Moto Guzzi seems to have stepped up its game to produce a Best-in-Class ADV bike.

Born in 1921, Moto Guzzi is Italy’s oldest bike manufacturer in continuous production. Covid forced the postponement — by a year — of its 100th birthday celebrations, which were held at the manufacturer’s Mandello del Lario factory on the shores of Lake Como. But Guzzi’s now making up for lost time, and after the launch last year of the first bike based on its all-new next-gen model platform — the multi-faceted V100 Mandello, which aspires to be both an urban Roadster and a mile-eating Sports Tourer — comes a second new model, the Stelvio Adventure tourer.

Given the current significance of the ADV segment in global market terms, it’s rather surprising that Guzzi’s owner Piaggio didn’t prioritize the Stelvio over the Mandello; better late than never. I soon understood on an exclusive ride aboard this new model along the fabulously scenic, super grippy and ultra-demanding mountain roads of the Ligurian Alps north of Genoa, Italy, on a sunny winter’s day, this is a very significant new model that moves Moto Guzzi to the forefront of all-round everyday motorcycling.

Priced at $18,990, this new Moto Guzzi is a valid option to mid-sized twin-cylinder ADV contenders like Ducati’s $21,695 Multistrada V2 S, Suzuki’s $17,999 V-Strom 1050 and Honda’s $17,266 Africa Twin.

A New Generation of Stelvio

Named after the legendary Dolomites pass in northern Italy which connects two valleys via 48 hairpin bends, the 2024 Moto Guzzi Stelvio is, nominally speaking, a reincarnation of the previous model bearing that name, which debuted in 2007 but was shelved in 2016 as it was unable to meet Euro 4 compliance.

The new Stelvio is a very different package which, like the V100 Mandello, ticks an array of new boxes for the historic Italian brand. It’s Moto Guzzi’s first-ever liquid-cooled ADV road bike, its first with DOHC valve gear, its first to be fitted with a gear-driven counterbalancer, and it’s the first to embrace advanced electronics including a six-axis Continental IMU to provide data for the RBW throttle, Cornering ABS and other digital amenities.

The result is a completely modern yet totally individual motorcycle, which could not have come from any other manufacturer. Designer Giulio Rossi Paccani’s instructions were to ensure that his creation was best-in-class, and wouldn’t need the famous Eagle badge on it or the trademark V-twin engine to be identified as a Guzzi — and he’s certainly delivered on that. The new Stelvio has…