There’s no denying a triple shooter will give you a memorable rush. There’s also no denying the new MV Agusta Brutale 800 triple will have a similar effect, without the hangover.
I can recall, as a youth, drooling over the bikes that were available at the time. As I laid out the colourful brochures across my mother’s untouchable and highly polished dining table my legs used to twitch like a praying mantis’ arm in anticipation of owning one these beautifully photographed machines. There was no internet then either, where one could just click and view our dream machines, oh no, you had to get off your lazy arse and ride to the bike shop to collect these glossy sheets.
But, although my declining mind remembers these uncomplicated days, it also remembers how relatively uncomplicated those engines were. Let’s look at a Suzuki GS1000 for example; air-cooled, four-cylinder, two-valve head, five gears, carbs, and that was it. Nowadays anything with those specifications is a relic ridden only by the poor or an ancient git trapped in his own time bubble, er, a bit like me I suppose.
Today things are very different. The new MV Agusta Brutale 800 has more technology and ‘fancy pants’ engineering than a nuclear reactor from the era I’ve just spoken about. In fact, if I’d had a glossy pic of this bike placed gingerly upon my mum’s prized table I’d have said it belonged on the set of Buck Rogers, that is if anyone remembers him with his annoying paedophile inspired robot?
Look, the MV Brutale 800 is a motorbike with two-wheels, single-sided swing-arm, upside-down forks, steel tube frame and no fairing, so nothing is particularly new there, and it’s obviously a naked bike. I hate that term ‘naked’, don’t you? Why don’t people just call it a normal motorbike? I’ve never heard of a Brough Superior or Vincent being called a ‘naked’ bike. Can you imagine Lawrence of Arabia telling his feverish hoards he rides a ‘naked’ motorbike but, then again, he was reputed to be gay, so maybe he did?
So what’s so special about the MV Brutale 800 then, you ask? Well it’s the engine, plain and simple. So let me just go through what you get inside the MV’s frame rails:
The three, super-cool tail pipes give away the three-cylinder, in-line, configuration. It displaces 798cc, has 12-valves and it’s liquid-cooled. But under the crankcases is a very clever counter-rotating crankshaft, which basically means it runs backwards.
This is derived from MotoGP technology to reduce inertia and makes the bike turn quicker into corners apparently, which is also used on MV’s F3 675cc sportsbike. But it’s the electronics package that separates the Brutale 800 from anything else in this class.
MVICS (Motor & Vehicle Integrated Control System) is the brain of the bike. It controls the ride-by-wire throttle bodies from Mikuni, which means no ‘old school’ cables because it’s all done electronically. You’ll get three ignition/fuelling map modes to deal with severity of engine output and a custom one where you can dial in your own taste for performance. Eight settings of traction control are there to fiddle with and you can even program in the amount of engine braking you’d like - again from MotoGP - and the amount of torque you’d prefer. All of this can easily be accessed from the handlebars and displayed on the superb and class-leading instrument console, which again looks like it’s from a Buck Rogers spaceship when illuminated at night. So this is one clever little package for sure.
When I collected the bike form Cayenne, who is the official importer for MV, I asked them to turn off everything that interferes with outright performance and set everything that gives the most to max. I then had the most powerful settings and, to be honest, I never turned anything back on but, if you buy one, I’m sure you’ll have endless hours of programmable fun. I just prefer a bike to produce the most from the word go and boy does this 800 produce.
On Noddy’s Dynojet dyno it made over 105hp at the wheel, by far the most powerful 800 we’ve ever tested. But it’s the way this electrically riddled engine spins up to its 13,000rpm rev-limiter that takes your breath away. As you pull off, in this setting, it will surge forward and then suddenly flick the front wheel in your face with a rude ‘how dare you switch off my trickery and not try my lesser settings’ attitude. The air-box also dramatically responds with an induction howl that the devil would copy to CD. This is one nasty little motor that demands respect, or it might bite ya. Definitely aided by the surprisingly light dry weight of a mere 167kgs! However the chassis, although stiff and in itself a masterpiece of Italian styling and beautifully finished, can become a little nervous and twitchy when accelerating hard. I did spot a spacer on the fully adjustable Sachs rear shock and, if I decided to buy a Brutale 800, I would certainly take it out and drop the rear end to ‘kick’ the forks out to attain more straight line stability. After all this bike will easily see the far side of 240km/h, if you’re brave enough to go there!
If you do like these sorts of velocities you can rest assured the powerful 320mm radial Brembo brakes will more than deliver eyeball dislodging stopping power, as normal. So there’s no point in waffling on about those.
Finally I come to the styling; if everything were crap about the Brutale 800 (but it’s not), it would be worth buying one just for looks alone - it’s one very pretty and interesting motorcycle. At R119,500 it offers exceptional value for such a chunk of Italian exotica and delivers excitement by the bucket load and more technology than one can shake an iPod at. Now all I need is an MV brochure and an old dining table because, at my age, I uncontrollably produce too much drool anyway, but this particular 800 really does deserve it.
Click on to www.mvagusta.co.za for more models and contact details.
