MV Agusta

MV Agusta is an Italian manufacturer of motorcycles that has been in existence since the end of World War II. Started when the Augusta aviation company was in danger of having to lay off its employees, MV Agusta was created to compete in the growing Italian motorcycle market of the 1940’s.

The company’s first move was to build lightweight streetbikes popular for personal transportation in post-war Europe. This focus had a dual purpose – these motorcycles could be refitted as racing bikes. MV’s founders, Count Vincenzo and Domenico Agusta, were racing enthusiasts and used the money they made selling commercial bikes to compete in the Italian Grand Prix. Their first two-stroke bike won the 1948 Grand Prix and brought the company into the spotlight.

MV’s initial success could not be matched, and the company spent years in development on a four-stroke engine. In 1952 the fruit of their labor, the MV 125, led the manufacturer to a world championship. A catalog version of this bike, the 125 Dohc, was nicknamed “The Boy Racer” and went up for sale immediately after the race.

The company went on building larger and more powerful bikes for the next few years, able to capitalize on the buzz their new models received on the racetrack by releasing commercial versions of each bike in the same manner of the 125 Dohc. By 1957, a failing Italian bike industry saw several manufacturers make a pact to withdraw from the Grand Prix to save money. Count Agusta decided to renege on this deal, and the lack of competition led MV to seventeen consecutive championships over the course of the next decade.

The Count passed away in 1971, and without his leadership MV Agusta fell into a slow decline. They stopped winning championships by 1977, and in the 1980’s the company ceased production entirely. The brand would lay dormant until 1991, when the rival manufacturer Caviga bought the name trademarks.

The first bikes the restarted MV released were 750cc sportbikes. These motorcycles were produced between 1997 and 2004. MV Agusta’s other primary line of bikes were the Brutale series – high-performace naked bikes set to compete in the elite arena occupied by fellow Italian bikermakers Ducati and Bimota.

Although the bikes were highly-rated, the company could not make a profit and went through a number of different owners from 2004 to 2010. The final keeper of the company name, Harley-Davidson, sold MV Agusta to its former owner, Claudio Castiglioni. Following this, MV Agusta’s reported sales went up by 50%.

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