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
about quite a lot under heavy braking for the first chicane or the Parabolica. This lack of stability only became an issue there, and may have been tirerelated - Pirelli likes to pump their EYOs up quite high, and with their new PenTec material giving an ultrastiff front carcass, I think this may be what makes the MV move about under heavy braking. Even so, I left Tamburini's trademark two-position steering damper mounted across the frame behind the steering head, 916-style, completely loose. Frankly, it's quite unnecessary in ordinary road use, and I could even take my left hand off the handlebar cranked over in fifth gear around the Curvone without the slightest d.eviation from the chosen line - it's uncanny how secure the MY feels in fast turns. The only time at Monza I got the front wheel flapping was on exiting the first chicane, where tRIgIlI)The ~ Is composed of eIegMI sl8ellubes malIIdto ~ . . . ...... webeloMnIIl fuellnjection feeds the short-stoke, radial-valve irHlne four. ...-> The illgle-sidecl SWiilyBi iii is c:aet lI1IIgMSium and teIIlunls a rIdlH1elght adJI at 30 most Japanese fours, even when you hit the 5QOO-rpm power threshold, giving the false impression that it isn't as fast - or as powerful- as one of them. Wrong! Cagiva claims 126 bhp at 12,500 rpm at the crank for this motorcycle, with maximum torque of 54.6 ft.-IOO. on tap at 10,500 revs - compacab1e with its Suzuki or Kawasaki rivals, and maki.ng the MY Agusta a prime candidate to knock the Suzuki GSX-R750 off its 750cc Supersport throne on the race track, or aim for success in the new European Stockport support class for World Superbike, once sufficient numbers have been built to satisfy homologation - and pending MY Agusta's World Superbike debut in the 2001 season. But while the MV is altogether more measured in the way it builds revs than any longer-stroke Japanese four, it does so in a muscular manner that gives strong acceleration on up from the 5000rpm mark, where things start to happen, while delivering a turn of top speed that more than meets class expectations. r saw 272 kph 069 mph) at Monza on the digital speedo that is, like so much else on the bike, a design icon in its own right - and the same goes for the turn signals built into the mirrors, the vestigial carbon chain guard, the distinctive double-stack headlamp arrangement borrowed from KTM's Unit/Duke, the Nissin clutch/brake-lever assemblies with matching integrated master cylinders made to Tamburini's design by the Japanese company (hence the sand-cast metalwork), those sexy exhaust silencers, etc., etc. But that was with almost a thousand revs to spare before the 13,300-rpm rev limiter cuts in - and factory tester Paolo Bianchi (a lighter, shorter version of yours truly) has clocked 281 kph/176 mph on the F4 in homologation testing. Reckon that's fast enough for a 750cc sportbike, don't you? In fact, although there's an extra dose of power from just over 9000 rpm, when the exhaust note hardens and engine speed picks up even faster, leaving the MY to run on to the rev limiter quite happity, it seems to peak out a thousand revs lower, at 12,300 rpm, and has stopped pulling by the time the red shift light flashes on the right of the very legible yellow-faced analog tacho at 12,500 revs. Even easier to read is the digital speedo, which also includes a trip meter and clock, and monitors water temperature, and easily converts from metric to Imperial - but not so well-thought-out are the idiot lights around the edges of the instrument. Not only are these to.o dim, they're also confUSing, because there are, for example, tllree green lights in a row with nothing to tell you which is whicb between the headlight, neutral or direction-signal monitors. Mind you, ~ 0UlId exhausts In the finest MV tradition. (Above) HondaIlke controls, a cross-mounted ste«lng dlImper __ dIgIIIiI speedalanalog tach greet the rider. it's unlikely to be the neutral one, since this is incredibly hard to find even on the mOve coasting gently up to a trafficlight, and impossible at'rest. The gearchange is the only mechanical aspect of the bike that CQuid be improved. Apart from the hassle with neutr'l.!, with no linkage, the change is very direct, with a short, quick action that feels slightly mechanical and can be disconcerting. Having said that, I never missed a gear in two days and 300 or so miles on the MY, and clean, cLutchless changes are the order of the day out on the race track. Gear ratios are well-chosen, too though, uniquely for a four-stroke sportbike engine, the MY Agusta has a cassette-type extractable gear cluster, which will allow race teamS-to