Sexiest Bike Of The Decade - First Look of the MV Agusta Super Veloce Ottocento

You should be sitting down for this because your heart is about to stop. Gaze upon the beauty that is the MV Agusta Super Veloce Ottocento. Go ahead and swoon.

There have been whisperings of a retro-leaning superbike from MV Agusta for some while. Finally, we get a glimpse of it. While the Super Veloce is a prototype, the Varese brand promises a production version is in the works for late 2019. The moto gods be praised. Thank you, MV, for not tempting us with a beautiful prototype and then not delivering for years see: Yamaha Ténéré 700.

Here’s what we know. Basically, it’s an F3 800. It has a remapped ECU, presumably tuned for the street. Its 3-into-1-into-3 exhaust is classic MV Agusta—reminiscent of the brand’s Grand Prix bikes of yore. Bodywork is carbon fiber. Lighting is LED. Subframe is all-new and will accommodate single or dual seats. There’s a new TFT dash. There’s a monza cap.

The F3 800 is itself one of the most exquisitely beautiful motorcycles in production, but the SVO takes styling in an entirely different direction. MV clearly hopes to play upon our superficiality as there’s no rational reason to buy this bike over the standard F3; a bike that itself is hardly rational. And that’s fine by us.

More than any other brand, MV Agusta is about desirability. If an MV doesn't appeal to the heart and tempt the senses, it's not an MV.

The thing is, sportbikes—even the most beautiful sportbikes—don’t appeal to younger audiences as they once did. The Super Veloce may change that. And MV didn’t take the obvious path by making it super retro. It has a classic sensibility with proportions that, if there were such a thing, would be the Divine Proportions of the motorcycle as established by some prophetic artist of the Renaissance. If Da Vinci designed a motorcycle, this would be it. The Vitruvian MV. Just look at it. It looks familiar but fresh.

It’s a good move from MV Agusta. Along with its new Brutale 1000 Serie Oro, MV Agusta is affirming its status as a small producer of premium pin-up motorcycles. Injecting the motorcycle world with a touch of lust is maybe just what we all need. Who among us hasn’t lost his head over something beautiful? MV Agusta reminds us we’re only human.