TESTED: MV Agusta Enduro Veloce

Let’s hear from Joe Ackroyd who’s ridden the new MV Adventure bike…

Right, sports fans, without further ado, let me introduce you to the MV Agusta Enduro Veloce (pronounced ‘velochai’). It is MV’s first new bike to be released in a few years now, and it’s a bold statement to decide to go down the adventure bike route, but it’s a hugely popular sector, with Triumph, Ducati, Yamaha and Honda all having a strong presence, so as well as being a bold move, it’s a sensible decision, in my opinion; if MV wants to sell bikes, then it needs to diversify into other sectors of the motorcycle market. 

The engineers have explained that, although it’s marketed as ‘all-purpose’, the DNA of this bike is more sportsbike-specific. The designers wanted to create a bike that could handle off-road, while still keeping the racing heritage and performance that is synonymous with the brand. If you decide to part with about £20,000 of your hard-earned cash, then there’s the choice of having the Enduro Veloce in either Ago Red/Ago Silver OR Ago Red/Ago Silver, which I agree with, to be honest. MVs should be red and silver, end of!

The heart of any vehicle is the engine, and I’m so pleased to be able to tell you that MV has absolutely nailed this area of the bike. The newly-designed 950cc three-cylinder motor makes 124hp and 102Nm of torque – which is more than its main competitors, the Ducati Desert X (110hp) and the Triumph Tiger 900 (106hp). The new engine has been a huge undertaking, and the design brief was to build something that would produce power, torque and performance, all the while being smooth, while ensuring they adhere to Euro 5 emissions regulations, which just makes the job even harder! 

The quickshifter system means that you can keep throwing gears up and down the box with ease, and each gear change gives you a little pop and crackle like you’d hear from a superbike. We found ourselves just shifting up and down the box to listen to said popping and crackling. While we’re on gearbox talk, again, mega job from the engineers. I don’t like light, fluffy, super-smooth and almost vague gearboxes; I want to feel like I’m involved and that I’m required to put some input into the changes, and I think MV’s got the balance just right. It’s not clunky and agricultural, but it has a nice, positive mechanical feel. 

There are four rider modes: Touring, Urban, Off-road and User-specific. These are not just gimmicks either; there is a noticeable difference between them all, and they do work well in their respective environments. I think there should be a sport mode as well. MV has made quite a big point about how it’s created a performance machine, and when we got out on the twisty roads and started to push on a bit, I found myself looking for a sport mode to sharpen things up a little and make everything a bit more aggressive. 

What I did notice was just how good the chassis is, and the set up of the Sachs suspension. I find adventure bikes like this can tend to feel saggy and soft – and the wide handlebars can give a really light feeling through the rider’s hands. With the Enduro Veloce, none of this was the case. The front end felt planted; it didn’t dive under brakes; and when you opened the taps on that joyous screaming banshee of an engine, the rear didn’t squat down, making the front go light and causing the bike to wander across the road. It was like riding a sportsbike, but my arse was sitting in a comfy Alcantara/suede-esque covered saddle and my wrists didn’t hurt. 

I do have a bit of a niggle when it comes to the suspension, though. The chassis and suspension set up is very good, but for the thick end of £20,000, I want electronic suspension. Who wants to carry round socket spanners and screwdrivers so they can set up their bike for the various conditions they’re going to encounter? And how many of you reading this actually know how to set up suspension or understand what you’re doing when it comes to twiddling those nobs? For a bike that is all-purpose, having the ability to change the suspension set up on the fly really is a missing key component.

The MV comes with two different homologated tyre options: the Bridgestone A41 (road tyre) and the Bridgestone AX41 (off-road bias tyre). The clever bods at the factory have programmed the ECU to work differently and more effectively depending on which tyre you choose to fit. All you have to do is tell the bike, via the dash controls, and it does the rest for you – very clever. We did our main ride on the A41s and with the bike set up for the road, but we also got a chance to sample the bike off-road with the AX41s and the suspension set up specifically for off-road. I was pleasantly surprised at how it performed. It’s not a light machine, but if you did find yourself wanting to tackle the off-road, then its more than capable. I don’t think it was quite as agile as its competitors; it felt heavier than other lower-capacity adventure bikes on the market. I also found the throttle response to be too aggressive for off road-riding. 

I like this bike a lot. But for me, the biggest sticking point is the cost. At more than £20,000, this puts it £7-8k more than the Ducati Desert X and the Tiger 900. For the people who will buy this bike, money will be no object. The buyers of the Enduro Veloce will simply want to own an MV Agusta that they can ride every day, and for these customers, MV has done a cracking job.