GO BIG OR GO HOME!

After the disappointing F4 750, in 2004 MV upped their game…

The problem with a fanfare is that when the trumpeters have run out of puff, you are left with a bunch of red-faced people holding a long brass tube in their hands in silence and not a lot else. Which is exactly what MV Agusta found when the excitement that heralded the 1999 launch of their F4 750 had abated and riders discovered that it was actually a bit of a slug. A great looking one, but a slug nonetheless. So what did MV do? Simple, in 2004 they gave it some balls! Big ones, like the cojones you find on a wild bull…

The F4 1000 arrived five years after the F4 750 in late 2004, which was bang on time to catch the wave of excitement that the latest generation of litre bikes from Japan had created. Having had a chance to see what the Japanese were claiming in terms of power and weight, MV made certain that this time their new sportsbike was more than a match.

Firm foundations

Boasting a hugely impressive claimed 164bhp with 109Nm of torque, the F4 1000 was most certainly on a par with the Japanese, who were all claiming (hugely optimistic) power figures in the 170bhp-area. And not only that, according to MV it tipped the scales at 192kg, which although 20kg heavier than Yamaha claimed for the YZF-R1 was a touch more accurate when it came to reality. How had a relatively small company like MV managed to match the cuttingedge Japanese factories?