NEW BIKES: MV Agusta’s LIMITED edition LXP Orioli Dakar-inspired adventure bike

If you think adventure bikes have become too popular and common for their own good, then meet the year’s most exclusive – and expensive – knobbly-shod all-rounder: the MV Agusta LXP Orioli. Costing an estimated €30,000 and limited to just 500 units worldwide, the bike is both a tribute to four-time Dakar Rally winner Edi Orioli, as well as the culmination of a project first announced by MV two years ago.

The LXP Orioli will be powered by a 931cc three-cylinder motor, heavily evolved from MV’s current platform. Wheels are proper adventure-sizes, with a tubeless spoked 21inch front and 18in rear, and Bridgestone’s AX41 knobbly tyres as an approved fitment. There’s decent suspension travel too, with 210mm at both ends offered by the Sachs forks and shock. Both ends are fully adjustable, but only manually – there’s no electronic or semi-active feature, which is surprising given MV offered it on the Turismo Veloce Lusso way back in 2015.

Sadly, the introduction of the LXP Orioli does appear to halt previous plans for the Lucky Explorer 9.5 which was hotly tipped to be going into production this year. Whether or not we’ll see it in the future remains to be seen – though we have a feeling MV’s made a concerted effort to retain its air of exclusivity, which it’s carved out by producing serious special sporty numbers for the track and road.