That, however, is where the superlatives stop. Everything else was pretty average, except for the gearbox, which was dreadful, and the electrics, about which more later. Oh, and the speedometer; just don't mention the speedometer.

The gearbox was noisy, particularly in third and top, and it was almost impossible to make a clean change. Crunch, clonk, with a variable selection of neutrals. The overall gearing was about 10% too high, which meant using fourth as 'top' and fifth as an overdrive. With shaft drive, of course, you can't just change a sprocket. The engine had a very nasty vibration patch at around 4000 rpm, which equated to 60mph in top. This did not help matters. The engine speed clutch was very sensitive and I stalled the bike all the time. I never got used to it. And it wasn't me; it didn't happen on any other bike.

The electrics were OK until someone asked me about them. Waiting on a French quayside after a continental trip I got chatting to the owner of an elderly BMW boxer. He looked at my bike.

'Had any problems with the electrics?' he asked pleasantly.

'None at all', I replied, feeling a bit smug.

I knew immediately that I should have touched wood, crossed my fingers, or even said a prayer. As we rode off the ferry at midnight at Newhaven docks the Beemer rider came up behind me.

'You've got no rear light', he shouted.

This wasn't a problem as I was carrying a full set of spare bulbs as per EEC regulations. Only when I went to take the old one out the entire rear light unit fell to pieces in my hand, completely corroded away.

'Merde', I muttered, still thinking in French.

I wasn't going to wait for daylight so I rode the fifty miles home, reckoning that if I went fast enough nothing would come up behind me. Anyway, I had reflectors. I replaced the light unit with a cheap jobby from an auto jumble which looked fine, worked well and didn't corrode. Then the ignition switch packed up and, of course, I had to buy the whole steering lock as well.

The Moto Guzzi Nevada has been around for a very long time in 750 and 350 versions. The 350 is very rare and terminally gutless, and was phased out many years ago. The 750 replaced the 650 Florida, which was actually a very nice bike, in about 1990, and, apart from minor details and the introduction of fuel injection in 2005, has remained much the same. Basically it is a cruiser, a smaller version of the California. It has the power, size and weight of a 500, and it does look good. Being a 90 degree V-Twin it sounds a bit like a Ducati if you give it a good handful and use a bit of imagination.

I've said the performance was average, but, actually for a 48bhp shaftie it wasn't really that bad. Being light it would crack along and the handling was pretty good, too.

In fairness mine never let me down on the road. I used it for three long continental trips and it never misfired once. I also toured England in a day, covering 716 miles. After two years of ownership I got Tony at Cyclesprays to respray it from boring silver and white to exciting Italian racing red and black. The quality of Tony's work is superb and the bike thus gained a new lease of life. The little Guzzi was quite comfortable, and, as I mentioned before, easy to push around.

All the time I kept it I tried to kid myself it was fun to ride and even more fun having to fiddle with it. But it wasn't, really. Even so I wouldn't condemn it completely. I have it on good authority (Well, Mo at Corsa Italiano) that the newer models are much better. Moto Guzzis have their own particular charm, and an excellent owners' club. I wouldn't want to stop anybody from trying one.

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*Yes, we too can think of many bikes which would be lighter and quite possibly nicer than a Moto Guzzi Nevada. But this is Jim's tale so we let him tell it howevertheheck he likes.