Felice

Before the girls had arrived we had left the bikes with Felice, the Moto Guzzi Club del Roma recommended mechanic. Og's was running like a dog and drinking fuel, mine was ok but had popped a fork seal, both were long overdue oil changes and regular service.

Felice spoke no English, less than my Italian, but we are both fluent in Guzzi, so we left the bikes for two weeks for general service and sundry repairs. There was an element of faith in this; Felice's workshop was full of Guzzis, and it was obvious that many of them had been there a long time.

This morning we collected the bikes. Felice had done a really good job; he'd done all the work we asked for, plus had gone through and tidied everything; replaced missing screws, replaced missing rubber caps and bungs, variously tweaked and adjusted anything and everything that looked to need it. And he'd cleaned both bikes; even took the dead bird out of Og's, where it had mummified itself between the left cylinder and fuel pump. Both bikes now look and run like not quite so old and neglected as they once looked.

The fuel injection problem that had plagued Og's bike was fixed by replacement of the entire injector/throttle body/TPS on the right side. Felice did give me a detailed explanation of the where and why of this, but in technical italian. I bracketed the assembly between thumb and forefinger and said to him "Nuovo?", to which he replied "Si" Anything more technical is lost completely, but the bike is fixed.

The additional cost of Og's injector bits equated with the additional labour for the fork seals on mine, nett result just a whisker under €400 each. We were both a bit shocked at this initially when the figure was relayed by phone to us. Given that I have never before paid anyone to service my bike I certainly had no idea of what to expect. However, on seeing the bikes and the detailed attention Felice had applied to them, we both felt that we had been very fortunate to find him, and that we have fair value.

And so the recommendation, for anyone needing Guzzi anything in Roma:

Felice Denci
Riparazioni Moto
Via Bolognetta, 79
Via Casalina km18.100 - Finocchio
00132 - Roma

Ph/fax 06 2076 2254
cell 347 445 3945
(but only for Italian speakers!)