MV Agusta Turismo Veloce ‘Lusso’
Give MV its due, the Turismo Veloce ‘Lusso’ does have a sporty enough appearance, with the F3-inspired nose cone, bold trellis frame and purposeful lines making it one fine looker. The seat unit, too, remains impressive in both its design and sparseness, with parts where you see right through it when not obscured by panniers or a pillion’s legs. In fact, the seat unit is so nice to look at, it’s almost a shame to bother with panniers at all! As an FYI, a decent rucksack sits nicely on the pillion pad, just sayin’…
All of the controls sit nicely to thumb and finger, which you then use to adjust everything via the dash. Now, the full colour dash; at first you’d be excused for thinking there is way too much going on. Turn the key and the bike runs a series of checks, marked by green ticks over a side-on image of the bike. Then the dash opens and there is a remarkable amount of information on display, and a veritable library of various options to thumb through. It’s only overwhelming for the initial viewing though; you quickly acclimatise and it’s as responsive as you’d expect it to be.
Thumb the starter and the counter-rotating crank’d triple sparks into life, a quick blip of
the ride-by-wire throttle tells you it’s as immediately responsive as we’ve come to expect from MV. However, via the Euro 4 exhaust you do lose a portion of character in an aural sense. A pity but, hey, that’s Euro 4 for you.
The seat height isn’t an issue for my six-foot plus frame, though shorter pilots may have a bit more of a stretch. Then you’re presented with bars that are just ‘there’, almost thrust upon you, closer than you’d expect. There’s barely any weight going through them at all in fact, which we’ll get to later.
Click into gear via an updated and far slicker gearbox, release the ultra-light clutch and the Veloce gently pulls away with a small application of gas.
The first impression is astonishing, especially if you’ve been riding MV triples since their first attempt. The entire process of getting away, and then accelerating and decelerating, is remarkably smooth. This bike has a whole raft of updates thrown at it, internal and external, plus lots of new code and
algorithms for the electronics and gasser, and by Jove it shows.
Only at the very bottom end, there’s the (now gentle) graunch the F3 range always displayed. It used to seem as though you felt bits were being shaved off the inside of the engine (they weren’t), but now it’s muted. The throttle response is also hugely improved, easily as good as anything else out there but despite this, there’s something else on my mind – the seating position.
MV have opted for riding ergonomics that don’t want you moving around too much – the seat cossets you into one upright position, and with the bars being closer than usual your movement choices are limited, which made adjusting body position an interesting exercise to say the least. I knew there must a reason though, and there is, which is linked to the stupendously fast (for a touring bike) steering action it’s capable of.
It drops into a corner with barely any input at all, and it’s arrow accurate, too. So, I found a stretch of road with a series of slow-fast s-bends, took one end of each bar
between finger and thumb, and rode the Veloce as quick as I could.
It was a cinch, it would just pitch from one side to the other with just the meagre input through two fingers and two thumbs, one set of which was also operating the throttle. This is why MV doesn’t want you moving around too much – you simply don’t need to! It was impressive, as was general road holding. The electronic suspension was terrific over a multitude of bumpy stretches, it soaked up everything so well I barely noticed and the bike remained solid throughout. However, not fully solid, as even on the ‘sports’ setting the suspension is very soft. I’d go as far as to say too soft if you start riding like a hooligan, it just doesn’t support you how you’d like and this is exacerbated on the very edge of the tyre.
I don’t know if it’s just the suspension being constantly adjusted, or the tyres fitted to this bike, or a combination of both, but I wasn’t comfortable going for full lean antics. It’d do it, but it wasn’t enjoyable and I couldn’t feel much in the way of feedback, either. Up until this point, despite the soft gait, it was perfect. And, I guess, very few will ever ride a Lusso like this so it is perhaps a moot point but, hey, this is Fast Bikes don’t forget! At least the brakes were phenomenally good, Brembos of course, and just divine to use in any fashion, fast or slow. As much or as little power as you need or ask for, with a wonderfully progressive performance curve. The only thing to slightly spoil it was that soft setup, a little firmer and the working action between braking and subsequent fork damping would be bang on.
Engine-wise, at first I rode the bike with the multitude of engine options on a more gentle setting, and it was fine. Later I switched everything to sportiest (there’s a crazy amount of options available), and while they did make a difference, it wasn’t quite to the level I’d have wanted. It is a good engine though, with a broad spread of power from the word go, and anyone who’s ridden a counter-rotating crank’d bike will be familiar with the unique feel of the engine’s pull. It’s a delivery that’s hard to put into words, but it’s as though the crank is made from air and spins ludicrously quickly with barely any feeling via your contact points (as happens most other bikes) that it’s even there at all!
Yet the Veloce lacks an edge, even though it’ll stunt a bit, almost as though it’s too refined – we know what these engines are capable of. I mean an intoxicating edge, one that fluffs up your dander, one that makes you go ‘Ooooo’ when you nail the life out of it. It’s not slow, far from it, but still it’s as though there’s something slightly missing. Despite the gentle gripes, though, this an impressive showing, it’s a bloody good motorcycle. All the electronics such as the traction-control work well, the up-down gear shifter is a joy to use, there’s a whole bunch of touring niceties to wade through and even the heated grips did a great job. So, not quite the touring sportster we were after, but a damn fine motorcycle nonetheless.