FIRST RIDE
P42
MV AGUSTA F3 800
mance, and enjoyment, over the
675 – and to the sound of deeper, gruffer exhaust note over the
F3 that's enhanced by the intake
noise when you're on board.
It delivers genuinely impressive acceleration, but also improved rideability on part throttle
– which is bound to make it a
great real-world streetbike. With
only a relatively small price difference between the two, we're
not sure why anyone other than a
Superstock racer would want the
smaller one.
And it's not only the spread of
torque that is improved on the bigger-engined bike – for the power
curve is much flatter as well.
"The F3 675 has 128 hp at
14,800 rpm, and the 800 gives
148 peak horsepower at 13,200
rpm," declares Gillen "But between 6000 rpm and 11,000 rpm
there's over 30 hp difference between the two bikes. This engine
has 1500 less revs at the top end
than the 675 and 30 hp more
through the major part of the
curve, so thermodynamically we
did a very good job of filling the
cylinder proportionally more in
the 800 than in the 675."
Even down low this is manifested by the way the F3 800 motor
will pull from as low as 2500 rpm
with a wide-open throttle – it's
very forgiving for such a potent,
torquey engine.
The Eldor ECU has the same
electronic rider aids as on the
other MV triples, with three preset engine modes – Sport, Normal, Rain - plus a fourth Custom
map, eight-stage traction control,
and full ride-by-wire technology.
It was noticeable that even with
the 10 percent extra torque on
tap, on the F3 800 I could get
away with using Level 1 TC (as
in, least intervention), so as not
to sacrifice any of that sparkling
acceleration. MV and Eldor have
dialed in the electronics really.
"Eldor and MV Agusta are
learning together," says Gillen,
"but I've got to admit that one
really important feature of this is
that we were aware that in the
beginning we didn't know everything. So we've created the system in such a way that we can
immediately make every new
engine map available to all of our
customers through our dealer
network. So as soon as we develop a new map, we immediately make that available to all
