The ACTUAL Ferrari of Motorcycles

if you asked 100 motorcyclists what they thought the Ferrari of motorcycles would be 98 of them would probably say Ducati but if you actually look at Ferrari's history and really their overall business model which is centered around Italian beauty and performance and exclusivity I think there's another company that could just as easily buy for that title that is the Ferrari of motorcycles that's right we're talking about mvagusta and specifically today arguably MV agusta's most important motorcycle for the modern era the F4 in my garage there's a giant poster of the original mvagusta f475 if you've been around the channel for a while you probably know that I'm not really a sport bite guy you know a little Honda CB from the 70s will get my attention far quicker than you know an R1 regardless there's something about this motorcycle this sport bike that has always captivated me and the more you learn about the F4 and specifically how it was designed you can see why it was able to successfully bring the great mvagusta name back to life and really helped turn the company into what I believe it is today which is the Ferrari of motorcycle companies now I've talked at length about the state of the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers through the 80s and the '90s but in the '90s over in Italy the picture was very different while Ducati certainly made significant leaps forward with models like the monster and of course the 91 6 despite Financial struggles they were really doing well but Italy as a whole was no longer known for producing really great superlative motorcycles companies like motoi were kind of floundering and of course the great mvagusta Mark was well non-existent bringing a company like mvagusta back to life would be no simple task in part that's because of the kind of motorcycles MV gusta had always been known for whether on the track or the road mv's bikes have always been known as truly exceptional machines aside from having one of the most dominant runs in Grand Prix racing through the 50s and 60s MV agusta's final big production sport bike from the 70s before the company's collapse was really the very peak of contemporary performance and it cost about as much as a typical house equal parts sport bike and a piece of art the 4-cylinder 750s from the mid-70s was the epitome of exclusive Italian manufacturing and though the company would die this last great big model would kind of pave the way for MV agusta's rebirth with the f475 but because of all of this it wasn't like the company could just return with say a lame little retro bike made mostly of other companies Parts the way that so many iconic brands are brought back today no they had to make a statement with a motorcycle thoroughly in the same vein as their previous motorcycles and so it all started in 1992 when the mvagusta name was purchased by a company called Kaja and specifically because the owners of Kiva as well as ducatti and Morini and huskvarna that is the Castiglione Brothers they wanted to take a stab at Reviving this great Italian brand the way they'd revived so many other companies Now The Rebirth of MV austa with an allnew motorcycle is very much an age-old Tale one you've no doubt heard if you've studied great motorcycle manufacturers it starts with a conversation often between a few men and a vision of creating something new in this case that conversation took place between claudo Castiglione and mimo tambourin tamborini had recently designed what many consider to be the single most beautiful motorcycle ever the Ducati 916 but for his final design with this new mvagusta he was about to outdo his previous work now a motorcycle is a pretty simple machine when you really break it down you've got an engine and then you've got everything else around that engine okay it's more complicated than that but you get the point for this new bike it was decided that the allnew engine would be designed by the experimental Department in veres that was like the R&D for castiglione's little group of motorcycle companies while the overall design including the styling was handed over to the Kaja Research Center headed up by masimo tamborini the goal of this new bike was to fuse together all the great elements of what had made mvagusta well MV austa sporting qualities technical sophistication and beautiful design all molded together in one machine and this is a Pursuit that would continue for the brand really up until today and they decided to call this new bike the F4 as difficult as it may be to put off talking about the rest of this bike's design the engine is actually one of the more fascinating aspects of this bike to make this new power plant Kaja decided to partner with Ferrari you heard that right Ferrari and because of that this 750cc inline 4 which is a rather boring set set up on paper even at this time would actually have a different kind of character to it than what was coming out of Japan initially they experimented with less traditional setups like offset cylinders they had to do something special right Ducati had