nov 9, 2022, 12:22:08 PM11/9/22
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Well done! You are going to love the NT. I had one in the shop a couple of years ago for tires, brakes and a light recommission after it had been sitting for many years. It was a pleasure to ride. The only issue was the carburetor float which succumbed to ethanol laced fuel after a week of riding: an easy fix once the problem was identified.
Alan in Roberts Creek

Jeff Buick

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Nov 9, 2022, 3:21:43 PM11/9/22
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Thanks Alan.  I plan to pull the carb this weekend to go through it so I will pay attention to the float.

Tim,
The bikes came over by boat.  I didn’t look into the air freight but I’m sure it would be significantly more expensive.  I initially contacted a worldwide shipper that popped up on Google and they quoted me a price of $15,000 to crate and ship the bikes by boat!   Crazy!


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Paul Marx

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Nov 9, 2022, 4:53:50 PM11/9/22
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I have several bikes equipped Dell'Orto carbs with plastic floats and have no ethanol related problems. Since 10% ethanol fuel was recently introduced in France, I filled a jam jar with the stuff, put in a float bowl rubber gasket, a pair of floats, a float valve, some petrol pipe, and I waited two months. The parts were unaltered compared to when I put them in.

The only thing that is affected is new fibreglass as in fuel tanks. The old ones don't react, maybe because they're impregnated with old fuel. But that started happening with lead free, before any ethanol was added.

Paul

Mac Dennis

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Nov 10, 2022, 11:50:31 AM11/10/22
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I think what you have is last year of the Falcone, 1967! Very cool!
First Nuovo Falcone made for Army and the Police was ‘69 and the
civilian model in ‘71. This according to Mario Colombo’s book on Moto Guzzi.

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Nov 10, 2022, 7:50:03 PM11/10/22
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the headlight ears or brackets are pointing upward on the blue bike ....... I was told once that they are like that because the police had a siren or horn mounted on the fender under the headlight and needed clearance

Tim


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Jeff Buick

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Nov 11, 2022, 12:36:28 AM11/11/22
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Correct. Although some of the Turismo and even Sport models had fork ears that also pointed up, the police bikes had the ears moved up further to make room for the siren.  I just mounted my siren today that I rebuilt with sealed ball bearings because the original brass bushings had seized on the shaft.  My dog didn’t appreciate the noise!
Video.mov
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IMG_0902.jpg
IMG_0886.jpg
image.jpeg
IMG_0902.jpg
IMG_0894.jpg
image.jpeg
IMG_0886.jpg
IMG_0894.jpg
IMG_0902.jpg

Wicker Francis

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Nov 11, 2022, 7:54:28 AM11/11/22
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Jeff

Why does it strike me that you bought the Falcone so you could mount your siren ? ;)

Love the photos of the two bikes having arrived in good shape.  Congrats.

Wicker Francis 

On Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 12:36 AM Jeff Buick <jeff...@comcast.net> wrote:
Correct. Although some of the Turismo and even Sport models had fork ears that also pointed up, the police bikes had the ears moved up further to make room for the siren.  I just mounted my siren today that I rebuilt with sealed ball bearings because the original brass bushings had seized on the shaft.  My dog didn’t appreciate the noise!

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-Jeff Buick
Detroit, Michigan

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On Nov 10, 2022, at 7:50 PM, guzzigal via Guzzi Singles <guzzi-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:


the headlight ears or brackets are pointing upward on the blue bike ....... I was told once that they are like that because the police had a siren or horn mounted on the fender under the headlight and needed clearance

Tim


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From: Mac Dennis <capr...@fastmail.fm>
To: Guzzi Singles <guzzi-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Nov 10, 2022 10:49 am
Subject: Re: [guzzi-singles] Two new Falcones in the States

I think what you have is last year of the Falcone, 1967! Very cool!
First Nuovo Falcone made for Army and the Police was ‘69 and the
civilian model in ‘71. This according to Mario Colombo’s book on Moto Guzzi.

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On Wed, Nov 9, 2022, at 9:26 AM, Jeff Buick wrote:
Hey group,
I drove out to New Jersey last week and hauled 2 Falcones back to Detroit with me!  My friend and I purchased the bikes in Italy from Garlatti Motors, inspected them during the 100th celebration in September, and had them crated up and shipped over.  It was a bit of a tedious process but we are very happy with the bikes.  Mine is an original blue paint 1967 Ex-Polizia Falcone NT that served in Rome's Ministry of Interior.  My friend purchased a 1952(?) Falcone Sport that is very similar to one that his dad owned in Rome back in the 70's/80's.  Garlatti is a very nice guy and represented both bikes honestly on his website and in emails.  He also referred us to a shipper that he works with that did a great job crating the bikes and safely shipping them to the States.  The dollar is very strong against the Euro right now so that helped to keep expenses down a bit, as did shipping two bikes as the same time, but total costs for crating, shipping, and port/customs fees still added up to about $2600/bike.  Anyway, I am very excited to have the Polizia bike in my garage and was lucky enough to also find an original 6 volt Marelli siren to mount on it (Thanks Marco!).  Here are a few pics.
Happy motoring,
Jeff Buick
Detroit, Michigan  

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Richard Wood

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Nov 11, 2022, 9:19:34 AM11/11/22
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The upward pointing headlamp brackets and siren are shown here on a late model Falcone Sport destined for the Polizia Stradale.

IMG_20221111_140923~3.jpg

Richard

Jeff Buick

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Nov 11, 2022, 10:19:02 AM11/11/22
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Haha!  There definitely is some truth to that, Wicker!  I am a sucker for police bikes as evident by my ‘74 LAPD Eldo that you can see at the end of the video that also has a siren on it.  In Detroit there is a big event in August called the Woodward dream cruise.  It is the worlds largest car event and attracts 1.5 million people each year.  As part of the event there is a “lights and sirens” show celebrating vintage police and emergency vehicles.  They shut down a couple miles of Woodward and let all of the emergency vehicles go out at once with lights and sirens blaring. Lots of fun!  I normally ride my LAPD Eldo but next year there will be a new (and blue) sheriff in town!
I’m at the 4:00 min and 8:30 min times in this video of the event:

Jeff Buick
Detroit, Michigan 


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Wicker Francis

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Nov 11, 2022, 2:24:16 PM11/11/22
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Jeff

Isn't that just another Saturday night in Detroit ?!  :)  Whose the guy with the riot truck?    
Great to see the LAPD bike and thanks for video. 


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