Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

; MV250 -= ~ MV480 III t ,; -, 42 (Continued from page 7) with pipes for several RPM bands. Power is transmi tted by st rai gh t-cu t primary gears through a five spe ed transmission. Th e Villa motor has a definite point where it comes on th e pipe hard but the powerband is reasonably , if n ot excessively wide : about 5000 to 80 00 RPM. It flattens out notice ably to the seat of the pants above and bel ow that range . There is no nonsense ab o ut getting to the firs t tu rn . Th e MV will come out of the gate in first o r second gear an d faultless upshifting keeps the b ike accelerating into fifth gear on an uphi11 start. The in te rn al gearbox ratios seem correct for the full-on " wi ck it " st yle necessary to a racing 250. The shifting was quite good, almost unnoticed, except for the downshift from third to second. john D. mi!s~d it and_some adjustment was made in spring tension. The other tes ter kep t missing only th at downshift. The ex te rn al ap pearance of the MV engine is an ex cellent sales feature because, with its staggered fin radial head and a flat black 32mm Mikuni hooked up behind it, it looks like everybody 's concept of a works bike. Of course, works bikes generally look that way because that is what wo rks best. So it comes fulI circle t o making sense in function. The black side cases contain in addition to the items mentioned a massive nine-plate wet clutch with the lightest pulI and feel this side of Belgian waffles. In fact , th e 250 has the same clutch and gearbox designed for the 450 but they left out all sense of stiffness or effort in opera tion fo r either cylinder. Interesting . . . the gearbox case is finned for cooli ng the oil lik e the 24·hour race Du catis and the like. Th e MV 250 has a couple of nic e detail innovations. Beginning with th e obvious, there is an aluminum alloy truncated coffin tank in red and black that stays out of th e racer's way and flows p re-mix through those fine Italian petcocks with th e see -th ro ugh dirt tr aps. The white plastic fenders are purchased by MV from The Great Eu ropean Plastic Fender Factory : the same one whe re Hu sqvarna an d Penton/K'IM get th eirs. They are identical to those on a new Husky. Heavy six-gauge spokes at the rear poke out of a ridgeless Akront allo y rim that, in turn, is sh od with a 4. 50 Pire lli of gnewly gnarly design. A sim ilar arrangemen t of 3.00 X 21 dimens ions keeps th e front hub off the ground. You have to feel a little sorry for those poor folks in Europe that put these pl iable, mud-stompin g, grip-o-matic Pirellis on their motocross b ikes foolishly believin g that motocross is raced in the mud and rain , or on wet grass and loamy hill sides , because the tires do not lend themselves to negotiating Southern California concrete in a confident manner. If you have the good fortune to ride on a reasonable circuit that feature s the magic ingredient "tracti on ," the tires, suspension and motorcycle alI co op erate to a much h ighe r degree. However, the mud PirelIis and the extreme rear wheel travel provided by cantilever Marzocchis make the front end a little squirrelIy on hard, dry, cobby surfaces. The triple tree design features a very short linear distance from steering head to forks. This reduces the effective front wheel deflection from irregular objects on the track (one of Eric Cheney's design rul es, as it turns out) and tightens up the steering on a front end that otherwise could not feature particularly quick steering. A 3 I degree geometrical rake at the neck and 6.5 inches of rear wheel travel work against that. Another benefit attributed to the fork-steering head relationsh ip is reduced rider fatigue. The directional stability of the MV 250 is quite good through th e C&j -type frame and smooth, bump-eating Marzocch is. The 31 -degree head angle, which is at the high side o f the scale in cu rrent motocross ch assis des ign , helps out in th is case to keep the bike going wh er e it 's pointed. It re ally eats up whoopdie s and b raking bumps (Con tin ued from page 7) out of the cra te 24 hours before it was ri dden, it suffered from t ha t sa me problem . The effect was to ma ke it a st arte r and overrich in the mi d-ran ge. Th ro ttle resp onse was good but can ge t even better. The only mechanical problem encountered during th e b rief but h ard riding was a kicks tar ter assembly tha t wasn ' t up to t he job. It kept bending progressively d uri ng the day , p reven t ing a clean shot at getting the engi ne turning over. Unl ess it was already well-warmed, bum p-starting proved less effo r t by th e end of th e day. A new or re-design ed kic kstarter should be on fu tu re p roductio n b ikes as the wo rd has alrea dy gone bac k to the factory alo ng with so me bette r educa ted