MV Agusta 832 Monza

The name of MV-Agusta is a legend in motor cycling, for the company from Gallarate in northern Italy won no fewer than 37 World Championships and over 100 National titles. The Agusta concern, in fact, made most of its money not from bikes, but by building Bell helicopters under licence; racing was something of a hobby for the company, and producing road bikes was even more so.  The 837cc Monza was last produced in late 1978 and shared the production lines with the 861 cc Arturo Magni special, which retailed for about 25 per cent more thanks to its extra performance parts.

 There was a vast amount of racing heritage in the last four-cylinder roadsters, and outwardly it was still hard to distinguish the engines from those which powered the machines of such riders as Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read to the chequered flag many times on the racing circuits of the world. The basis of the Monza was a four-cylinder, twin-overhead camshaft engine sitting transversely across the frame. The unit was sand cast and looked rather rough compared with the finish of Japanese machines, but was still attractive in its own way. Inside, the unit differed from the racing engines in that it featured just two valves per cylinder and not four, although it utilized the same efficient and expensive gear drive for the overhead camshafts. The factory did not disclose power figures, but the Monza unit probably produced just over 90 bhp. If even more performance was needed a special four-valve-per-cylinder head could be obtained from the company at a not inconsiderable cost to the purchaser.

 The whole engine unit sat canted forwards on top of a five-speed gearbox and the drive was turned through 90 degrees to a shaft drive to give just about the sweetest changing and most smoothly operating transmission of that type ever seen on a motorcycle. If the weight penalty of such a system could not be tolerated the factory was able to offer a chain-drive conversion. What made the bike stand out from the crowd was its sturdy duplex cradle frame which, even if it did not resemble the racers too closely in looks, certainly gave the roadsters racer-type handling. Braking, too, was well up to standard with no less than three cast-iron discs, two at the front and one at the rear, stopping the 560 lb bike easily in all weathers.  Surprisingly enough, the MV-Agusta Monza was quite a compact bike and actually felt quite small to ride; the low seating position no doubt emphasized this impression.

The growl through the four separate exhaust tailpipes recalled the racing heritage of the marque and was wholly in keeping with the exceptionally fine road manners the bike displayed at all times. High speeds were reached amazingly quickly if the engine was kept near the 10,000 rpm red line and little speed had to be knocked off for corners, the bike tending to stay absolutely rigid and letting the tyres do all the work. 

 Detail finish up until recently has never been a strong point with Italian machines, but the MV was quite well finished with adequate if not exceptional instruments and switchgear. At the time of writing, it seemed that the bike side of the Agusta corporation was no more and if that remains the case, the motor cycling world will be the poorer for it.