Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Team Obsolete. What's more, the bike is still exactly as Ago last raced it that dark October day in '76, having lain since then under a cover in the comer of the MV race shop in Cascina Costa until Team Obsolete acquired it together with a dozen or SO of its older sisters back in 1986 in the classic racing deal of the century. It then spent most of the next decade in Roberto Gallina's workshop while the acrimonious fallout between Robert and his former partner in Team Obsolete was resolved, but when this was finally settled, the way was clear for the 350 quattro cilindri to take to the track again. Gallina had already taken the precaution of X-raying the cast Morris magalloy wheels for cracks and repainting them, before Agostini's former mechanic Nobby Clark - nowadays a valued member of the Team Obsolete equipe stripped the engine to check it over before use. "It was like new inside," Iannucci says. "So all we had to do was clean it up, fit new valve springs and lap in the valves, then fire it up. Ago himself was the first person to ride it again in public, most appropriately at the Dutch TT's 70th Birthday celebrations at Assen in '95. He came into the tent and stared at it for several minutes, then walked round and round it several times - he couldn't take his eyes off it. Then he looked up and smiled, and said 'lo ricordo!' - I remember. It was a magic moment." Another magic moment of a different kind was in store with this bike: mine. As I suited up for the ride home from Brands Hatch that October day 20 years ago, I'm sure I wasn't the only fan who dreamed about what it would be like to be in Ago's place and ride the last of the works MYs himself. Two decades later, thanks to Rob Iannucci's generosity, that dream came true at the swooping Mid-Ohio race track, perhaps the nearest thing in America to a European-style GP circuit, when he asked me to ride the 350 MV Agusta in a parade of Team Obsolete historic GP racers organized by the AMA. I was in good company too, for there alongside me were a pair of MY triples, a 500 ridden by former World Champion Jim Redman and a 350 in the hands of former world l;md speed record holder Don Vesco. The orchestra was assembled, let the concert begin. Or rather, first let one of the players find a way of squeezing into place aboard his chosen instrument. I mean, the 350 MY four is small. Italians are the masters of proportion, as generations of Alfa Romeo or Fiat sports coupes attest. They look ]jke big Ferraris standing on their own, until you see them parked next to something else and realize with a surprise that they're three-quarterscale models of the real thing. Same with the MY. You have no idea it's so compact until you try to sit on it. That's when you start to appreciate the feat of packaging which squeezed a DOHC 16-valve, in-line four-cylinder, four-stroke engine into the same wheelbase as a modem 125cc two-stroke single. "Ago's preference was always for small, low, tidy machinery that could be flicked around easily and handled responsively," Iannucci says. "That's why he hated to give up riding the three-cylinder MYs until the fours were clearly superior in terms of performance, and why he ended up turning the four's chassis back into an uprated version of the three. This is the last of the five different designs they used on the 16-valve fours, yet look how similar (lett) The compact fourcylinder has a super-Short 38mm stroke. lubrication is essentJally dry sump - note the finned oil tank mounted longitudinally under the engine. (Below) Four 34mm Dell'Ortos have two remote float chambers. Jetting Is perfect. it is to the three-cylinder bikes standing next to it." So when you squeeze aboard the MY, your first impression is of a close-coupled riding position, with those cl ip-on handlebars whose grips are wrapped in tape quite close together and steeply dropped, and of a low seat height - just 27 inches. That's low, even by the standards of the twin-shock era of chassis design. This allows bike and rider to present a compact, wind-cheating profile that was a key weapon on the fast GP circuits of the day, before the introduction of chicanes or modern slot-racing tracks to reduce speeds. Yet the MV is snug rather than cramped, and moving about the bike presents no problems even for someone like me who's much taller than Ago. Everything's in proportion. Concert time. Watching obby Oark fire up the MY at a gentle canter down pit lane underlined how little inertia there is in the engine. It bursts into life after just a few steps, one reason that Ago was so often able to make blinding starts in the push-start era and lead a race from start to finish. Carburetion is so clean on the glorious-sounding motor, a tribute to Team Obsolete's setup, but the overriding impression is of how vivid the engine pickup is. The throttle response is light and immediate, sending the needle scooting around the white-faced Veglia tachometer's dial, the edge of which has a couple of paint marks daubed on'it to remind the man in charge where the optimum powerband lies - orange at 16 grand for peak power, red at 13,000 rpm for maximum torque, with the curve staying quite flat thereafter. Use the precise-action, one-up, rightfoot gearshift to keep the revs in that ideal range, having tailored the internal gear ratios to suit each circuit, and you'd be setting the pace in the 350cc GP class well into the two-stroke era. Ago did. My task was simpler. Make music with Vesco and Redman, and don't exceed 15,000 rpm out of respect for the new-old engine - like new inside, but still 20 years old and a priceless piece of two-wheeled history, even if Iannucci says he has a big stock of spares in Team Obsolete headquarters for the later MY fours. That's when you discover how smooth and flexible the engine response is. It'll carburet from way low, allowing you to practically treat it like a road bike, if you could ever forget the heritage of the bike you're riding. But the bassoforte exhaust note of those four megaphones, with their shapely curves up over the rear axle, never lets you forget what you're seated on. The music keeps on coming, seducing you into countless extra blips of the throttle just to make that glorious sound ring out even more sweetly. But then when you let it rip and accelerate hard through the gears down Mid-Ohio's back straight, that's when you appreciate that the MY is function as well as form and sound. The exhaust note hardens, the engine revs high - and suddenly you're flying. This is one fast motorcycle! It's not only the top-end power which is impressive, but the acceleration as well. The two-strokes the MY raced against may have been a little lighter but they were peakier and less flexible, too. The MY will pull out of Mid-0hio's top hairpin as low as 8,000 rpm (well, everything's relative: that's "low" on a bike like this!), carbureting cleanly up toward the orange mark on the tacho. There isn't exactly a kick in the power delivery, but at 11,000 rpm you can feel the engine speed start to accelerate even quicker as the camshafts go to work. From there on up the power delivery is fast, but linear - there's just more of it at higher revs. Reach the IS-grand mark, caress the gear lever with your right foot, and the exhaust note drops a couple of octaves as the MY surges forward in a higher gear. Magic. The engine revs so high and picks up speed so quickly you soon become aware that there's not much difference between the MV and a two-stroke in terms of engine behavior, only that the Italian bike has a much wider spread of usable power compared to the ringdingers of the day. No wonder MV's final GP victory in any class came in a soaking-wet 500cc German GP at the Nurburgring six weeks after the 350's Assen win - it must have been a much easier bike to ride in the rain than a two-stroke, and of course there's a lot more engine braking for use in the wet, too. . Paradoxically, in the dry, it's best not to use this. Instead, because of all the revs and attendant risk of getting the back wheel hopping on ovemm, it's better to ride it like a two-stroke - brake hard, then come down the required num- \D 0\ 0\ ..... o Ct') l-< Q) ~ 39

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