Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126671
1.977 )IV -A.usia 850 Italian time machine By David Edwards Photos by Lori Tyson and Edwards There are motorcycles and then there are, well, motorcycles. If you believe the dictionary, a motorcycle is a two-wheeled vehicle propelled by an internal-combustion engine and resembling a bicycle. Which sums things up with a certain neatness and efficiency, but doesn't really say much of 6 anything. Michael Lower's MV Agusta 850S cenainly meets the clinical criteria for being a motorcycle. But if you look closely, past its two wheels and its internal-com bUltion engine, you'll see much, much more. It is, of course, Italian and shows that exc1usviely Italian capacity for melding steel, aluminum and fiberglass into something that fairly exudes speed and romance and hisLOry and adventure. The bike was built in 1977, the roadgoing descendent oE more than 25 years of European road racing experience, and if you look long enough and deep enough into the silver-and- red paint, you can see the darting, black-leather images of John Surtees and Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read. Gaze a little longer and you'll see a sepia-toned montage of unfurling checkered flags, hoisted gold cups and flying champagne corks representing almost 40 individual World Championships and more than 4000 wins world-wide by MV riders. Lower, a 45-year-old industrial security specialist and the L in WLT Racing, an AMA Superbike race team, sees all that when he stares into his 850 Agusta's blood-red gas tank. And a lot more. Lower spent two years tracking down a similar MV, only to have it whisked away LO the Orient by a Japanese gentleman apparenl1y unimpressed with his own country's more pedestrian offerings. Then ear- Iier this year he found another 'exampie of the breed and after two weeks of coaxing and the exchange of almost $10,000, Lower had another Italian machine LO add to a "stable" that already consisted of another MV, a MOLO Guzzi LeMans and a 750SS Ducati. "Eccentricity is something I think one should strive for," says Lower, trying to explain his fondness for the MV in panicular and Italian bikes in general. "There's a cenain degree of sameness to everything nowadays from our cars to our kitchen appliances - and it's difficult to possess something unique. The MV is uncommon; it's unusual. And I like owning something unusual." Unusual indeed. Only 375 examples of the 850 and its smaller sibling. the 750S America, were built before the Agusta family decided to stop assembling motorcycles in 1979 and devoted all their energies to manufacturing helicopters. AI though the exact number of MV fours in this country is unknown, it's a sure bet that Lower won't have to worry about seeing himself going the other way on the freeway. The power for all this Italian eccentricity is provided courtesy of a transverse in-line four secreted away behind the bike's slab-sided fairing. Displacing 832cc, the engine has double overhead camshafts driven by gear pinions that run between the middle cylinders. Horsepower figures aren't available, but a fair guess, using the America's figures as a guide, would be in the neighborhood of 85 bhp. Lower sums things up nicely when he says, "It starts out slow, but when other bikes are starting to sign off, it just keeps going. It goes a 101 fa~te[ than I'm willing to ride." A five- peed transmission mated to a shaft final drive handles the drivetrain duties. while three Brembo disc brakes are assigned the task of bringing the hefty 562-pound beasttoa hall. The first-time Agusta rider notices two things immediately. The bike's suede-covered seat is surprisingly cushy, and the fairing's rear edges occupy the pace normally reserved for knees, forcing a rather splaylegged riding stance. Tall gearing and a balky clutch almost guarantee an embarrassing stall, a performance the battery and electric starting system (no kick) conspire to denounce, showing a decided reluctance to rekindle the engine's flame. Quirkiness, apparently, the price you pay for uniqueness. "The Italians are ternpermental," says Lower in more of a statement than an explanation. "They have LO be coaxed along until they determine that they want LO do what you want them to do. They put a lot of that spirit into their machines." Once underway, though, all the glitches are easily forgouen, blown away by the sound soaring out of the MV's sweeping megaphone-styled mu[[)ers. A downshift and accompanying throttle blip brings a smile, and if the sound happens to be a little louder than is socially acceptable, well, that's probably a more telling statement about society than a deficiency of the bike's silencing system. Still, the lovely sound wafting after the Agusta doesn't mask the fact that the MV is a 7-year-old bike with design roots stuck firmly in the early 1950s. What is it like to shepherd this rolling memorabilia machine down the road? The bike's uno[[ieial caretaker, Larry Theobald, WLT Rae-