Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

MV480 MXMonster: ; Can horsepo e wr and bandling find happiness Italian sWle? = - . III ~ ..n l"- C'l ...c: u ~ :E By John Huetter In one metallic stroke, Italy has entered the motocross horsepower race and ended it. The Mot o Villa 480 (the production version displaces about 40cc over th e nominal 450 prototype) ; wh ich should be available fro m MV deale rs already or shortly after you read that were used on Mo isseiev's Ch ampionship-winnin g KTM through pan of the GP season - the m ore su ccessful pan. Rear e nd performance is be st o f any tested so far am o ng th e gas shoc ks (whic h isn' t ye t all o f th em ). Ceri ani 7. 1 in ch tr avel fo rks were on the fr ont of th e MV th at Am eri can Villa Veep Bob Swa ns on provided for CN 's an d DeSot os conside rat ion, Some m odels will have th ese fo rk s, o th e rs m ay have similar Mar zo cchis up front. So me r ide rs prefe r th e latter of th e Italian front suspe nsion unit s ; so me stic k with Cerian i- as a fav o rite. Both are awfully good but th e Marzocchi has a sm oothe r fee l on co mp ressio n an d gro u nd co ntac t. The p ower p lan t is no t purchased from an ybody as o n m o st It ali an -built bi kes. It is a 24 6cc Villa engine of the c on ven tio nal ' 70 m m X 64mm bo re-stro ke dim en sions inco rp orati ng fo u r tr ansfer p ort s with th e re ar two ac t ing as boost pons to charge th e rear of the cylinder. A .sin gle hole moves th e gases in and a sin gle hole lets the gase s o u t o f th e cy lind e r. The gas es exit through a no isy exp an sio n c hamber that needs better silencing fo r most tracks and riders. The cha m be r selecte d fo r production was o ne with a "rnid-range " max power design after experimentation (Con tin ued on page 42 ) Looking at a very good gas shock an d at the loud en d of 250 busy cc's. th is, will find its share of enthusiastic riders from two widely different groups: the power freaks and the suspension crazies. Such an apparent anomaly in MX·land is rel atively simple to explain. On a dynamometer th at indicates 46 coun te rshaft horsepower for a 440 Maic o (very close to the manufacturer's 47 HP figure), th e 480 Moto Villa indicate d 53 horsepower. Tha t is m ore power than any rideable m otocross engine we kn ow abo ut or ever care to hea r abou t. That figure sh oul d in te rest the p ower-hun gry. O n a well -c... ft ed, stable c hassis th at a looks very KTM -lik e in its basic t u bing, are a set o f Ceriani seven-inch travel for ks slightly modified so that they do ac t ually give seven in ch es of travel and. at th e rear, tw o Marzo cchi gas-oil dam pe rs m ounted on a rigid bo x section swinga nn in the cantileve r posit ion . Tha t defi n it ely in t erests the boinger ad dict s. Co incidental to th eir one-upmanship in th e horsepower game, Vill a ha s also won the "finning" race. The 4 8 0 barrel a n d h ead ar e covere d with stagge red sand-east fins so profuse tha t th e ove r-w o r ke d tenn "massive" take s on new me anin g. What's even nicer is that all th at sp iffy-looking su rfac e area really does seem to keep things cool. Items on a racing motorcycle always look better when th ey do what they 're designed t o d o. Un de rn ea th that radially rippled exterior is a big. deep hole. The d im en sions are pretty clo s e t o 8 5m m by 79mm. Low in the back of the cy lin d er wall is a not-t oo-large in ta ke port. On the sides are four transfers. The two ' main transfer pons are very la rge. So is th e single unbridged exhaust port which feeds into a he ad pipe of surprisingly modest dimensions. A flat black 36mm Mikuni which appears identical to the ones on most Japanese Grand Prix bikes (Suzuki, Kawasaki. etc.) carburetes all those cc 's. The result of th ese combinations is power , and power delivery characteristics, most like a GP bi ke of an y production 500 ridden so fa r. The comer to comer rush is mind-numbingl y quick. When a few laps of familiarity allow your stomach to get down out of your throat, it's possible to start thinking of