Sort of stumbled upon opportunity to test-ride an MV Agusta 750 F4 this Saturday.
Was at my dealer's for yearly check of the alarm (self-arming type required by the insurance company) on my Busa and the way this is arranged means bike has to stay there for at least 3 hours just in case it falls victim to the random sampling as executed by the organisation in my country that handles the registration of these "certified" alarms for the insurers.
I was back to pick it up a little early and while strolling around to kill time, my eyes suddenly caught the image of an MV750 with the tires clearly giving away it had been used already to say the least.
So I walk up to "the boss" of this shop (that I know rather well) and say something like "Hey, an MV for test-rides?" with a big grin on my face.
He probably didn't catch what I asked exactly and surprised me by replying with "I'll get you the keys straightaway".
I then told him "no, wait" as I vividly remembered my test-ride on the Aprilia Mille making me wanna see a chiropractor directly afterwards and explained my reluctancy to him, but when he countered with the fact that this would be quite a unique opportunity AND the bike would be gone from his place after the weekend, I said "What the heck, give me those keys!".
Went for about 1/2 hours ride on well-known reasonably curvy terrain that I ride regularly and must say that it truely wasn't bad.
Of course the power when used to a Busa a.o. wasn't particularly overwhelming, in the sense that it felt like you needed to rev its nuts off like with your average Japanese 600cc SuperSports, but the handling and braking was great. In really fast corners it felt on rails just like the Busa and in slower corners it was definitely easier to throw around. One clear minus for me was its terrible tendency to stand-up on the brakes. It did this clearly even when only a couple of degrees off vertical and really took some getting used to for someone who's regularly still braking into a corner! Seating was far better than I expected, probably because contrary to when I did the Priller test-ride I'm now used to the Busa's position. All in all I had some good fun with it and noticed afterwards that the rear Michelin Pilot Sport looked a lot worse than before my ride, in showing that my weight and riding-style combo had rubber curled up unto the edges already (but then I had been able to include both a LH and RH very long and fast curve onto a highway that was taken leaned-over darn far and accellerating all the way through far into the triple digit mph zone).
When I rode away on my Bus shortly afterwards, its handling felt like a truck for a while but that feeling quickly faded and I wouldn't trade it for the world, OK maybe for the Japanese Yoshimura Hayabusa X-1?
Oh, BTW, this was "only" the S-version not the d'Oro but even for this I would have to part-ex with both of my bikes, although this bike sure is a sight for sore eyes and would be one to put on the mantelpiece and just enjoy looking at and drooling around.
Was at my dealer's for yearly check of the alarm (self-arming type required by the insurance company) on my Busa and the way this is arranged means bike has to stay there for at least 3 hours just in case it falls victim to the random sampling as executed by the organisation in my country that handles the registration of these "certified" alarms for the insurers.
I was back to pick it up a little early and while strolling around to kill time, my eyes suddenly caught the image of an MV750 with the tires clearly giving away it had been used already to say the least.
So I walk up to "the boss" of this shop (that I know rather well) and say something like "Hey, an MV for test-rides?" with a big grin on my face.
He probably didn't catch what I asked exactly and surprised me by replying with "I'll get you the keys straightaway".
I then told him "no, wait" as I vividly remembered my test-ride on the Aprilia Mille making me wanna see a chiropractor directly afterwards and explained my reluctancy to him, but when he countered with the fact that this would be quite a unique opportunity AND the bike would be gone from his place after the weekend, I said "What the heck, give me those keys!".
Went for about 1/2 hours ride on well-known reasonably curvy terrain that I ride regularly and must say that it truely wasn't bad.
Of course the power when used to a Busa a.o. wasn't particularly overwhelming, in the sense that it felt like you needed to rev its nuts off like with your average Japanese 600cc SuperSports, but the handling and braking was great. In really fast corners it felt on rails just like the Busa and in slower corners it was definitely easier to throw around. One clear minus for me was its terrible tendency to stand-up on the brakes. It did this clearly even when only a couple of degrees off vertical and really took some getting used to for someone who's regularly still braking into a corner! Seating was far better than I expected, probably because contrary to when I did the Priller test-ride I'm now used to the Busa's position. All in all I had some good fun with it and noticed afterwards that the rear Michelin Pilot Sport looked a lot worse than before my ride, in showing that my weight and riding-style combo had rubber curled up unto the edges already (but then I had been able to include both a LH and RH very long and fast curve onto a highway that was taken leaned-over darn far and accellerating all the way through far into the triple digit mph zone).
When I rode away on my Bus shortly afterwards, its handling felt like a truck for a while but that feeling quickly faded and I wouldn't trade it for the world, OK maybe for the Japanese Yoshimura Hayabusa X-1?
Oh, BTW, this was "only" the S-version not the d'Oro but even for this I would have to part-ex with both of my bikes, although this bike sure is a sight for sore eyes and would be one to put on the mantelpiece and just enjoy looking at and drooling around.