2006 MV Agusta F4 1000
Miles: 8,637
Clean Title
Listing Price: $12,880
Listing Ends: July 11th, 2024
Introduced in 1998, the MV Agusta F4 750 heralded the return of one of the most storied brands in motorcycling history. Designed by Massimo Tamburini, it was utterly gorgeous, and featured an exotic radial-valve engine supposedly developed in conjunction with Ferrari. Unfortunately it was also hideously expensive and, before the bike was widely available to the public, it was eclipsed in terms of performance by the brand new 1000cc sportbikes that would rapidly make the 750cc class obsolete. Those new superbikes cost much less, weighed the same as the F4, and provided significantly more power. An updated F4 1000 appeared in 2005 that rectified the power disadvantage, but it was still very expensive, very uncomfortable, and a bit heavy, compared to bikes like the GSX-R1000. Considering how beautiful the F4’s design is, the company wisely felt little need to mess around with wild colors or graphics throughout the F4’s production run. The early bikes were classic MV silver-and-red, with some special-edition bikes using their own unique designs, including charcoal-grey Sennas and a few all-black SPRs. A few of the standard 1000cc bikes were available in today’s very striking blue-and-silver design that I actually prefer to the silver/red scheme.
The MV Agusta F41000S blends a monster engine, God-given handling and heart-aching beauty to be possibly one of the most desirable two-wheeled creations of all time.
MV Agusta raised the peak power, reduced the weight and added a new fuel injection system – the most advanced system to be used on a bike so far. It takes its inspiration from Formula One cars, using variable inlet tracks on each cylinder to increase power throughout the rev range, helping it to its top speed of 190mph.
As with yesterday’s Bimota YB9, the seller doesn’t really add much with their description. I guess “if you know, you know” with bikes like these as far as specifications go, but information about recent services, tire dates, et cetera would help a potential buyer manage their feelings about that $12,000 price tag. Sure, the mileage is low and the color is rare, but these blue-and-silver bikes haven’t generally been valued higher than the more classic silver-and-red bikes. In fact, I feel like most I’ve seen over the years have been a bit of a bargain. And honestly, most F4s have pretty low mileage: they’re really uncomfortable to ride any distance and massively impractical. For a sportbike, they’re relatively easy to work on, as panels remove very quickly and provide decent access. It’s almost as if they expected that these would need to be worked on regularly… Joking aside, it does ease maintenance for those of you willing to do some of your own wrenching.
-tad
Sorry to go off on a tangent. What caught my attention is the blue anodized add-on bits. I am a recreational trackrider. I have a recurring need for footpegs, levers, pedals, etc. My budget sees me on a Honda Grom and not a Ducati. These overseas aluminum bits are the ubiquitous in my corner of the sport. But after many years, these have slowly become the new standard by sales volumes. To the point they are as prevalent as the old bikemaster brand levers we had back in the 90s. So I must admit I understand the “why” in what i see here. But I still roll my eyes seeing the budget rider bits on a premium bike. Looking just like some of the bits on my Honda NSR250. Which I bought because I literally came up short trying to source anything else back in 2020. (Thanks you pandemic)…
The current post format is shorter than the one we’ve used in the past, so I had to edit out my mini-rant about all the goddamn blue farkles! I’ve ridden my friend’s blue/silver F4 1000 that’s afflicted by the exact same issue: random bits of blue anodized metal all over the thing, and even the remnants of what appears to be an LED lighting system under the tail section… It’s somehow worse than it would be on a different color bike, since the blue of the bodywork doesn’t match the blue of the metal parts very closely.