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This
season we are pleased to be racing the MV-Agusta F4S. It is by far
the best handling production motorcycle we have ever ridden. These
pasts 6-months have been a wonderful experience, full of experimentation,
trial, error, and development. Below you will find our season in
review along with photos. I hope you enjoy it.
When
we initial acquired the motorcycle we assumed because it had been
out for over a year there would be a number of after-market parts
available for the motorcycle but this was not the case. We could
find no after-market high performance parts in the USA except for
carbon fiber bodywork which was sold by Fast by Ferracci.
This
presented us with a challenge, how do we make the bike race competitive
with no after-market parts. Second, we needed spares in case something
broke or we crashed. This was the first time we were racing a motorcycle
for the season without a spare or "B" motorcycle from
the start. This hinders you mentally because you end up racing very
cautiously.
When
you drive 5 to 6 hours to a race event you don't want to crash out
of the event or have something break when you don't have any spares.
So eventually you end up riding between 85 and 90 percent of your
skill level for fear of crashing.
Well,
like most modern people we decided to search the Internet. We found
a number of classified ads for used F4S, but whenever we called
the individual the motorcycle was already sold. Currently we are
still looking for a 2nd motorcycle. Perhaps we can find one over
the winter.
We
did find a number of items in England for the F4S, but they were
mostly cosmetic items and not race related. So we decided to race
the bike in its stock configuration with race bodywork until we
acquired high performance parts. Unable to find race bodywork in
the USA, we contacted QB carbon in the UK to have bodywork custom
made. This was very expensive compared to USA costs but we had no
choice. The bodywork fit perfectly right out of the box and Dietlemeier
Motorgraphics performed the paint work and custom graphics
Right
away we notice that the motorcycle handled superbly, but was down
on power from its Japanese counter parts. It's been only the
fantastic-handling characteristic of the motorcycle that allowed
us to stay in the hunt. The competition would pull away on the straightaway,
and then we would catch them on the infield turns. Because of the
factors from above,
there were no podium finishes this year. But we have learned a lot
and we have a solid foundation to build upon for next year.
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