VOL. 50 ISSUE 26 JULY 2, 2013
P45
of going after a different market. Also, at the same time, we
knew that we wanted to go Supersport racing so we needed
to have a 675 to homologate
the F3 for that."
Roberto Rolfo's Donington
Park World Supersport rostrum
finish, doubtless the first of
many, justified that strategy.
However, after such an enjoyable day riding the new MV
Agusta F3 800 with its outstanding, frankly trendsetting,
all-round performance, I have
to ask myself two things. One,
power and torque of the 800 motor, on this bike MV has undercut
the gearbox cluster's engaging
dogs – between three and five
on each gear pinion, depending
on the ratio – at an angle, in order to ensure they stay meshed
under the extra force from the
enhanced torque. But of course,
what this does is to make them
harder to pry apart again via the
selector forks when the time
comes to change gear, resulting
in that heavier shift action, and on
my rogue bike, missed gears.
MV is working on a solution,
but it's disappointing that this
problem wasn't picked up and
sorted out during R&D. Hopefully
they'll soon fix what is the only
real blemish on an otherwise exceptional motorcycle.
One that was conceived from
the very outset as forming the topof-the-line model in MV Agusta's
three-cylinder range, says Gillen.
"We had the engine drawn up
in both 675cc and 800cc ca-
A HOMOLOGATED TOP
" MV CLAIMS MPH FOR THE NEW
SPEED OF 167
BIKE - 10 MPH UP ON THE SMALLER
MODEL...
"
pacities before we made a single
prototype part for it," he reveals.
"Claudio Castiglioni [MV Agusta's
late President, who passed away
two years ago] was very adamant
about not only bringing out the
F3 675, but also a new middleof-the-road Superbike based on
that platform, that would be developed in parallel. The 800 and the
675 were designed, developed
and industrialized together."
So why launch the smaller
model first?
"For marketing reasons. We
brought out the F3 675 at a new
lower price point that was pretty
far removed from our previous
MV Agusta price levels, to make
it clear that we're really capable
how on earth did Triumph allow
itself to be beaten to the punch
by its Italian rival? As good as the
new Daytona 675R undoubtedly
is, the British company has had
its 800cc triple motor in production for over two years in the
Tiger 800 – so how did it pass
up the chance to build this bike
first, before MV? And secondly,
does Yamaha have a similar such
sportbike model under development powered by its new 850cc
three-cylinder engine, that's
about to make its debut in the
MT-09? I think we all know the
answer to that, don't we? I guess
that means the new MV Agusta
F3 800 is quite definitely a trendsetter.
CN
