‘Quite simply superb’
MV’S new Super Veloce is a looker, but dig beneath its design and you’ll find a fine sportsbike
Amotorcycle with its style one wheel in the 1970s and one in the near future. A motorcycle that goes and handles like a sportsbike but isn’t so extreme you need to be a Cirque Du Soleil contortionist to sit on it. And a motorcycle that’ll make your brain fizz when you bury the tacho needle. MV Agusta’s new three cylinder Superveloce 800 is all this and more. As you’d expect from MV nowadays you get lots of design, modern tech and beautifully detailed and finished components. The Superveloce 800’s snout, slender suede-covered seat unit, fake leather tank strap and fuel cap buckle all nod to what racing bikes looked like when the world was black and white. But then there are LEDS, a single-sided swingarm, chunky brakes, sticky tyres and a StonerDesmosedici shaped tail. Oh and lean sensitive rider aids, an up/down quickshifter, rider modes and colour dash, a three-year warrantee and two years roadside assistance.
Beneath all this the Superveloce 800 is actually an F3 800, right down to its ultra-stiff rolling chassis, 146bhp 798cc inline three-cylinder engine, crunchy exhaust note and growling induction raw. Derived from the F3 675 the ‘stroked’ motor has been around since 2013 and is crammed with racy internals such as titanium valves and counter rotating crank.
So, while the MV is designed to look like a gentleman’s retro racer it does go like stink and with handling to match. That’s not a surprise but what is remarkable is, for the road, the Superveloce 800 could be the machine sportsbike fans have been looking for all these years.
With its slightly raised clip-ons and low footpegs it’s roomier than a race rep, however, the hard seat is a booty-basher and the low screen doesn’t offer much wind protection.
MV have tweaked the fuelling and ride-by-wire, so the Italian triple finally behaves itself all the way through the rev-range, especially at low speeds, where they’ve always struggled before. This jewel of an engine finally has the throttle manners it’s always deserved, but it still keeps its trademark rawness. This is an engine that delivers everything you want – revs, torque, big speed and excitement and little of what you don’t, which is too much power. A sub-150bhp 800 is just about the perfect capacity for a sportsbike. If it had a four-cylinder 1000cc engine with monster bhp (like its Brutale 1000RR big sister) it wouldn’t be half as involving or satisfying.
The Superveloce 800 is a feelgood bike. It’s visceral, sharp and handles well, until you start to push on and then you’ll quickly realise that, strangely, the Sachs rear shock is laughably underdamped on standard settings. It causes the Superveloce 800 to buck, weave and slap when you push on, but happily it’s easily remedied with a touch more rebound and compression damping. Now the Marzocchi forks are more controlled, but for a bike that costs the same as a big-bore supernaked you’d expect tasty WP or Öhlins. Post-twiddle, the MV behaves itself, although the ride still isn’t the last word in plushness. Like the F3 it takes a heave to get the Superveloce 800 through slower corners, but the front end feel is delicious and it has a lust for fast sweepers where the harder you push the more it digs in and the more confidence it pours into you.
Pirelli Diablo Super Corsa IIS take anything you care to throw their way and Brembo monoblocs are reassuring, but the ABS intrudes under hard braking and robs them of some of their feel. Sadly, it’s the way they have to be set for Euro 5 rather than any failings on MV’S part.
If you love the idea of the Superveloce 800 you’ll love the way it goes, sounds and looks. And underneath it all the MV is quite simply a superb sportsbike in its own right.
‘This jewel of an engine finally has the throttle manners it’s always deserved, but keeps its rawness’