CarBrandLogos archive · MV Agusta · 2012

MV AgustaMV Agusta F3

A compact triple with a counter-rotating crank and no interest in being sensible.

The story

A defining chapter in MV Agusta history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the MV Agusta F3, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

MV needed something below the F4 that could be built in numbers, and in 2012 it produced one of the more interesting engines of the decade: a 675cc liquid-cooled three-cylinder with a counter-rotating crankshaft, spinning opposite to the wheels, which cancels part of the gyroscopic effect and makes the bike change direction more readily. Grand prix machinery had used the idea. Production motorcycles had not.

MV Agusta F3 Oro · https://www.flickr.com/photos/klausnahr · CC BY-SA 2.0

Design and engineering

The rest is compact in a way the class was not used to. The engine is physically small, the chassis is short, and the whole bike weighs substantially less than the four-cylinder machines above it while keeping the single-sided swingarm and three-pipe exhaust theatre.

MV Agusta F3 red grey 3 · Xabi Rome-Hérault · CC BY 3.0

In production

An 800cc version followed and became the one most people bought, since the extra capacity removed the 675's need to be revved constantly. That engine went on to underpin the Brutale triples, the Turismo Veloce, the Dragster and the Rush, which makes it the most important thing MV has built in the modern era.

P3240635-2 · KCBokeh · CC BY-SA 4.0

Technical specification