The model had been officially announced in the pre-Christmas 1920 issue of Motocicismo magazine and had attracted considerable interest. Moto Guzzi officially kicked off on 15th March, 1921. From the outset, the company’s product was designed to be robust, reliable, technically advanced, and safe. Straightforward the design may have been, but every facet was thoroughly thought out, every feature there for a purpose. And although the Normale owed much of its thinking to the prototype G.P. (Guzzi-Parodi) designed by Carlo Guzzi and Giorgio Parodi in 1919, the customer version was, in reality, a completely different product. Thus began a reputation for innovation and design flair that thereafter characterised the products of the company on the shores of Lake Como.
Economic necessity dictated that the production Normale would differ in many ways from the G.P. racer, most notably in dropping the four valve, bevel-driven overhead camshaft cylinder head. One immediately obvious departure from the G.P. was the motif on the fuel tank; not G.P. but Moto Guzzi, with the emblem of a golden eagle. Carlo Guzzi, Giorgio Parodi and the third original partner, Jean Ravelli,
