In English, “Filo Rosso” means Red Line, which calls to mind the one connecting all the great MV Agustacreations of yore to this fascinating creation of Giovanni Magni, who is the son of legendary MV Agusta Team Manager Arturo Magni (the man who keeps the legend alive by preserving the unique racing and production bikes at the MV Agusta Museum).
The Magni Filorosso was the most emotional bike on display at EICMA 2014; it added an abundant dose of old-style passion to the show. The historical link its name suggests loops from the MV Agusta 500/3 GP racer to the…MV Agusta 500/3 GP racer. This same loop has been attempted before, by Ezio and Maurizio Mascheroni under the suggestion of Mino Agostini himself. In that case, a batch of replicas was made from the original blueprints, and machining from billet every single component to make it exactly as it was in the days Mino stormed the sport. These were machined pieces of art, ridden only a few miles each year by a few lucky owners before being put back on display.
With his beautifully tailored replica, Giovanni Magni has taken a step toward real, practical enjoyment. His red line indeed starts with the MV Agusta 500/3 GP racer, but it takes a detour through the experience that the Magnis (Arturo and his sons Giovanni and Carlo) gathered from the late 1970s to date, first tuning and updating the MV Agusta 750 Sport to get the best out of those good-looking but not especially good-performing bikes. Then there was a limited production run of specials that duplicated the look (and some basic technical solutions from the MV Agusta sportbikes), but used non MV Agusta engines, mainly Moto Guzzi 1000cc V twins. An air-cooled Suzuki GSX1200 four powered a very pleasant replica of the first edition of the MV Agusta 750 Sport, the one that featured a red-white-blue “Disco Volante” style tank, a graphic theme that Magni brought up again on the Storia, a completely restyled MV Agusta Brutale 1090 Four unveiled at EICMA 2013.
All the Magni creativity kept orbiting around what MV Agusta had been and what it no longer was, and Giovanni’s red line connects all these experiences. When MV boss Giovanni Castiglioni granted access to the present crop of MV Agusta three-cylinder engines, the loop came full circle because Giovanni Magni, with the full blessing of his father, immediately thought of a Special that would finally be powered by an MV Agusta engine.
Sitting on this bike, feelings lost in time rush back. The handmade aluminum fuel tank is narrow, measuring 25.2 inches from steering head to its rear end, at the connection with the tiny seat. It follows that the seat is pushed way back, just about on top of the upper rear shock mounts, for a stretched-out riding posture like I had not experienced since the days of the “bevel gear” Ducati 750SS. I felt like I was going to crash all that beauty in the first corner because the riding posture felt “frozen” by the position of the pegs: high and forward in relation to the rearset seat, which is only 30.3 in. above the ground. There was no way to adopt any modern “body-lean” riding style to make this experience with the Magni Filorosso any easier.
The chassis has a compact 54.0-in. wheelbase, and Giovanni Magni was able to bias to the front wheel with a very good 50 percent of the Filorosso’s claimed curb weight of 353 lb. That is a static measurement, but, with the rearset riding position, things would change a lot under dynamic conditions, and the body weight of the rider becomes a major variable in the equation.
0 коммент.:
Отправить комментарий