FIRST RIDE
P44
MV AGUSTA F3 800
low 31.6-inch seat height, and
you'll discover a rational riding
position with plenty of space for a
six-footer to tuck away behind the
small screen.
The payoff for the F3's lower, more compact overall build
comes in the way it steers so
quickly and easily, yet without
betraying any sign of nervousness or instability in a turn. The
F3 800's handling is completely
intuitive - you just have to think
about changing direction, especially in a chicane, and it's a done
deal - perhaps as a benefit of the
counter-rotating crank.
The MV is so light steering, it
requires a conscious decision
not to use too much effort in corner entry – just small amounts of
steering input and body movement are enough to take you
where you want to be.
The only major criticism I had
was the gearshift. One of the
bikes I rode at Misano had a repeated problem selecting fourth
and fifth gears under hard acceleration, and that was the
case both with and without the
much-improved wide-open powershifter switched on. But in
sampling other bikes in different
sessions during our accumulated three hours of track time, it
was evident that the gearshift on
the F3 800 is much heavier and
(Above) In addition to the classic
MV red and silver, the 800 also
comes in Black and Black and
White.
(Top right) The three colors.
stiffer than on the F3 675, with
which it shares the same identical gearbox ratios – except that
after some initial problems when
the F3 was launched, on the
smaller bike its gear selection is
now almost Japanese-quality in
terms of precision and lightness.
That's not the case here, and the
reason isn't hard to find, as Gillen
admitted when pressed.
Faced with the task of harnessing the substantially increased
