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/127993
MVAgusta F4 an 18-month wait for Cagiva to crank up production of the first batch of 300 handmade, limited-edition Serie d'Oro F4s in the R&D shop of their spankingnew Cassinetta factory across the lake from their historic headquarters. These have all been spoken for at a hefty price of 58 million Italian lire taxfree, before manufacture of the volumeproducti'on F4S begins in September, with 2000 units aptly planned for the 2000 model year, retailing in Italy for a highly competitive 30 million Italian lire each, including 20 percent tax. Reckon at that price, the biggest problem Cagiva boss Claudio Castiglioni will have is nanking up production to meet demand, don't you? To create a legendary looker that motors and handles, too, Tamburini has created a composite chassis design that borrows heavily from the established Sega.le modular forma t, with a chromemoly tubular-steel upper section wrapped around the ultracompact fourcylinder engine and bolted to the castmagnesium rear upright which doubles up as engine cradle as well as pivot pointfor the single-sided swingarm, also cast in magnesium. The result is a very stiff as well as good-looking structure which delivers a compact 55-inch wheel: base; but more to the point is the MY's narrOw overall width of 27 inches, compared to 28.4 for a Suzuki GSX-R750. The four-cylinder MY is even six-tenths of an inch narrower than Tamburini's previ- By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kel Edge ~ ~ 28 kay, it's crunch time. In the 18 months since Cagiva stunned the motorcycle world by launching Massimo Tamburini's latest two-wheeled work of art at Milan '97, there's been one big question hanging over the MV Agusta F4 dream bike: Does it deliver? Can a bike that looks this good be equally as satisfying to ride? Or, to put it another way: Is £9rm matched by function? Well, now we know. The answer is yes! After a day spent lapping the Monza GP circuit at the MV's long-awaited press launch followed by another spent solo in real-world riding conditions around thebills and highways surrounding Cagiva's Varese base, my judgement is an absolute one: This promises to be the finest all-around sportbike yet made anyhow, anyplace, anytime. In creating his first four-cylinder road bike since the HB2/KB3/SB4 family launched as his final farewell to Bim.ota back in 1982, Tam1:>urini has truly advanced the science and art of motorcycle design very significantly with the F4 - even compared to the last time he pulled off a similar feat in Vtwin guise back in 1993, with the clebut of the Ducati 916. This is the desmoquattro design concept, five years on - but, for the first time, in a four-cylinder format. Because the MY Agusta F4 not only breaks new ground aesthetically, it does so in functional terms, too. You understand this immediately, on your first flying lap of Monza. This is a four that thinks like a twin, in the way it steers so easily but so precisely into one of the Autodromo's trio of chicanes. Yet around a long, fast, sweeping turn like n Curvone or the Parabolica, the MV is ultrastable, with no trace of power understeer nor any tempestuous tossing of its head - for the Tamburini magic has delivered chassis geometry that is nimble without being naughty: no weaves, no wobbles, just planted. He's achieved the unlikely paradox of reconciling two opposites, and wrapping up the result in the most gorgeous styling: ever to grace a motorcycle. Then, thanks to Claudio Castiglioni's astute acquisition of the rights to the MV Agusta marque back in 1991, the final product is adorned with the proud badge of the most illustrious name in motorcycle history - winners of 275 World Championship GPs and 75 World titles between 1950 and 1976, and victorious in a stunning 3028 races during that quarter-century of racing supremacy on the World stage' before taking a 20-year slumber from which in has now been awakened by Cagiva. History, splendor and aesthetic excellence are a potent combina tion in marketing terms, but now the final piece in the MY jigsaw has at last been added, in the form of dynamic distinction - after ous Ducati 916 V-twin, and also 1.4 inches slimmer than a Suzuki TLlOOOR. Yet in spite of this, even a 6-foot rider doesn't feel he dwarfs the MY. Unlike on the 916, you don't feel perched atop the bike, but rather an in tegral part of it, with a relatively spacious riding position, a seat height that at 31.1 inches isn't exceptionally high by sportbike standards and wha't feel like relatively low-set footpegs for a sportbike, without, however, compromising ground clearance. Even with the excellent grip from the