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An
interview with
Jens, guzzitech.dk
by
Luca Formenti
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Jens
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Luca
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Hello everyone!
Where would you find the little mermaid, a Queen, more pigs than people
and lots of mills?
In Denmark of course!
During my travelling around Europe, I’ll have the chance to
spend some time in this country and I interviewed the webmaster of the
well-known website www.guzzitech.dk
This website is astonishing: it stores a huge amount of detailed
information about each model of Guzzi produced from the late sixties to
late nineties. Besides, there a several technical articles that are
most useful for today’s models as well.
Even though Danish is the original language of the website, Jens has
dedicated lot of time for the translation of most of it into English.
Everyone can enjoy the information gathered in it even if he has a
small knowledge of English. Let’s start straightforward with
the interview.
Luca: First of all, about the presence of Moto
Guzzi in Denmark.
Jens: We have a very strong Guzzi society in Denmark. It
is a small society because I think there are about 1500 Guzzi in
Denmark and everybody knows each other, so it is a small society, and
Moto Guzzi klub (www.motoguzzi.dk) has a very active website compared
to other brands.
L: So, Moto Guzzi’s presence in
Denmark is far from being asleep!
Here
some photo of the meeting I participated, where I met Jens
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Some Moto Guzzi in a real Danish landscape
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A real Danish landscape, mills-furnished!
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Also other motorbike brands are present
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L: And how about the website? How long did it take to build it and how much active is at moment?
J: ...one day I saw a Le Mans that was
heavily modified (...) I just bought it. That was my 19th or 20th bike,
I had a lot of bikes before. I drove this Le Mans for 6 years and it
was like a rolling laboratory because I was changing everything all the
time: “oh I can have another camshaft”, “I can have
bigger cylinders”, “A bigger carburettor”. That was
making the foundations of my knowledge for making the guzzitech
site...
When I started the website I didn’t
have this address, I had another one from another server, but I had
only 5 megabytes of space. And when it grew and I saw the interest was
great I thought “How should I call the website, what should be
the name of it?” I knew the guzzitech.com and I wrote to them and
I asked if I could call it guzzitech.dk.
They wrote me back and they told me <<No problem, please go ahead>>
I had a lot of feedback from people, a lot of people sending stuff to
me, but there is not a newsletter or forum because there a so
many international forums, you don’t need another one. So if
people go to the forums and they find interesting stuff for the
website, they just send them to me, which is nice because I can’t
find everything by myself. People send me scanned papers to put on the
website, some people scan them by themselves and send me a disc if it
is big; because everybody see that it is useful that all this technical
information is stored somewhere. When you need something you can just
go there and find it. This is a general idea that people have seen.
“I got this information, this can be useful for someone else, how
can I help? OK, I’ll send it to guzzitech and Jens will put it on
the website and everybody is happy”. So that’s the way it
works.
L: And it seems it is growing and
working very well! How about the Moto Guzzi: what is special about them
and why buy one in Denmark?
J: Here if you want to get to the shop
you have to ride between 200 and a 1000 km, but I think that what keeps
Moto Guzzi alive in Denmark is the community that everybody is knowing
each other, everybody knows who to ask if you have a specific problem,
and I get mails everyday from people from Denmark and from all over the
world, I had a guy from Egypt asking a question, a guy from South
Africa, a lot of Australians, a lot of Americans actually, a lot of
English people. Because everybody is helping each other and that is a
very strong side of Moto Guzzi, that people are willing to help each
other everywhere.
L: I have already heard this thing, mmmhhhhh...
J: ....in Denmark you see a big
difference between the Ducati people and the Moto Guzzi people: because
the Ducati people they want carbon fibre and it has be expensive and
they go to the shop to have the oil changed but the Moto Guzzi people
are partying, (....), they are more relaxed.
L: Ok, lets find out the last thing,
the one that drives crazy most of us, the one that brings us closer to
the psychiatric clinic.
J: (talking about the 1100sport) it is
heavy, it is a old fashion it is simple, it is a tractor engine, but
you can still drive it fast if you know how to do it. That’s nice
and that makes it a very satisfying bike because it has a soul, it is
not like a computer or ...
L: Ok guys, let’s do it,
let’s declare ourselves mentally ill! Guzzite is the sickness,
and Moto Guzzi is the medicine!!Let’s hear more about this weird, sick people.
J: you can compare them (Moto Guzzi) to
human beings, (....) the human being of a Japanese motorcycle is always
correctly dressed, no dirty nails, no tattoos, he is fine, because you
don’t have any fault (the Japanese motorbike), you don’t
have any character, it’s boring boring boring.
The Moto Guzzi? No no no, he has dirty nails, tattoos, he drinks too
much, but he is fun, it is fun to be with, because something
interesting is always happening when you are in this company, that is
nice to do.
Now think about your own country: are the Moto Guzzi people like this?
Of course they are!
Do you know why?
Because they don’t chose the motorbike: is Moto Guzzi that chose them!
Luca Formenti
P.S. Jens has a lot of space on his
website, and he would be happy to host his pages translated in Italian,
so please contact him if you think you are willing to do it!
© Anima
Guzzista
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