Italian Job

Fast Bikes reader Turbo Trev takes us through the highs and lows of owning his four-year-old MV F3 800.

- Turbo Trev

I’m no stranger to Italian engineering.We’re talking years and years ago now,but I’ve had all sorts of Italian bikes and cars, and I used to have so much bother with them all. It got to the point where I just thought stuff this, the next thing I buy will have to say ‘made in Japan’ on it. I’ve had Moto Guzzis, Cagivas, all sorts and every time I’ve had one it’s been a long time before I’ve gone back to Italian machinery again. Deep down I have always loved Italian bikes though and after a lot of thinking about it I decided I’ve been long enough without one now so it’s about time I gave it another chance.

According to the blokes over in the MV Agusta factory in Italy, the F3 has “the exhilaration of a 1000cc bike, the handling of a 600, the torque of a twin and the acceleration of a four-cylinder,” which sounds great doesn’t it? I’ll be honest though, they could have said anything about it; the moment I clapped eyes on the (then) new F3 800 in the showroom I fell in love and I knew straight away I wanted one. It’s a thing of beauty, and I just had to have one. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying looks alone can ever be enough to justify its £13,990 price tag and I didn’t just dive in head over heels and buy one. I wanted it dearly but I looked at all the problems associated with them first. I heard of problems with the clutch springs, intermittent fuelling problems at low revs, the rear brake fluid boiling up, all sorts. I was advised strongly by a lot of people against buying it but the looks kept screaming at me. In the end I just thought I don’t give a s*** what’s wrong with it, I’m buying it anyway and if it’s that bad I’ll flog it later!