7TH MV AGUSTA BRUTALE 1000RR
You have to hand it to MV Agusta – it doesn’t do things by halves, especially when it comes to how its bikes look and how the spec sheets read. The 2021 Brutale 1000RR is no exception – with the biggest price tag, highest quoted BHP at the highest RPM, and most bonkers styling of all the bikes in the test.
It’s got all the right ingredients to qualify as a thoroughbred MV Agusta, right down to how awkward it is to ride on the road. The fact that it’s finished in last place is not to say it’s especially bad, it’s just that the others are much more refined and capture the spirit of what a naked bike – “super” or otherwise – should be; an antidote to the sportsbike they are based on, and the other side of the same coin.
Where a sportsbike has an intensity and a single-minded purpose that demands you bring your A-game, if you want to experience what it can do, a naked bike puts much less demand on the rider for almost the same levels of performance and rush that comes with it – and it’s on this point that the MV falls over on the most. It’s far too close to the F4 sportsbike it is based on... by saying based on, I actually mean exactly like. The Brutale 1000RR misses the whole point of being a naked bike by having a cramped riding position just like a sportsbike, and an engine that needs to be revved so high to get to its claimed 205bhp that by the time you get there, you doing the sort of unspeakable speeds you would on a sportsbike.
Meanwhile, all of the other bikes in this test have wheelied off into the distance due to their instant power virtually from tickover, and therefore lower speeds. Where the Triumph will wheelie from virtually walking pace off the throttle, the MV needs to be doing about 50mph in first gear with about 10,000rpm and a massive dip of the clutch to even have a chance at the lowest speed wheelie it can offer thanks to the power delivery and long gear ratios.
Where the Ducati is comfortable all day long, the MV is agony after 15 minutes, where the electronic suspension on the Kawasaki feels refined and just right, the MV’s electronic suspension feels like it needs to be under heavy loads like a race bike to get it into its sweet spot, like the springs are too heavy, and like it’s over-sprung – which even the best electronically controlled suspension can’t do anything about.
It’s a shame that the MV misses the mark in terms of the brief. It feels like it’s almost in the wrong test, and would stand out for the wrong reasons less so than if it was part of our Ultimate Sportsbike test. It might be naked, but the experience it serves up is much closer to that of a superbike, which
doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad bike – it isn’t. It just doesn’t do the same things the others do. I suppose it’s probably more of a café racer than a naked bike.
It might sound like I’m putting the boot in on the Brutale 1000RR and I’m not. Setting aside the fact that all the other bikes read the naked bike brief and MV either didn’t get it or didn’t bother, what you have is a bike that makes a strong claim for being one of the most striking-looking bikes ever made... that if you didn’t know better, you could believe it belongs on a film set or a cartoon.
I mean, who makes a bike with four exhaust pipes these days? Or a brake light that you can see right through from behind? Or a bike with the TFT dashboard inboard of the top yoke, where the ignition barrel is on most bikes? And who makes a bike with a seat pad for each bum cheek? Answer: MV Agusta.
The whole bike is so tightly packaged and has had so much style put before substance that the basic stuff – like where your feet go when they’re on the foot pegs – is still a mystery, even after spending three days with it. How can it be that my eyes see the footpegs and know that they are there, but that my feet can’t locate them, and when they do, can barely fit on them – and no, I don’t have massive feet (size 9.5).
As far as I can tell, the pillion footpegs serve no purpose other than to protect passers-by and the rider from burning themselves on one of the many exhaust pipes that stick out of the back. Also, we had reason to need access to the rear brake fluid reservoir during the test, and without the means to completely strip the rear end of the bike, we just couldn’t reach it. Bizarre.
MV-specific idiosyncrasies aside, the Brutale 1000RR is not an unpleasant bike to ride, especially if you want to ride fast and loaded up with plenty of lateral g-force. The handlebars are low and wide, and the seat is
high, so you’re set in a riding position fit for that mode of riding and the suspension responds in kind. The fuel injection is okay, and like every other ride-by-wire MV that’s ever been before, the Brutale 1000RR has a much nicer throttle when it’s not in race/ track mode. Head down, revs up, and the MV really does come to life, much how a sportsbike does when you start to push on; it also has an agility to it that makes the F4 it’s based on feel a bit cumbersome. It flicks from upright to lean much faster, and feels like it does so due to how compact the whole package is, where it carries its weight, and how stiff it is. It’s impossible not to be impressed.
For me, the engine was a bit of a let-down, especially in the company of the other bikes on the test. It’s one thing making a 200bhp engine but it’s a bit pointless if to do so you tune it just to hit that number. It simply doesn’t feel like a 200bhp bike, mainly because of how little there is going on in the part of the rev range that gets used 80% of the time. Putting the spec sheet before the rider is never a good idea, and in the case of the Brutale it would be so much better if it had been tuned for, say, a mere 170bhp and have another 30bhp or 40bhp in the low or mid-range. Even when I found a bit of road long enough to let it rev all the way through, I’m not convinced it has its claimed 205bhp. Don’t get me wrong, it’s blisteringly fast once it gets into the top third of the revs, and the sensation is exaggerated by the lack of wind protection, but 205bhp? I’m not sure. It pulls the hardest in the middle third of the rev range where the anti-wheelie does a decent job of cutting and releasing the power in such a way that there isn’t any noticeable lurching. It’s good but not great. There are better anti-wheelie systems (Aprilia) and there are worse systems (Triumph), but for £27,000 I’d want the best rider aids.
This is the Brutale 1000RR’s first appearance in Fast Bikes, and there’s no denying that it made an impression on me, Bruce and Tim for all the right reasons once it became obvious that it really isn’t a supernaked.
It’s a properly trick bike with an engine full of titanium components, top-spec electronic Öhlins suspension and a chassis that is straight from the F4. It’s also got top-spec Brembo Stylema brakes, a full IMU-based rider aid set-up, and more style, character and attention to detail in the way the dashboard is mounted than some of the bikes here have all together.
It is classic MV Agusta, in so much that it sets a level of expectation based on how it looks and how its spec sheet reads so high that it’s almost impossible for the riding experience to live up to.
That doesn’t mean we didn’t like it; it’s just nowhere near as good as the other bikes on the test at doing the things a supernaked or any naked bike should do.
I love MV’s approach to how it designs and builds bikes. One of the big benefits of being a minnow in the world of motorcycle manufacturing is that because it’s dealing in such low volumes of production, it can make daft bikes safe in the knowledge that it’ll sell as many as it can make due to its exclusivity.
Frustratingly, the flip side is that the need to have perfect fuel injection, or better refined rider aids, or more workshop-friendly packaging, or more consideration for different shapes and sizes of riders isn’t as critical as when you need to sell hundreds of thousands of units instead of just thousands.
The Brutale 1000RR is utterly bonkers to look at and to ride. It is flawed, and in the company of the other bikes on the test is also massively overpriced as well as being massively outclassed. But here’s the thing – despite being in last place, I still want one.