really differentiated themselves as a sport bike brand from the Japanese manufacturers by making twins instead of high revving inline fours so mvagusta had to do something to stand out but in the end this 16 radial valve in line 4 just proved best as a power plant for them though expensive and difficult to develop radial valves had proven themselves in racing for Kiva they give more and better quality flow this is part of the reason this 750cc inline 4 was able to produce 126 horsepower at 12,200 RPM which put it right on par with the GSXR 750 at least in terms of overall power also remember Suzuki had been making their modern high revving 750cc inline 4 for about 15 years at this point but for mvagusta this was essentially a new Endeavor for a new company of course having Ferrari behind you certainly doesn't hurt now it's difficult to say exactly why but the f4s engine just had a unique character to it in comparison to other high reving inline 4S from the time in a similar manner to the modern crossplane R1 engine and though you can get a sense for this when you just hear the bike [Music] let me show you a small exerpt from the old two enthusiasts podcast where they really explain what this bike is like but you're right on the mechanical side the MV it is raw they are more raw that four-cylinder engine that's in there is more raw it makes more vibration it has more of a mechanical sound to it it sounds you know a lot of people make fun of me but sounds like a diesel at low RPM and it has just a growl to it that is like no other well what that weird like undertale exhaust it has a weird shape to the pipe that's part of it is the exhaust but you don't really hear the exhaust when it's sitting there on idle over the sound of the engine itself which is gnarly I mean it's a very loud I'll say this is a loud four-cylinder I don't because when they were designing it they were like we're going to give this radial valves and I think that's what happened with that bike and it does have a different soul to it it has a different sound to it now there are loads of interesting features in terms of the bike's mechanics it was the first ever inline 4 production bike to feature a GP style retractable or cassette gearbox which means you could just pull it out on the go and replace it or work on it this is pretty amazing stuff and it's one of the more overlooked aspects of the F4 and if you have an early F4 ideally you would have a specialist you know help you work on it or work on it for you but I have read multip multiple posts on forums where mechanically minded individuals can actually find their way around this bike it wasn't an exotic Italian machine where only form was considered and nothing else mattered for what it was it was surprisingly usable and accessible and pretty simple to work on and even the frame is a testament to this value and it shows just how brilliant of a designer tambourin was he's one of the greatest motorcycle designers of all time he designed the frame for performance and even adjustability in terms of steering geometry but also it can be split in two halves to get to the engine now the f4s overall design was really a symphony of Form and Function its Sleek aerodynamic Bodywork exuded sophistication reflecting tambourin signature style though this overall design was still quite unique even for what he had made every curve and Contour was meticulously crafted not just for Aesthetics but to optimize performance and aerodynamics and if we know anything about tamborini it's that he was sort of a mad scientist when it came to designing motorcycles and he wasn't always the easiest person to work with but man he knew how to design a motorcycle the distinctive quad exhaust single-sided swing arm and the Striking Cyclops headlight Arrangement became defining features of the F4 really setting it apart from other bikes in its class at this time though Suzuki would quickly take this specific headlight setup and make it their own but we don't need to talk about that now that Bodywork can be easily removed with these pins kind of like a Honda Grom which is pretty cool although that would be the only feature that it shares with the Honda Grom as far as I know and as oddly practical and reliable as these bikes would prove to be that never really took away from the thoroughly Italian feel that the motorcycle exuded the turn signals were tucked away into the mirrors to give the bike a sleeker tidier look and between those two mirrors looking at the cockpit sits the gauge cluster beautifully shaped to actually match the mirrors in The Same Spirit of Simplicity of design the rear brake master cylinder is tucked under the engine the unique unders seat organ Style exhaust rings out in otherworldly sound F4 and MV logos can be found all over the bike in different forms reminding you exactly who made this bike and 37 Stars can be found on the gas tank representing mv's 37 Grand Prix title and those Stars also match the beautiful star-shaped Wheels Jeff Stone sums it up perfectly in his review of the bike because beautiful it certainly is just look at