2000 MV Agusta F4 Strada - Motorcycle.com
Torrance, California, October 11, 2000
Motorcycle Online contributor, canyon carver and former GP racer, Michael Cottam, has spent some serious saddle time on MV Agusta's new F4 Strada. With a list price of $18,895, this 750cc superbike clearly is intended for discriminating tastes. It's sort of like a $4 espresso when a few tablets of Vivarin will get the job done quicker and cheaper.
Needless to say, MV delivers Italian style and
Read on for his detailed account.
I'd ordered the MV Agusta F4 Strada a few months before my annual summer motorcycle trip.
A few friends and I take a wee tour of eastern Oregon, Nevada, and northern California each year - usually somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 miles. Most of the trip is in the high desert where it's very sparsely populated but littered with plenty of twisties and hilly bits where you can have a bit of fun with minimal chance of a formal interview by the guys with the flashing lights. The delivery date for the bike was typically Italian, that is to say I heard the term "next week" many times. Two months later, I still don't have an owner's manual... sigh.
The bike arrived about a week and a half before my trip. Interestingly, it was shipped in the crate nearly ready to go: air in the tires, brake and clutch fluid in it. Instant Italian Superbike-in-a-box... just add water (and coolant, oil and charge the battery) and go.
Given that we were going many places where it'd be hard to find a mechanic who could spell "MV" much less work on one, I wanted to get the 600 mile service out of the way while still in Portland. After a few around-town miles and post-work rides, I finished off the first 600 miles with lunch at my parent's house. This is a 300 mile round-trip from Portland.
The other maintenance bit I tackled before leaving was to have Bardsley Donovan at Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo (my local dealership) replace the high-pressure fuel lines with braided steel lines. I contacted Cagiva North America through the dealer, asking about the two American magazine test bikes that had both ruptured their fuel lines (one wetting the rear tire and dumping the rider down hard), but the response from the Cagiva rep was completely unsatisfactory. He claimed that the test bikes with the problems had been Euro-version D'Oro series bikes and that they didn't think there was a problem with my particular model. Funny thing is, both articles show bikes with black swingarms (thus contradicting the rep's statement). Ultimately, I didn't really think I wanted to risk my life to prove the point and just paid for the lines myself. This is disappointing, considering the general quality of the bike and the great service I'd received from the dealer so far.
My friend Russ disagreed, having to pull over after maybe 20 minutes of riding. But he's in his fifties and weighs, in his words, "an eighth of a ton."
Surprisingly, I didn't have a problem with the ergos on our trip that covered as much as 400 miles per day with only minor swelling. My hands and butt suffered the worst. My knees, back and feet were okay.
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