JOHN DAY — Peter Hayes swings a leg over the Savoy blue gas tank of his father’s 1968 Moto Guzzi Falcone NT, an Italian motorcycle originally built as a police bike, and settles into the saddle with a big grin on his face.

“It’s my first time riding it,” he says.

After some words of warning from his dad, Pat, about the brakes, Peter twists the throttle and takes the vintage bike for a spin around the Grant County Fairgrounds.

“He might as well get used to it,” Pat Hayes says. “He’s going to inherit it.”

The two men were among more than 300 aficionados who descended on John Day Thursday-Sunday, June 27-30, for the 50th annual national rally of the Moto Guzzi National Owners Club, or MGNOC for short. Participants came from all across the United States and several foreign countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England and Italy.

The national rally is held in a different location every year, but this was the third time the event has been held in John Day — first in 2010, and most recently in 2016.

Paul Nagy of Portland, a member of the club’s Oregon chapter, said hosting the national rally was a point of honor for the state.

“For us, this is like being Paris,” he said. “This is like winning the opportunity to host the Olympics.”

Gary Jenkins of Silverton, a member of the steering committee that put together this year’s rally, said the location has proven popular with club members for a number of reasons. 

He cited the facilities at the fairgrounds, including a grassy field for tent camping, an RV park, showers and a pavilion for communal meals and events.

It’s also a short walk from downtown John Day, which offers restaurants, taverns, a brewpub, pharmacy, grocery store and other amenities.

But above all, he said, Grant County offers wonderful riding for motorcyclists, with spectacular scenery and uncrowded roads perfect for what riders like to call “canyon carving.”

“That’s an expression for motorcyclists when they’re doing the windies and the twisties,” Jenkins explained.

Rally attendees got to experience some of that with a guided ride on Saturday morning, a 120-mile loop that took them from the fairgrounds northeast on Highway 26 to Austin Junction, then west along the Middle Fork John Day River to Long Creek, south on Highway 395 to Mt. Vernon and back on 26 to John Day.

Other highlights of the four-day rally included screenings of classic motorcycle movies, seminars by Moto Guzzi experts, nightly campfires at the fairgrounds, field games and a bike show.

An iconic machine

So what’s so special about Moto Guzzis? Different riders at this year’s national rally offered different answers to that question, but some common themes emerged.

“It’s the engine configuration,” Jenkins offered. 

“It’s an opposed twin — like a BMW, except the cylinders are at a slant instead of straight across.”

Others sang the praises of Moto Guzzi’s shaft drive technology, stable ride and iconic style.

Brent Carnes of Portland brought his 1,400cc Audaci to the rally. He used to ride Triumphs exclusively, but about six years ago he picked up the 2016 Moto Guzzi.

“It’s the best bike I’ve ever owned,” he said.

“It’s unique-looking,” he added. “You don’t see a lot of them. I have to laugh sometimes at how often I get asked, ‘What is that?’

“They have a lot of character. I guess that’s the best way to put it.”

Maury Mossman of Oakland, California, has been riding Moto Guzzis for close to 40 years now. His current bike is a “hand-made special” built around an 1,100cc Moto Guzzi engine. It’s set up for adventure riding, with heavy-duty tires and shocks, and on Saturday it had a fresh spatter of mud and cow manure from tooling around on some of Grant County’s gravel backroads.

For him, the appeal of Moto Guzzi is all about the engine.

“It feels different,” Mossman said. “It’s a V-twin. It’s low-rpm, high-torque, not super fast but quick off the line. And it sounds great.”

“I call it a sweet rumble,” said Jenkins, “unlike a Harley-Davidson, which is ‘potato potato potato potato.'”

A family tradition

Pat Hayes, the man with the 1968 Falcone, said he appreciates the Moto Guzzi’s simple design, which makes it easier to tinker with than a lot of other bikes.

“It takes a lot of work to maintain but no special tools,” he said. “They go a long time and a long way.”

Hayes, of Fremont, California, has been riding Moto Guzzis for nearly half a century now, and he’s passed along his passion for the Italian motorcycle brand to his son, Peter, who lives on Whidbey Island, Washington.

It was probably inevitable that he, too, would become a Moto Guzzi rider.

The elder Hayes attended his first national rally in 1981 — and he and his wife brought Peter, then just 10 months old, with them.

“The guy who runs the national owners club held him 43 years ago,” Pat said. “And now we’ve come full circle.”