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Set aside normal concerns. Disregard your financial status, ignore your personal comfort, forget about your future goals and sacrifice your retirement. You must have this motorcycle.
Are we kidding?
Yes.
But only a little. There is a lot you can buy for $42,695. None of it is as beautiful or exciting as the MV Agusta F4 1000 Tamburini, a very special, limited-production version of the F4 1000 S, which itself already is a very special, limited-production motorcycle. Parent company Cagiva will no doubt make as many standard F4 1000s as can be sold, but only 300 Tamburinis will hit the roads of the world, with 59 coming stateside. If you want one, pick up the phone now. You may already be too late.
We who have been fortunate enough to ride this bike have seriously considered opening our wallets and busying Cagiva USA phone lines. Because not only is this bike exceptionally fine to look at, it is awesome to ride.
Named for MV design chief Massimo Tamburini, this bike is what the most exotic Bimotas should have been, and perhaps it really is the truest expression of what Tamburini (the "ta" on the end of "Bimo") was trying to do back in the old days. Or maybe it is the natural evolution of his last great work, the Ducati 916. You may have heard of that one.
Whatever the case, this bike that bears his name is, according to Tamburini as quoted in the brochure, "My dream. My bike."
Mr. T, head of the Cagiva Research Center that acts as MV's design house, continues: "The dream of every design engineer is to come up with the most beautiful sports motorcycle in the world, then turn it into the fastest, most exclusive, sought-after and powerful on the market."
Few would argue its beauty. And even if you never rode the Tamburini, looking at it might be enough. Gold-toned mesh covers fairing vent holes, while forged-aluminum wheels are gold-anodized to continue the theme, just as with the six-piston billet Nissin front brake calipers. The low-friction titanium-nitride coating on the 50mm Marzocchi inverted fork sliders jives nicely with the gold-anodized uppers. Aside from the fuel tank, which is steel, the Tamburini's bodywork is nearly all carbon-fiber, finished to a very high standard. A nice touch is the F4 and CRC logo work on the fairing sides that lets the c-f weave "peek" through the high-gloss paint. Who needs decals when the underlying material itself is so nice you simply leave paint off?
"Man, that bike looks good backlit," remarked one staffer as the sun set behind the MV, to which another replied, "That's because it makes its own light."
Despite the pleasing shapes into which they are formed, the materials themselves have intrinsic appeal. Take the magnesium swingarm, frame sideplates and lower triple-clamp, or the TIG-welded chrome-moly trellis upper frame, the aforementioned carbon-fiber bodywork and machined billet aluminum pieces sprinkled around the bike. Net weight loss from use of these fine materials is 18 pounds, for a 428-pound dry weight.
The alcantara (suede-like) seat is in an appropriate brick-red hue, and when your ass isn't smiling broadly from the thrilling riding experience, it will hate you for putting it in this seat.
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| Footpegs are machined from billet aluminum and adjustable for height. Despite carbon-fiber heat shield, your right foot will never be cold. |
No, comfort wasn't part of Massimo's dream, nor should it have been. There is no doubt this is one serious performance motorcycle. The boss even yelped when he hopped on for his first ride. The seat is high at 32.4 inches, the clip-ons low, and even though the billet footpegs have a very trick eccentric height adjustment, they go only from high to higher, in infinite increments. The mirrors are not of much use. We can hear you tearing up your check now...
Certain people may need never to suffer the pleasure of riding, for the Tamburini is gorgeous enough at a standstill that they may be willing to buy, simply to be able look at it at their leisure.
But the real art is on the road, unfolding beautifully at speed.
This was somewhat of a surprise. To be honest, while we didn't expect disappointment, riding experience with "super-premium" sportbikes of the past has taught us to temper our enthusiasm. Honda's exotic and expensive RC45 felt special to ride and had some excellent qualities, but its performance in street trim wasn't particularly remarkable. The same went for the Yamaha YZF-R7 superbike homologation special. Race-kit parts were the only way to unleash the true glory and potential, but good luck having the required racing résumé or enough money to get them. Bimotas were always wonderful, but in our last full test of the Suzuki GSX-R1100-powered DB6 in 1996, we essentially called it a $23,000 kit bike, and that's exactly what it was.
What is so great about the Tamburini is that it is a finished motorcycle. There are no rough edges that need smoothing, no special parts for sale only to racers to uncork some hidden potential.
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