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/128104
2 0 01 MV Agusta 750 Brutale b e cau s e it doesn't sha ke it s hea d even w hen you it a rough p atch in the middl e o f a fast swee p er. And w ith Massimo Tamburini makes no apologies for the Brutale's somewhat distinctive looks . In fact , it was a target he set hims elf when desiqning the bike , as he admits on the Motonline website. "I take it as a set principle that . when you look at a bik e whether from far away or up close, you must be able to recognize at once what it is. Nowadays, ther e are lots of different models which all look the same when you see them at a certain distance, and even when you go nearer, the first thing you notice is their sim ilarity to other designs. I don 't know if my bikes are better looki ng than their rivals • I'll leave that for oth ers to decide. But I do know that they don't get mixed up with other bikes. Lots of people didn 't like the Brutale' s headlamp when we launched it in Munich - but now they say it's fantastic! And for sure it stands out in a cr owd of bikes, which is the whole point." Given that. in order to create the Brutal e's disti nctive loo ks Tam burin i had only the seat. fuel tank and headlamp to work with on making this Nak ed bik e loo k different, and endow it with its own personali ty. he mu st have found this quite a cha llenge. "I admit it wasn't easy designing a bike of thi s type v-ith a four cyl inder engine," he says. "The biggest proble m was the fuel tank we made four or five different shapes. but they weren't innovative enoug h to satisfy m e. In the end we came up with the design we used, which is quite practical as well as unu sual, because it man ages to be dynami c and original withou t gett ing in the way of the handl ebars or your hands." How about the exhaust system: did Tam burini ever th ink about retainin g the F4's Latin organ of silence rs under the seat. rat her than the doub le-stack sile ncers on the right side? Wh y choose t his option? "We couldn't use the F4 exhausts because there's no room under the seat on the Brutale, so not wantin g to use a system looking like any other bik es, we came up with this, which I think is not bad look ing, is qu it e aggr essive enough, and fits in well with the overall design of the bik e." Finally, about that headlam p: why? "Well, it was the president's idea [Claudio Castiglioni). One day he told me he wanted to see something like the headlamp of a Porsche 993 on the bik e, so he sent me one and the guys at CRC played around with it, till they came up with this. Personally , I like it a lotl " Well - at least it helps make the 8rutale look com pletely different from anything else on the road.... 24 .2-pounds le ss dry w eight to h a ul d ow n c ompa r e d to the F 4 S , t h e 3 93 . 8- po u nd Bru t a l e 's s i x -p i ston Ni ssin b ra k e packag e with 3 ] Om m fro nt discs is ben chmark st uff - certainly the best street brakes I k n o w o f on the m ark et tod ay . So it g oes, it stops , it eats .m iles and sw eeps streets - a nd it even has a prope r pos iti v e - a c t ion kicksta n d, n ot t he su icide va ri ety as o n all Tamburini's other bikes to date. At last.. .1 It 's h ard not to c onclude t hat the MV Bru t ale is bo rn well , ano ther g re at Tam b u rini cl assic d esign that w ill se ll w ell a nd is t h e st u ff of d esig n t extbooks . For it ' s fa ir to sa y t h at none of th e J apanes e c ompan ies c o ul d o r w o u ld e v e r m a r ke t som e t hi n g with t hi s m u c h charisma a nd p r a ctica l c h arm - sorry , but the Yamah a F l ] d a sh that flas hes 500 rp m lower to Product ion v e rs ion s wi ll h a v e st y le , just as on t h e F 4 , t hanks to the remind you how h igh the free-revving them , th ough · a s w ell as 50m m M a r- sus pension ' s fu ll a djusta bil ity - a n d eng ine is revv ing . T here 's an extra zo c c h i u psid e -d owners w ith gold T i - anyway , I w as havi n g t o o much fun dose of shove from 9500 rpm onward N it treatment, ra ther than the 4 9 m m pedal ing th is dynamic dodgem when the r a d i al -valve e n g ine re ally Sh o w a s purlo ined off the F 4 wi t h around the h ills and lakes of northern catches f ire , but if y o u w ant to you wh ich the test b ik e w as fitted . I t a ly. The d irec t -action ste ering j u st doesn't m a k e it , by c o m p ariso n, exce pt on pric e. F or the M V Brutale is a minimalist marvel rivaled only o n pa per by the Sa ch s Beast - b ut w ith added st y le , p lus it's h ere in the marketplace r ight now, a nd has a four c y l ind er engine , not a twin . W hat a b i k e , what a s tyli s t: no wonder Ducati and A p rilia keep t ry ing t o p ersu ad e T amburini t o j u m p sh ip and move o ver to t hem, to work o n V -twins . Just as well he ' s resisted ] 3 ,OOO- rp m revlimiter afte r ig norin g h is bikes, and has left them o ff th is c hec k . But fo r sure you can dia l in the change-up light on the r ig ht of the one altogether. t he B r uta l e to su it y ou r o w n r id ing can c ru ise up t o ] 00 mph w ith t h e T h ese an d the S ach s rear sh o ck seems u ltra r e sp o n