Moto Guzzis Celebrated At London Design Festival 2019

The recent London Design Festival 2019 ran from September 14th-22nd, celebrating the UK capital as a creative place to be. One of the many events held as part of it was by Tom Dixon OBE, which saw Moto Guzzis celebrated at London Design Festival 2019.

The bikes were part of ‘a multi-sensory lab with interactive installations, workshops and talks inspired by the six senses’. Which meant a Motor Guzzi V9 Bobber, a V85TT and a V7 customised by Dixon were on display.

The Moto Guzzi V7 Tomoto was a unique creation built in 2017 as a one-off prototype. Dixon collaborated with Moto Guzzi builder Stefano Venier of Venier Motorcycles to make his design come to life.

That included the aluminium tank and side panels, which are all hand-made. And the lightweight wheel covers are an original geometric pattern which is a sugnature of the designer. The headlight is also a modified creation from one of Dixon’s ‘Fin’ pendant lights.

Along with the handwritten pink marker signed Guzzi and Tomoto legends on the tank, you might spot the exhausts and tyres are a little different. Pirelli created the distinctive leaf tread pattern for the bike, and the headers are actually high-temperature flexible tubing, finished with simple exhausts.

The Tom Dixon Moto Guzzi V7 Tomoto was kept company throughout the exhibition by the standard V85TT classic enduro, and the V9 Bobber.

Art and custom bikes are always subjective, but there are definitely parts of the Tomoto which look great. Especially the headlight and exhaust headers – with the fun of routing pipework, the idea of using flexible tubing is something that could definitely become more popular in the future.

And anything which puts motorcycling in front of a new audience, like the Moto Guzzis celebrated at London Design Festival 2019, is always a good thing.

Fancy picking yourself up a Moto Guzzi? Secondhand examples can be found for under £1000 on sites like eBay, for a particularly Italian flavour of motorcycling. And if you’re a Guzzi fan, check out the popular 2019 Moto Guzzi Open House in Italy, and start making plans for next year!