Dedicated to the monomaniac fans of the Mandello del Lario brand, and devoted exclusively to Moto Guzzi bikes: “Bicilindrica – La Rivista dei Guzzisti” is a quarterly magazine published by FBA MOTOITALIANE (Florence), which specialises in publications on Italian motorbikes. The editor-in-chief Franco Bartoli presents the magazine to the readers of Wide.
“A magazine just for Guzzi bikers? Well, yes: for the last sixteen years, we have been publishing Bicilindrica, a magazine dedicated entirely to the Guzzi name and Guzzi people. But don’t look for it on the news-stands, like all special things it isn’t available on the mass market: you can only get it by taking out a subscription (on the website
www.motoitaliane.it/bicilindrica).
The magazine made its debut in 2001, the result of a clever marketing strategy, market analyses and careful budget planning and sales forecasts, with the help of financial consultants and only after an extensive and copiously funded marketing launch. Well, it didn’t really go like that: everyone who knew what was going on was convinced that the venture would come to an end after a few issues. The fact is that some things can’t be explained rationally, especially when you’re talking about Moto Guzzi. The world of the Mandello eagle is a very special world: leave aside the current situation, and the fact that Moto Guzzi is part of a large international industrial group like Piaggio, and think back to the previous more difficult years, when the brand managed to survive despite products that, let’s say, were a little dated, with a typical 1970s appeal, while other manufacturers were moving blithely along a road of continuous technological evolution, with increasingly powerful engines and state-of-the-art technical equipment. Yet Moto Guzzi has an intrinsic strength that makes it almost invulnerable to marketing and market logics, and ensures its success when rationally you would think it was going nowhere.
“In its own way, the Bicilindrica magazine has taken a similar path, offering readers a hard-copy product published quarterly and distributed only on a subscription basis. At a time when everything is social, on the net and (more or less) free, we too are certainly swimming against the tide: yet every three months without fail, Bicilindrica arrives in the homes of a large number of devoted fans of the Eagle, which we know has countless followers all over the world.
“And it does so with that passion, that sense of anachronistic superiority with regard to other brands typical of the Guzzi biker, who is likely to regard the new 160 hp model from Germany or Austria with ill-concealed indifference, secure in the knowledge that the two-wheeler he or she rides is not just a motorcycle, but the end result of a wonderful motorcycling story that has been rolling along imperturbably since 1921. The content of Bicilindrica is similar to that of other motorcycling magazines: test rides, technical features, history, specials and tradition, travel. Perhaps the difference is in the style of our reporting, which uses the language and enthusiasm typical of every owner of a twin-cylinder from Mandello. This is the story of a passion that continues despite everything; a story you certainly should read… if you have a twin-cylinder beating fast and strong in your heart (and preferably in your garage)!”.
INFO:
For new subscribers, a music CD with songs dedicated to Moto Guzzi, from around the world. A subscription to Bicilindrica costs 24 euro and lasts for 1 year (four issues). Taking out a subscription is easy: you can pay with your credit card on the secure Paypal circuit.
www.motoitaliane.it/bicilindrica