2011 MV Agusta F3

The MV Agusta F4 superbike has a new sibling to rival it in the glamour stakes – the all-new F3.

The Italian company, recently bought back from Harley-Davidson by Claudio Castiglioni, has finally come clean with all the details on the supersport contender, which is claimed to “sets the standards by which all other supersport motorcycles will be judged and compared”. The battle has just intensified.

Even allowing for the inevitable sense of the occasion, the Italians are probably onto something, at least where techno wizardy and pushing the envelope of design are concerned.

And the triple configuration is nothing new to MV Agusta, which won 10 of its 37 world titles with the layout.

The F3, designed and developed by the team at Cagiva Research Centre, has a triple-pipe side-mounted muffler, which emits spent gases from the in-line 675cc triple – the maximum capacity allowed to go supersport racing.

One of the numerous technical features on the F3 is the counter-rotating crankshaft, which is unique on a production supersport engine.

Another first time foray, this one for MV, is the ride-by-wire throttle with multiple power maps, and the F3 also features traction control.

MV hasn’t quoted power and torque figures, or total weight for that matter, but expect around 130-135hp and around 70-75Nm of torque. By way of comparison, Triumph’s in-line 675cc triple produces around 126hp and 72Nm.

The engine in the F3 is also set to power a naked version, too.

As with all previous MV’s, the frame incorporates a mix of steel tubing and aluminium side plates (in other words, a trellis frame), there’s a single-sided swingarm “that guarantees traction and feedback to the rider”, and the suspension is a Marzocchi fork and Sachs shock – both fully adjustable.

The front brake system consists of a Nissin radial master cylinder and Brembo radial calipers and discs.

Castiglioni recently told Italian media that he plans to sell 10,000 F3s in the next model year.

But whether that will include Australia in the short-term is still an unknown, with a new local distributor still to be appointed following the decision of the Queensland-based Paul Feeney Group to sever ties with MV Agusta.