swap internal ratios in a matter of minutes without removing the engine from the frame or taking the back off it to do so, as even Suzuki's halfway-bouse setup requires. Okay - I admit it: I'm trying to find something to criticize about this bike, but it's pretty difficult. Ah - got it! The sidestand; which is the worst possible example of a suicide prop you could ever expect to meet - yes, worse than on the 916 Ducati! - is completely hidden away, as Tamburini says he intended it to be ("You shouldn't be able to see the sidestand on a sportbike - it detracts from the purity of line."), so that even a taller rider has to dismount to operate it, then grapple with the spring to stop it from snapping back while the rider tries to prop the bike on it. Terrible. Sorry, Massimo, but you're wrong. But there's so much else on this bike tha t's good not only those fabulous loOks, which you never tire of admiring, eVen sitting jn a cafe, reading today's Gazzetta dello Sport with an espresso at hand, when you catch yOUl'self looking up at the MV just one more time, to lust after it: It'~ a . babe of a bike! ' But also worthy of admiration is the MY's responsive steering and capable bandling in every type of tum. Tamburinj has worked unceasingly on refining the dialogue between the suspension, tires and chassis geometry, and the result is not only that super stability coupled with agile handling, but also a surprisingly high level of ride quality, via the extremely compliant, fully adjustable 49mm Showa forks specially manufactured for the MY Agusta (with an extralarge-diameter axle for added stiffness and reduced unsprung weight), plus a ditto Sachs (ex-Boge) rear shock. This was supposed to have been an Ohlins, but the Swedish firm's ongoing problem with meeting delivery deadlines prompted Tamburini to switch to the German-owned Italian operation. The shock works well, especially once we'd wound the spring up a turn to make it a little stiffer, and it was also noticeable that it loosened up as the miles mounted; maybe it needed running in? The improved ride quality wa n't so apparent at smoothed-out Monza as riding bumps on the hills around Varese the following day, where the benchmark stopping power of the six-pot issin brakes and 310mm discs also came into their own. More typical Tamburini, though: The more-usual 320mm discs increase gyroscopic effect, and so impact on the teering, while these slightly smaller ones still do the business stoppU1gwise, but don't upset the handling as much. The six-piston Nissins are more progressive in production form than I remember them being on the prototype bike - no\ so snatchy and with more modulation over the first half of the lever travel. This is perhaps due to a change in pad spec - but it's still possible to get the back wheel waving in the air if you panic-brake on the street, and on the race track the MV did move getting hard on the ga popped it up a little cranked over, causing a quick shake of the bars before normal service was resumed. It's magic - a completely forgiving bike, with thoroughly sorted steering geometry. Another thing the MY doesn't do is to sit up and understeer if you trail-brake deep into a turn and have to grab an extra handful becau e you got your entry speed wrong. It stays on line and turns in when you want - sorted. And at a quite acceptable claimed 405-pound dry weight, the MY stops hard: Just squeeze. It also stops the traffic - just by its very existence. Just as was the case a year ago, the first time I rode an MV Agusta in public, my day trip around the northern Italian countryside on this first production bike had an absolutely magical effect on members of the public. Okay, this is indeed still Italy, the land of Ferrari and Maserati, Alfa Romeo and MY Agusta, where an awareness of the nation's motor-racing heritage and an appreciation of engineering excellence is instilled at birth. onetheless, the MY gets more than its fair share of appreciation: People see you parked at a traffic light and smile, they point, wave or blow kisses at it, or raise their hands to clap a round of applause at the engineering brio which created this twowheeled work of art. Drivers see you coming in their rearview mirrors and practically crash into houses pulling over so they can get a better view as you pass them, or else creep ever closer to you at stop signs, hanging out of the window to get a better look. Just as it was a year ago, the MY Agusta F4 is still the absolute number-one crowd-paller on two wneels but al9,o JOO-percent satisfying tcn;i4~. This is a. motorcycle wi th more answers than there are question - the benchmark sportbike by which thers must be judge,!_ . t,. CIII