guesses as to proper je tting of th e Mikuni. Exec u tion and det ailing a re gen era lly q ui te good. Grips, thro t tle, and levers are from Magura. We think stOCK Magu ra grip s are thro wa way s no matter, wh at they come o n. Maybe yo u like t hem . Fo o tp egs are serrated, self-cleaning and grip when wet. White pl astic fenders, the same as those on Husqvarnas and Penton-KTMs, are deep, effi cient mud-deflectors that set off th e red an d wh it e angular alloy ta n k very app rop ria tely . Th e ca p on the gastan k has a pop-up button and leaks a little, just like 90% of the motocross bike tanks we can think of. (Really , try to think of one th at doesn 't. Montesa, maybe. ) The seat is excellent. It is big, deep, padded correctly, an d has good dimensions. It does make a tall bike even taller so t ha t you have to get y o ur leg parallel to th e ground swinging onto th e bike. Lik e most LTR bikes, whe n ridden hard t he MV doesn ' t feel tall . In fact , the gro und is always where you expect it to be in turns an d th e nat ural CG feels quite lo w. Th e sea t laps up , over the tank helping y o u to get up the re an d assist the MV 's already go od co rnering manners. Th e han dlebars ap pear to be di rect cop ies of CZ ba rs in shape and bend, wit hout the welded-o n lever asse mbles. They fit a lot of p eo ple very wel l. t he e x pa n s io n I r on i c all y, chamb er-sile nce r combination on the 480 is q uie ter th an the 250 and n o t all th at lo u d by cu rre n t stan dards of silence . For a 500 class m otocross bike to go well , it must be ab le to st op even better. It was n ot possible d uring our rid es to o verpower the MV 's b ra kes, whi ch res ide inside the black conica l magnesium hubs. We did n 't expect them to be as l(ood as t hey were. Both ' of them, cable-o pe rated, wo rked with ou t little noticeable fade an d - with differen ce between wet and dry conditi o ns. They are a little to war d the " on-off" side but tha t kin d o f usc proved co mp atib le wit h th e MV's power and co rnering characteristi cs. After quick. dirty exp osure to this exp losive It alian, you co me awa y with th e feeli ng that th e 480 is the Vill a that works best as a to ta l unit . Power, frame, suspens ion, rider integration with the machinery all seem so c ompa ti b le th at th ere is little room to recommend imp rovemen t, Tires an d jetting n eed to be altered fo r the condit ions where y ou race an d ride, a bee fier kickstarter th at's eas ier to use, and a final definition of th e co met, quiet silencer (several are being tested) are abo u t t he o nly things. th at ne ed attention . The things that count : p o wer an d handling, are th ere , fac to ry st andard. The Moto Vill a 480 has a go od reputation for reli ab ility so far. If it con ti nu es to wo rk as welI and as dependably in the hands of Am eri can racers, there are going to be so me surprises in the 500cc class. This is potent machinery. _ reluc ta nt Frame on both the 250 and 480 was developed from a Dallas Baker C 8< J design . It took to DeSoto nicely. Allen heads for positive .tightening. in corners. The stee ring is remi nisce n t of a Maico wi th the co mparable LTR suspension an d fork travel. Th at is, no t especially qu ic k. The brakes on th e MV are encased in magnesium, ap pa ren tly light hubs . In ac ti o n, they provide a strong on-o ff feel th at is not as seve re as a Yamaha b ut alm ost as p ositi ve a t t he stopping end of th e scale. We co uld n't feel any fade and DeSo to didn't m ention it as a probl em in slowing him d own fro m his quick co rner-t o-c o rn er rushe s. Numberplate sidep an els remove to reve al a filtere d st ill air box whi ch Vill a claims allo ws a minimum of a one-horsepower increase over other filtration set -ups, such as foam cleaner inside a still air box. There is sure a lo t o f area for th e air to rush through. Beneath that huge round cover lurks a smooth acting, overdesigned clutch. Ignition is electronic fro m Motoplat whi ch usually m ea ns easy sta rting an d cris p response. It did in th e case o f the MV 250, ex cept at th e lowest engine speeds. Bathroom scales say t he Vill a weigh s 2 15 · Ib s. with lubricants in the proper places but no gas in the tan k. Th e distributo r say s th e price will be abo u t $1565. john DeSoto gave it a baptism by fire , and kn obby , in a $ 150 0 pro race at Saddle bac k th e wee kend after our sh ort , choppy ride. _ a ..J ..J UJ ~ s « o UJ z « ..J > III III o I- . -....""""'........iOlO,; o . ; . . _..... it Specifications Bore x stroke - 480: 250 : . . • • . . • . . .70 x 64mm Wheelbase 55 in. Seat height _ 34 in. Ground CI. (low pipe) . . . • . • . . . . . . . . 8 in. Dry weight (ctaimed ) 219 lb. approx . (480 ebt . 5 lb. heevier)

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