Cycle News

VOL. 53 ISSUE 45 NOVEMBER 15, 2016 P85 a pretty good idea of what it's like to sit on the bike that, as for many other people, is right up there when it comes to settling on my favorite ever racebike, and the Filorosso is uncannily similar, right down to its decep- tively diminutive stature. Though it's so perfectly proportioned that until you sit aboard the Magni MV you've no idea it's so relatively tiny—quite low, but also pretty short, with a compact 54-inch wheelbase (against 51.6 inches for Ago's GP racer) removing all sense of bulk—it's not until you see it without the fairing that you're aware of how perfectly pack- aged the Filorosso is. Thanks to the F3 engine being painted silver and thus pretty eye- catching, the low-mounted stock Brutale water radiator is so visually unobtrusive that you don't really notice it. There's just enough space for a 5'10" rider, though the foot pegs are very high. Giovanni Magni says he had to raise them because his youthful supersport test rider kept decking them, and you're pretty much wedged in place, seated quite far back on top of the rear suspension. This gives room for you to stretch out along the 3.6-gallon hand-beaten aluminum fuel tank to the low-mounted, steeply dropped clip-ons, and in so doing make space to crouch behind the screen, as well as make a stab at tucking your knees inside the fairing in a straight line. You're discour- aged from moving about the bike thanks to the cramped riding position, but that's okay, because the way to ride a motorcycle like this is definitely not to try to hang off it and stick your knee on the ground. Instead, you must try to keep tucked in aboard it, and use the sharp steering geometry (a 25º rake for the fully adjustable but definitely period-looking Forcella Italia conventional fork, with just 3.3 inches of trail via a 2.4-inch off- set on the machined-from-solid triple clamps), to flick the Filoros- so through tighter turns while you stay glued to the seat. Moreover, I found you must keep up turn speed in faster fourth-gear bends at the Pirelli test track where I rode the bike, by relying on the good grip from the skinny 110/80 ZR18 Met- zeler Roadtec Z8 mounted on the 2.50-inch EPM front rim to stay tucked behind the screen in pursuit of extra mph. Riding the Filorosso is just like racing a Classic 500 single only with a lot more power, and heaps more music! The bodywork is just wide enough to give good streamlining, with your shoulders adequately protected by the fairly broad screen as you wrap yourself around the tank, and allow your eyes to peer at the rather cluttered stock MV dash. Sorry, no period-style white-faced Veglia tacho! Giovanni Magni has jettisoned the traction control and anti-wheelie control programs incorporated in this by simply not installing the requisite sensors, and there's no ABS, either. But he's thankfully retained the powershifter on the street-pattern six-speed gearbox, and listening to the three gracefully tapering megaphone pipes' slightly muted (via internal silencing) but still gloriously evocative exhaust note change just an octave or so as you hit a higher gear rounding a wide-open sweeper, The result is a motorcycle that's as authentic a modern- day tribute as it's possible to get to what's arguably the most iconic Italian racebike ever made. The Filorosso sounds as good as the pipes look.

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