MV Agusta, the day of hand-built bikes. The Nirvana ?

[weeksy]

I love this episode... i'm just watching a movie, 'Le Mans 66' and it has a bit where Ford try to buy Ferrari.
They go into the race department and the conversation goes
"one man builds the engine..... one man builds the gearbox...."

It reminds me of the MV when they were truly special, truly hand-built... you can get a certificate with the guy who built it name on there so you know who built it, when and of course where.

The bikes, were special, more than special. They brought emotion, passion, desire.

Isn't that what motorbikes are all about after all ?

[KungFooBob]

You want a proper AMG Mercedes, the engine has a little plaque with the signature of the man who build it.

[weeksy]

You want a proper AMG Mercedes,

That may be what you want.. i can promise you, it's not what i want

[KungFooBob]

IIRC HRC models used to be all hand built by a single guy, but the SP1/2 were only designed by HRC so didn't get the special hand built treatment like the RC45.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

My Husqvarna was made by MV Agusta (which is really Cagiva with a different name), it was the worst put together motorcycle I've ever owned, the paintwork was lovely, the components were good quality, but it wasn't bolted together properly, the first few months of ownership were spent tightening bolts up, I wouldn't own another bike built by MV.

[Yorick]

I don't care how its built. I just want it to work. To me it's just bits of plastic and metal.

[Count Steer]

There aren't many manufacturer's names that get my pulse going a bit faster but MV Augusta does. It may actually be the only one.

They have made some of, what I think of anyway, the best looking bikes, ever.

[Skub]

The 'hand built' thing was just the way it was done years ago. Work was manual and labour intensive.

In the early 1950s when Leo Fender gave us what is now known as the Telecaster,everything was built by hand,but there is another side to this. Because they were made by individuals,there were always quality and build issues. Humans have bad days and make mistakes. Some of those old and highly collectible Telecasters would be unsaleable if they were marketed today.

Modern CNC tech allows for much closer tolerances,generally a much superior product and of course much cheaper to make.

Hand made these days is the best of both worlds,an expert does the job and has access to the best machines and materials,but expect to pay a premium price.

I do take weeksy's point on the 'magic' aspect. Sometimes a given item becomes way more than the sum of it's parts,imperfections included. If manufacturers could accurately quantify that soul or character that would really be magic and they'd have a very long customer waiting list.

[Supermofo]

Having seen on youtube the work 'hand made' supercars like Ferraris often need at about 10 years old with low mileage compared to say the average Ford Focus I think hand made is overrated!!

[Mr. Dazzle]

If being hand made by one guy is a selling point it's probably not very good. If the production process is good it shouldn't matter which employee made it.

Cynical? Me?

[ChrisW]

Isn't 'Hand Made' the same as saying 'Not financially viable to automate at these production levels' these days?

[G.P]

It was of its time, and with some vehicles is through design or very small production volume.

IF durability is a measurement of quality, a late 90's CBR600 probably beats an MV 750F4 and a VW golf will beat a lotus...

[Taipan]

Thought they had a bad reputation for poor build quality and unreliability?

[Mr. Dazzle]

The reality is, even super high volume has a level of people putting their hands on stuff. Is that hand made? No not really.

Most OEMs don't even allow hand tools on the shop floor, weird as that sounds.

My point is that if the skill of the bloke building the engine is a major factor you probably haven't finished your engineering. S'not like MV are famous for their bullet proof build quality.

[Druid]

I owned a 2010 Brutale a couple of years ago. It was generally well finished with some quality design details. Any issues with the manufacturing quality would have been sorted by the previous owners I would think.

The bearings in the rear hub failed at 15k. MV don't list the bearings, only a complete new hub assembly at ~£500 plus labour. Clutch slave cylinder seals failed too. I wouldn't expect either of these items to fail at the relatively low miles that they did, my VFR750 rear hub was stripped, cleaned, regreased and reassembled at 55k and afaik it was still fine 20k later when Mr Dazzle owned it.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the MV and it did feel a bit special, in the same way that my 76 Ducati 900SS did. That wasn't exactly the most reliable bike I ever owned either