2025 Virginia Moto Guzzi Rally Report
6 views
Skip to first unread message
Michael S. Jones
Oct 5, 2025, 8:29:10 AMOct 5
to va-g...@googlegroups.com
Greetings, Moto Guzzi friends. The 2025 Virginia Moto Guzzi Campout (rally) was last weekend, and I thought you might like to hear how it went. In 2024 the forecast was for torrential rain, and although it didn’t rain long, it rained hard, and Willville Bike Camp lost power and had to close. The rally was cancelled. This year the forecast was for rain all day Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday. I was determined to attend the rally anyway, but would I be alone?
On Friday I worked until 3:00 and was pleasantly surprised to find it NOT raining when I got off. There were dark clouds everywhere – but no rain. I later learned that it had rained in Meadows of Dan, but I had a nice, very cloudy but dry ride to the campground. When I got there, some bikers who had made reservations had called and cancelled, but there were about a dozen riders there. I was not alone. :-)
The rain started a few minutes before 9pm and lasted much of the night, but Saturday morning dawned slightly less cloudy and without rain. I walked around and observed the following bikes in attendance: a v7-850 Special, a 1400 Audace (in red, white, and green), a v750 Ambassador, a Jackel with a Ural sidecar, a BMW K1200LT with some kind of fancy sidecar, a v7 Stornello (I always liked those), a v7iii Racer (chrome tank), and my Convert. There had been a silver Carb Sport the evening before, but he didn’t spend the night. That’s only nine bikes, but it represents nice variety.
A group ride to lunch was scheduled to leave at 10:50, and more bikes showed up for that. Several people were staying at cabins in the area and at least one person was at the Blue Ridge Motel. The bikes they were on included a v7iii Stone, a v85tt, a white California EV Vintage, a white California EV 80th Anniversary Edition, and a Honda Goldwing Tour. There was also a V100 Mandello S that I didn’t actually see but heard about. That’s a total of 13 Moto Guzzis and a few other brands. The Guzzis covered nearly every major Guzzi version of V-twin: there was one loopframe, several tontis, a few small blocks, one spine frame, one 1400, and a compact block. Only the CARCs were missing. There weren’t any old single-cylinder Guzzis, either, though that’s not unusual.
The ride to lunch went really well. The sky was partly cloudy but the roads were fairly dry and plenty curvy. We liked the restaurant (Hema’s Italian Restaurant in Rocky Mount, VA). One more Guzzi – a V7iii Anniversario – met us there.
The ride back to Willville was dry, though it did rain some during the afternoon and evening. It didn’t rain during the night, and the weather gradually cleared up on Sunday. It was a wet rally, and I’m sure that’s a major reason why attendance was way down from previous years. Nonetheless, it was fun. I look forward to next year’s rally – and hope we’ll have better weather!
Ride safe,
Mike
M. Jones, executive editor, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies (www.jsri.ro)
"The heart has its reasons which reason does not know." -Blaise Pascal
"With man, instinct and reason avoid each other with adversity, yet, by repudiating each other they lure each other to reach mutual correction." -Lucian Blaga
"Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer." -Immanuel Kant
On Friday I worked until 3:00 and was pleasantly surprised to find it NOT raining when I got off. There were dark clouds everywhere – but no rain. I later learned that it had rained in Meadows of Dan, but I had a nice, very cloudy but dry ride to the campground. When I got there, some bikers who had made reservations had called and cancelled, but there were about a dozen riders there. I was not alone. :-)
The rain started a few minutes before 9pm and lasted much of the night, but Saturday morning dawned slightly less cloudy and without rain. I walked around and observed the following bikes in attendance: a v7-850 Special, a 1400 Audace (in red, white, and green), a v750 Ambassador, a Jackel with a Ural sidecar, a BMW K1200LT with some kind of fancy sidecar, a v7 Stornello (I always liked those), a v7iii Racer (chrome tank), and my Convert. There had been a silver Carb Sport the evening before, but he didn’t spend the night. That’s only nine bikes, but it represents nice variety.
A group ride to lunch was scheduled to leave at 10:50, and more bikes showed up for that. Several people were staying at cabins in the area and at least one person was at the Blue Ridge Motel. The bikes they were on included a v7iii Stone, a v85tt, a white California EV Vintage, a white California EV 80th Anniversary Edition, and a Honda Goldwing Tour. There was also a V100 Mandello S that I didn’t actually see but heard about. That’s a total of 13 Moto Guzzis and a few other brands. The Guzzis covered nearly every major Guzzi version of V-twin: there was one loopframe, several tontis, a few small blocks, one spine frame, one 1400, and a compact block. Only the CARCs were missing. There weren’t any old single-cylinder Guzzis, either, though that’s not unusual.
The ride to lunch went really well. The sky was partly cloudy but the roads were fairly dry and plenty curvy. We liked the restaurant (Hema’s Italian Restaurant in Rocky Mount, VA). One more Guzzi – a V7iii Anniversario – met us there.
The ride back to Willville was dry, though it did rain some during the afternoon and evening. It didn’t rain during the night, and the weather gradually cleared up on Sunday. It was a wet rally, and I’m sure that’s a major reason why attendance was way down from previous years. Nonetheless, it was fun. I look forward to next year’s rally – and hope we’ll have better weather!
Ride safe,
Mike
M. Jones, executive editor, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies (www.jsri.ro)
"The heart has its reasons which reason does not know." -Blaise Pascal
"With man, instinct and reason avoid each other with adversity, yet, by repudiating each other they lure each other to reach mutual correction." -Lucian Blaga
"Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer." -Immanuel Kant
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages