MV AGUSTA: F3 Competizione

Its parent firm Pierer might be suffering financial woes, but MV Agusta keeps turning up to bike shows with outstanding machinery. This F3 Competizione is a solid upgrade to the firm’s 800 supersports weapon, with radical aerodynamic bodywork, and an even more radical weight loss programme all over.

The engineers have cut wet weight to just 185kg with the supplied titanium race Akrapovic exhaust fitted. With that pipe in place, it also makes 160bhp @ 13,500rpm, giving a very tasty power-to-weight ratio of 0.9bhp/kg.

The big changes over the RR version are on the chassis front. The Competizione has full Öhlins suspension at both ends of the steel tubular trellis frame. The front fork is a fully adjustable NIX30 USD unit with 43mm TiN-coated stanchions.

Out back is an Öhlins TTX 36 shock absorber, also fully adjustable, and operated through the gorgeous singlesided swingarm. The Competizione also has trick new carbon wheels, specifically developed for the bike, and which cut unsprung mass by a massive 3kg over aluminium rims.

Agusta says the mods ‘sharpen up the bike’s handling and agility, especially in quick direction changes, while also adding a touch of aesthetic prestige with their matte-finished exposed carbon’. The trick chassis is rounded off by a new braking system, with 320mm discs and Brembo Stylema monobloc radialmount calipers. No price as yet on the F3 Competizione – but expect it to be pretty stiff.

Report: Alan Dowds