MV Agusta Brutale 800 bookings open

The MV Agusta Brutale is the iconic sport-naked and its 800cc cousin is about to go on sale in India. OVERDRIVE had visited the Varese, Italy factory earlier, and we found the motorcycle very impressive and promising to ride, especially given that this year's updates bring a truckload more torque to the package. While the Indian middle-displacement sport-naked class has motorcycles like the new Triumph Street Triple 765 S and the new Kawasaki Z900, priced at around the Rs 8 lakh ex-showroom mark, the MV Agusta, in keeping with its status as a super-premium Italian motorcycle, is likely to be more expensive. But before we go into the pricing of the MV Agusta Brutale 800, let's take a quick look at what is new on the 2017 model.

The MV Agusta Brutale 800 has been updated for this year. It offers 110PS at 11,500rpm along with 'record' maximum torque as MV calls it - 83Nm at just 7,600rpm. MV Agusta underlines that this is a 25 per cent rise over the older model, and that over the torque is over 75Nm from 3,800rpm onwards. As usual, the engine has a counter-rotating crankshaft which reduces the inertia a rider has to overcome when making direction changes.

The chassis has been revised too with MV Agusta elongating the wheelbase slightly as well as adding a hint more of trail. The base frame is the same, more or less, with a red trellis frame connecting the headstock to the cast pivot plates, which in turn host a single-sided swingarm. Suspension is Marzocchi 43mm upside-down forks, fully adjustable while the rear is a fully adjustable Sachs unit. The tyres are Pirelli Diablo Rosso IIIs, and Brembo works its magic with twin 300mm discs at the front and a 220mm single disc at the rear.

The Brutale also boasts the latest suite of the MVICS electronics which add engine brake control, 8-level traction, 3-level ABS and more. And thankfully, MV has evolved both the screen and the switchgear and solved one of the issues we had with the older Brutale.

In design terms, while the motorcycle looks the same in silhouette, you can see that the details have been updated, from the new all-digital meters to the all-new tank design. The most obvious change, of course, is the new DRL light arrangement on the outside of the headlamp.

When we rode the MV Agusta Brutale 800 at Varese earlier this year, we were expecting MotoRoyale to price the Brutale 800 at around the Rs 14.99 lakh mark ex-showroom. We now expect, however, that the GST will have pushed the prices up a little bit more and we expected MotoRoyale to announce a price around the Rs 15.5 lakh mark when they officially launch the motorcycle shortly. Bookings are now open.