comparisons. The MV 4 80 doesn't have the feel of low end grunt like the 360 Bultaco or 400 Maico, though torque at RPM figures m ay be quite similar j us t because the MV produces s 0 much power. It is closer to the works 360 Husqvama or 3 80 CZ, though less pipey than either of these or the RN3 70 Suz uki. Even with a Pirelli on th e rear, there 's less wheelspin than encountered on a 3 6 0 Penton-KTM . The power characteristics fall MY '. somewhere between the approaches of the other-m entioned bik es which is a Villa 480 Wins the horsepower and finn ing races at one BIG st ro ke. very ni ce m iddle ground t o c ove r. It is, ne edless to say. fast . Perh ap s th e m o st incre dible th in g about th is G P power is that it 's all ca rried in a very ac cep tab le handling o ackage. Even though th e fra me a nd su sp ensi on are id en ti cal to those o f th e 250 and carrying abo u t five p o unds m o re weight wi th the 480 powe rpla n t, all of the co m p one nts seem to work to geth er be tter as an integrated who le. The original Vi lla design was in te nded for th e 45 0 proto ty pe, wit h the result th at what was acc eptable in th e 250 com es togethe r even be t ter in th e MV 4 80. T he flat gray frame is Penton-like in basic appearance with fe wer gu ssets a nd be tter availabili ty a n d access t o all working com ponen ts, lik e the carbo T he combination o f the rigid b ox secti on swi ngarm, gas-oil Marzo cchi dampers. co rrec t rate springs an d ap pare n tly co rrect geo m et ry m ake the rear end o f th e MV 480 the best o f an y m otocross bik e we've ridden. It also works to get a ve ry adequate dose of the potential power to the ground. MV an dthe U.S . importer h ave backed o ff from using t he " eight in ch" Cerianis (which give an ac t ual 7. 1 inches of travel) due to th e flexing ex pe rie nc e d with the lon ger forks. They have instead modified th e " seven inch " Cerianis (which give an effec t ive 6.6 inc hes o f travel) to at t ain cl ose to a full se ven in ches without in cr easin g o verall fork length . Their ap p ro ach see ms to be a very reaso na ble on e. is very qu ick, as Cornering ap prop riat e for a GP reminiscent bike , and exiting th em occu p ies very little o f a rider's time. The MV 480 wants to ' square o ff in very precise an gles. A slide is possible but unproductive and must be consciously in it iated. Even the tigh test co m e rs were bes t taken in second or third gear. The accele ra ti on away from the turns is truly inspiring. The only handling fault e nc ou n te red was a sligh t fron t end t wi t ch wh ile b raking ju st prior to initia ti ng a tum. It wa s not reall y too unsettling b u t was definitel y a p paren t to all who ride th e mach in e. The sam e characteristic had been encountered when riding the 250 earlier. It seem ed like the Spanish 3 .0 0 Seven-inch Cerianis give go od, flex -free support. X 21 Pirelli, which c overs the Akront rim. was responsible for this but we had no time for a tire ch ange to confirm this su spi cion during ou r quick riding im p re ssion. Otherwise the Cerianis do the j ob they were designed for and we ca n't remember the front end doing any th ing other than go where it was p oint ed . In fact, there 's no awareness of the sus pens io n most of the time the MV is being ridden at racing speeds, It must be o ne of th e smoothest rides in m otocross. As an added benefit, the ca n t ilever rear keeps the rear wheel in co n tact with the ground so that power delivery co n ti n ues even over ripples and st ut t erb u m ps . The lower en d of the 480 m otor is iden tic al to the 250 · ex cept for the nec es sa rily he avier crankshaft. Clutch oull is so ligh t you think the cable isn 't co n nected. There is surprisingly little vib ration fro m the bi g sin gle. You don't feel any of t he exp ec t ed tingle through pegs o r grip s. It seems no bike co m es from Italy or Aus tria je tted correctly for Western U.S . co n di ti o ns. Sin ce our test MY h ad come (Continue d on page 42) 7

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