sive - j u st think thei r m oun t in g o ffers - b ecause the tach only showing 8000 rpm in to p - seemed very stiffly set up at fi rst on about ch ang ing dir ect ion, an d the at which speeds the prototype B ru - sta ndard settings - and there p roba - Bruta le a lready d id it for y o u - y et it ta le 's o n l y real d rawb ack is the fact b ly w a s too much re b o u nd damping i sn 't t witchy: t he r e ' s no st e ering th at T amburin i doesn 't li ke m irrors o n at th e rea r, if I' d bothered to stop to damp er fi tt ed , a n d n o n e ne eded , fo u r -cyli nder M V B ru t a le is a uniqu e moto rcy cle that it 's im p o ssi b le t o rid e w i t ho u t a sm i le on y o u r face . Naug hty - but n ic e . eN If Massimo Tamburini is j ustl y feted as the Michelangelo of motorcycl ing, thanks to his succession of two-wheeled works of art restoring first Ducati , now MV Agusta, to the high table of techno logic al style , then MV's y outhful chef engineer And rea Goggi is his architect· the m an who created the biking equi va lent of the actual building hou sing the Sistine Chapel. on which Tamburini can draw his m asterpi eces of design. For Goggi is the m an charged with ongoing development of the F4 fam ily's radial- valv e. fuel-injected DOHC ln-line four-cylinder engi ne, havi ng superv ised its creation since ] 995, when he took ove r as head of the Cagiva Group' s 12,300 rpm . but the new F4 with its more aggressive specification, delivers 132 hp at the same revs. Throttle bodies are unchang ed from last year. by the way , but we' re still worki ng on the final injection mapping, which has not yet been finalized. "Moving down the engine, the pistons are now forged rathe r than cast , and li ke the cylinders are now made by Mahle in Gennany. The conrods are the same as before but machi ned differently, because the piston wristpin diameter has decreased from 18mm to 16mm. The crankshaft has been lightened by 1.5 kg to reduce inertia, and the primary gear ratio is now shorter. primarily for the SPR to stop the gene rator turning too fast on that performance model, tho ugh we've standardized the change across the range . Finally, at least the gearbox on the F4 is unchanged· but on the Brutale however, sixth gear is shorter than on the sports bikes. and overall gearing has been dropped by the equivalent of adding about 3T to the rear sprocket, in order to reduce the top speed, without limiting the revs. It's still good for more than 250 kph [ 155 mph). though! " technical departmen t. after several seasons as a senior race engineer in the Cagiva 500cc GP team. Who better to detail the technical changes to the F4 engine incorporated in the Brutale Serie d'O ro? " It' s almos t better to list the parts in the engine which have not cha nged. rather th an those which hav e: says Goggi. "That's because the Brutale incorporates the uprated specification for the 20 0 1 F4 engin e, which has change d very substantially from the 2000-year model. "Starting with the cy li nder head , this has a completely new intak e po rt design, with new valves on both inlet and exhaust which, whil e mai ntaining the same diameter [29mm inlets and 25mm exhausts). have a different shape in order to raise the com pression ratio from around ] ] .6:] to 12:1, as well as to compe nsate for a revised shape to the combu stion cham ber, to inc rease airflow. Valve springs are also new , wi th a var iab le pitch rather than the constant pitch used before. While the exhaust cam profil e and lift is unchanged, the inlet cams haft design is all new, with short er duration and less lift, which com bined with the new intake duct design with greater now potential , delivers bette r acceleration , as well as more power overall. Because of its smaller airbox and different exha ust system . as well as more conserva tive fuel injecti on mapping, the Brutal e has the same power output as the old 2000 ·model F4 , around 126 hp at the cr ank , at 34 MAV 16,200 1 ' cue . e n e _ lt's worth noting that the new cy linder head porti ng incorporates a patented design by CRe's Rirnini-based consu lta nt engineer Renzo Della Rosa, to which MV Agusta has exclusive access. whereby the single initial inlet port subdivides into two differentially sized secondary ports, to produce a dual venturi effect. This in tum delivers a dual flow effect, with the smaller section sub-port hav ing a faster flow, which in tum fills the cy linder better at part-throttle, thus improving low-rpm and midra nge torque compa red to the old F4 . This innovative new system enhances gas turbulence at the entry to each cy linder, in turn leading to reduced emissions and fuel consumption. as well as increased perfo rmanc e . and is certai n to be inco rporate d in the F5 1000cc version of the MV Ag usta engine currently under developm ent, and scheduled to pow er th e new MV m axispo rt s m od el du e to be launc hed at the Mil an Show in Septemb er. It will at som e stage find its way into the Bru tale, says MV bo ss Claud io Castiglion i - only not j ust yet: pro duct ion of the MV Agusta streetrod will incorporate the 750cc motor for some time to come. s