Parth Charan

<hr>&nbsp;Seeing the MV Agusta F4&nbsp;in the flesh, for the first time,&nbsp;turned out to be a moment&nbsp;of incredible inner conflict.&nbsp;No motorcycle, super or&nbsp;otherwise, has looked this&nbsp;inviting and yet so unapproachably&nbsp;beautiful. You’re&nbsp;as compelled to drink in the&nbsp;aesthetic symphony that is&nbsp;the F4, as you are to ride it&nbsp;flat out. Which makes sense,&nbsp;because the F4 is as much&nbsp;of an art installation as it is a&nbsp;motorcycling masterpiece.&nbsp;Penned by the divine hand&nbsp;of Massimo Tamburini — also&nbsp;called the Michelangelo of&nbsp;motorcycle design — the F4&nbsp;is a more chiselled version&nbsp;of the original 1998 design,back when the F4 was&nbsp;introduced to the world,&nbsp;promptly reinstating MV&nbsp;Agusta as the poster bike&nbsp;manufacturer for the ages.&nbsp;And it’s perfectly clear how&nbsp;it did so — nearly 20 years&nbsp;down the line, it still exudes&nbsp;exoticism from every angle&nbsp;like no other contemporary&nbsp;superbike does. From the&nbsp;diamond shaped headlamp&nbsp;to those sharp-edged&nbsp;underseat tailpipes — there&nbsp;isn’t a line that’s out of&nbsp;place — you could do a&nbsp;lot worse than spend an&nbsp;afternoon just looking at it.&nbsp;It’s a damned sight more&nbsp;evocative than the clean,&nbsp;technical and futuristic lines&nbsp;enveloping most modern inline&nbsp;four superbikes. Unlike&nbsp;the marketing-speak that’s&nbsp;found on a lot of machines&nbsp;and their brochures, the&nbsp;‘Motorcycle Art’ label&nbsp;emblazoned between&nbsp;the clip-ons actually best&nbsp;describes what we’re dealing&nbsp;with here.&nbsp;This isn’t to say that this&nbsp;motorcycle is in any way an&nbsp;anachronism. It might seem&nbsp;a bit more analogue than its&nbsp;contemporaries, but with&nbsp;an 8-stage traction control&nbsp;system, ABS by Bosch&nbsp;and 4 rider settings – Rain,&nbsp;Sport, Normal and Custom&nbsp;– it feels poised, sharp and&nbsp;composed. Sure, you can feel&nbsp;that old-school superbike&nbsp;heft when you take control,&nbsp;but that only heightens the&nbsp;bike’s appeal. In ‘Normal’&nbsp;mode, it doesn’t possess&nbsp;the frenzied acceleration of&nbsp;a hardcore, track-munching&nbsp;superbike – it’s a more&nbsp;dramatic and considered&nbsp;vault, almost predatory in&nbsp;its composure. It certainly&nbsp;sounds predatory as soon&nbsp;as the rev gauge crosses the&nbsp;4000 rpm mark and, make&nbsp;no mistake, there is no in-line&nbsp;four in the world that sounds&nbsp;as invigorating as this. MV&nbsp;Agusta is famous for its&nbsp;particularly heady exhaust&nbsp;notes. I’d imagine there’s a&nbsp;cauldron somewhere inside&nbsp;their headquarters in Varese,&nbsp;Italy, where the war cry of&nbsp;dragons is mixed with alpine&nbsp;winds and a dash of thunder&nbsp;is thrown in – that’s pretty&nbsp;much what we have here.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h3 style="text-align: center;">What we like</h3>&nbsp;Godly looks; heavenly soundtrack; power&nbsp;<h3 style="text-align: center;">What we don’t</h3>&nbsp;Price; lack of comfort&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;In ‘Sport’ mode, you&nbsp;immediately feel sharper&nbsp;throttle responses, all 195&nbsp;bhp and 11 kgm of torque&nbsp;instantly at your disposal. It’s&nbsp;a setting best saved for the&nbsp;track – which is essentially&nbsp;what every angle of this&nbsp;bike is designed for. In ‘Rain’&nbsp;mode, power delivery is&nbsp;more restrained and the&nbsp;electronic aids work fiercely&nbsp;to maintain traction and&nbsp;balance. It’s a setting that&nbsp;works well in traffic, although&nbsp;no amount of tinkering with&nbsp;the settings can render this&nbsp;bike truly street friendly – it’s&nbsp;extreme, it’s demanding and&nbsp;it requires deltoids of steel&nbsp;to operate it for a prolonged&nbsp;duration.&nbsp;The standard F4 is&nbsp;equipped with Sachs&nbsp;suspension, while the ‘R’&nbsp;(which has been temporarily&nbsp;discontinued until the 2016&nbsp;model arrives, and was the&nbsp;variant I happened to be&nbsp;riding) comes with Ohlins,&nbsp;which shine through no&nbsp;matter how treacherous&nbsp;the surface. This may not&nbsp;be the most flickable bike,&nbsp;but it does feel composed.&nbsp;The suspension setup can&nbsp;be changed with a rather&nbsp;rudimentary twist of a&nbsp;tiny knob placed below&nbsp;the handlebars, with a&nbsp;hard setting resulting in&nbsp;a lot of teeth grinding on&nbsp;cratered surfaces, but&nbsp;stable cornering on smooth&nbsp;surfaces.&nbsp;At Rs 24.87 lakh (Exshowroom,Pune) the F4&nbsp;costs a lot of money. But&nbsp;decades from now, hopefully&nbsp;even centuries, it’s only&nbsp;going to appreciate in its&nbsp;value as a collector’s item.&nbsp;Ride it, put it on a plinth,&nbsp;display it in the living room –&nbsp;there isn’t a moment you’re&nbsp;going to regret buying an F4,&nbsp;because, quite simply put,&nbsp;there’s just nothing as exotic,&nbsp;as novel and as dramatic&nbsp;as a full-bodied MV Agusta&nbsp;superbike.

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The F4 is as much of an art installation as it is a motorcycling masterpiece.