MV Agusta Brutale 910S

My previous bike was a Ducati Monster 620.

On the Ducati the lack of power over the whole line was a point of frustration.

The Brutale defivers flatout power over the whole range. It does not matter if you are at 4000rpm or 10000rpm, the Brutale tears up the road the second you twist the throttle....
When coming from a smaller bike, the Brutale can seem frightfull the first ride. More as with any other bike I ever drove, the Brutale propulses you forward with such an awesome power that makes you smile in your helmet. Once seeted comfortable on the bike, you get to enjoy and control all that power under you. The level of leverage is amazing, it seems the bike just does whatever you want it to do. There were the Ducati 620cc was sometimes holding me down, the Brutale always screems more, more and faster.
Obviousely the bike goed to 210km/h and up without even showing signs of reaching it's limits. But as wit any naked bike (certainly without screen) driving harder as 200km/h is just a bit to windy to be fun for long. The fun in this bike lies in the acceleration. In Switerland the moutain roads form an excellent scenery for fun with torque.
In a turn you don't have to dive as with a racebike, rather you can just play with the Brutale under you, you throw it flat in the turn and pull it up by accelerating when coming out of the turn. pure fun!! The Brutale sticks to it's pats and delivers all the power you want thanks to it's excellent roadholding.
This bike gives me the feeling of riding on a pocketbike with 136hp in it. Although I am not tall (1m75) I always have the feeling of beeing tottaly on top of the bike.

The Brutale has a few down points.
It gets hot, you dont burn your butt but you feel the heat under you and on your legs. It looks 10times as hot as it feels though :D
Driving slow and in traffic requires a very strong left hand. the first gear is to nervous to drive slow in so the way to start-stop under 50 is definetly in 2nd gear and with a cuning left hand.
It consumes allot. More as a Porshe 911 even these days. So yeah, you still have to be green and save the planet, but this bike just is a thirsty thing.
The mirrors are literally unusable. The angle is not good and what you see in it trembles so hard it looks like a scrambled cable channel.

All in all, none of the downpoints will ever bother you.
This bike is just magnificent to look at and a pleasure to ride.
I guess some people find this a very expensive bike. Well this bike is art, not a serial, asian made bike-for-everyone. Not that a Kawa is not cool. When I park my bike in between the 3 Kawa's at work I like to look at them. But I'm never the one looking jalous though ;)

If you want to buy a bike, not only to have one, but to live it. The Brutale is the one!!

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Brutale 910S Vs Z1000

Naked bikes are often looked at as the bastard children of their sportbike counterparts. In some cases its true with a lot of naked standards being detuned from their sportbike brethren. They still perform well but you're left wanting more... well, more. Some on the other hand bring everything they ...can to the table but brake a dish or two along the way.

I owned a 2008 Kawasaki Z1000 for 4 years, buying it new in the Summer of '08. It meet the criteria I wanted in a bike with decent performance and upright ergonomics. The engine for the Z1000 was the old 953cc mill found originally in the ZX9R. For the first generation of Z1000 ('03-'06) it was slightly neutered. For the second generation of Z1000 ('07-'08) it was detuned again (114 rwhp with my additions). This time the typical top end punch of an inline 4 engine was lost but the bottom end was beautifully rich (and also to help reduce vibration). The Z1000's chassis was something right out of the 1980's. I have no love for a back-bone frame in something designed with performance in mind... Or implying any sort of performance. The suspension on the Z1000 was presented well with anodized forks and matching rear spring but the lack of compression damping let you 'almost' dial it in.

So with the Z1000 you got good performance as long as you weren’t going to attempt to put it on a track or push overly hard on the back roads. A beautifully fueled FI system that lost its top end punch but had predictable and linear power delivery. And a chassis what would wallow its way around a turn.

The bright side of it all was the ability to snap the throttle as low as 4000 RPM and the front end would lift letting you carry it however high you wanted to go for as long as you liked. Modulation of the throttle was precise and easy. The exhaust note through a set of Akrapovic pips was music to the ears and also helped with a somewhat missed styling queue. The brakes were also a highlight of the second gen Z1000. 4 piston / 4 pad radial mounted calipers and master cylinder made braking effortless. It seemed to be the one thing that wasn't brought out of the spare-parts bin when putting it all together.

Enter a new red-headed stepchild into the stable, a 2006 MV Agusta Brutale 910S.

In an apples to apples comparison these are really apples and oranges. The Brutale can best be summed up with its name, but imagine a harsh Australian accent when you say, 'brutal'. They share the same concept of naked performance bikes but they are worlds apart.

The Brutale 910S for 2006 marked a bump in displacement from the original 750cc mill (making 139 bhp). The trellis chassis shares its design queues from its big brother, the F4 1000. Huge 50mm Marzocchi fully adjustable forks and Sachs rear shock keep the bike stable. Everything I wanted addressed with my former Z1000 checked off the list... Almost.

You can thread the eye of a needle with how sharp and precise the handling is. But the fueling however is best described as 'Italian'. Every time I twist the throttle I hear a little Italian voice saying “why you need to slow down?”. It says that because when you roll off the throttle you turn off the power delivery. Light switches have more give to them. That precise modulation the Z1000 offers for when you float the front end is a violent thump of the front wheel trying to flatten the pavement on the Brutale as it slams back down.

The Brutale revs higher at a given RPM due to its gearing. At 5000 RPM is 6th gear its very smooth but its also only 65 MPH. The Z1000 was 10 MPH higher. Add another 1000 RPM to maintain highway speeds and the vibration goes from nominal to hand numbingly obscene. The induction howl that starts in at 6000 RPM has me grinning like a school girl at a Biebler concert though. The Brutale holds a full 5 gallons of gas but burns through it quicker than the Z did with 4.5.

In short if I could mix the chassis and handling of the Brutale with the power delivery of the Z1000 then I think I'd have stumbled on one hell of a naked motorcycle. Read Full Review