those flowing sculptured lines from the poly idal stacked headlights encased in a slim and s-like fairing to a voluptuous sculptured tank to a tail unit kned the Madonna's rear end to silencers that emerge like Cathedral organ pipes to star-shaped whels that are so distinctly different at the 1997 ikma show in Milan claudo Castiglione presented the f475 Siri Oro describing in detail the work that had gone into this new motorcycle and gako agustini was given the honor of pulling back the curtain those present were in awe tamborini had done it again here was a motorcycle with arguably even more Italian sex appeal than the Ducati 916 the Siri Oro meaning Gold Series was the first released version of the mvs F4 here's the problem though gold isn't exactly a precious metal that is known for weight savings so despite the fact that the swing arm and wheels and frame do look gold it's actually just all magnesium still pretty advanced stuff for this time and the body is almost entirely made of carbon fiber the only gold portion of the bike was that little emblem showing which number of 300 that you had here's the thing though who really cares about all of this if the bike doesn't work the way it should after getting over their initial fear of potentially crashing this Priceless piece of art early testers found the bike to be uh good yeah good it was a bit heavy for a 750 but it still handled really well and though it was a Marvel of engineering and it did absolutely scream its way around a track it wasn't really a match for the GSXR 750 in terms of overall performance that bike was simply faster and did faster lap times and so m 's hope of having the F4 be their path into Superbike racing success just wouldn't really pan out it was raced at various times but it wasn't really competitive that doesn't mean it's not a fast motorcycle it certainly is but in all honesty the F4 750 never performed in quite as superlative a manner as it looked no the next iteration of the F4 would really be The Sweet Spot that is the 1000cc version at various points through its long run it would be like leader bike royalty often holding the title of most powerful motorcycle in the world and sometimes also having the highest top speed the first 200 buyers of the original Siri oo version of the F4 were forced to take a pledge well they were forced to sign a contract that they would not only not race their bike but that they also couldn't sell it that original Siri Oro version of the F4 ran you a whopping 25,000 today that would be about $770,000 that was 199 98 So today we're talking about $70,000 in talking about mvagusta as the Ferrari of motorcycle companies the reason I wanted to highlight this first generation F4 and the return of MV austa is that with this motorcycle MV was able to create a pattern for themselves a business model really one that we would see again and again from the company and even just a few weeks ago we saw it again with a new version of the super vce this is a business model of producing exclusive hyper expensive and often limited edition models in honor of the man who really pioneered this for MV mvy released the f4cc or F4 claudo Castiglione and that motorcycle is one of the single most expensive production bikes ever made at $120,000 in 2007 absolutely dwarfing bikes like the super leera at least in terms of price what we see when looking at mvagusta is that the F4 really paved the way for the company to have success as a quite unique brand in the market not just in building exclusive limited edition bikes but even in their regular production motorcycles for example each bike is put together by hand by one individual who then signs the bike in large part thanks to Adrien Morton the company was able to keep designing new different but equally as beautiful and exotic motorcycles from the weird unsuccessful revale that is still a pretty cool bike to the the dragster to the super volce if you live in the US or really anywhere owning a Ducati as a sport bike Enthusiast simply isn't the equivalent of owning a Ferrari as a sports car Enthusiast in terms of performance it may be no doubt ducatti is pretty far ahead of MV austa in that way though mv's naked lineup is really on par with anything out there but if you're talking about exclusivity and just that Italian vibe that is the thing that Ferrari has really mastered and you want that as a motorcyclist there's only one company to purchase your bike from and that's MV austa

Channel: bart

Views: 120,430

Keywords: bart, motorcycle, motorcycles, vintage, retro, classic, top 10, top, best, moto, bike, motorbike, motorcycle history, motorcycle essay, video essay, best motorcycle video, motorcycle youtuber, honda, kawasaki, suzuki, yamaha, ducati, history, best motorcycle, best motorcycles, craziest, greatest, mv agusta, italian, italian motorcycles, ferrari, ducati motorcycles, mv agusta f4, the actual ferrari of motorcycles, exotic motorcycles, craziest motorcycles, sportbike, racebike, ducati 916

Id: D5PPDrUkQEY

Length: 15min 35sec (935 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 23 2023