GRAND PRIX GLORY: MV Agusta in World Championship racing from 1950s to the rise of the two-stroke!

Morning from Australia gentlemen, it's crazy euro engineering time.

De Ladz!! 💪🛵

The first time I saw an old MV up close, I was surprised at how homely it was. The new ones are freaking gorgeous by comparison.

If you have a vastly superior bike you do not need the best rider to win,its like back then you could monopolize .

UNSUBSCRIBED! (jk)

Motorcycling. Squeezes out irrelevant thoughts, because there's always the possibility of having your head turned into an exploding watermelon. Relax, or die. Cars have good reasons - for existing. I was - I forced myself to give up bikes. Seeing too much death on the streets, too addicted to speed, and if you want to stay riding and you're a logical and rational person - do not read the statistics.

Many people don’t know that Agostini was the first world 500cc champion on a two stroke in 1975. What could have been if Saarinen had survived his crash at Monza in ‘73.

I really like hearing what Mr. Cameron has to say, I learn every time. The guy with the Princess Leia headphones is cool also. Ha! Gotcha Mark.

Funny how we will adapt our riding style to stay at full throttle.
Glad you can help at knowing even the top levels struggle.

My Uncle was at Spa in 1975 and Phil Read won the race by almost 2 minutes from the 2 strokes they won at Spa every year they were there. It was sad when silencers were introduces in 76 which killed the power of MV Agusta's they were still competitive but loosing ground. I wonder if Ago had rode the MV at Spa in 1976 if he could have won... The race times in 76 Spa was no quicker than 75.If MV had continued they would have to have gone 2 stroke route.

Guest request!! Erv Kanemoto

My IQ increases a point or two every Wednesday 🎉

Hailwood said with regards to beating AGO at the IOM TT in the 500 class he could do it on the 297 Honda 6, but Mr Honda said no.

Brain food

This should be the biggest motorcycle channel on YT. Kevin has retained his entire encyclopedic knowledge of everything and that alone makes this a fabulous channel

TGIW!

Thank you so much, this discussion was wonderful.

Really a pleasure listening to both of you! This is a criminally under viewed and appreciated channel. More motorcycle riders should be listening to this excellent stuff! 🏍️❤️

There were a number of places in this discussion where there was a reverence for the subject that put it on a sacred plain. Riders going out to ride beyond the capabilities of their machinery for that ethereal goal was one.
Came across this series a week or 3 ago - doing catch up and it's amazing... Buck

any chance you guys can do 2 programs a day?

Really enjoyed that fellas. 😊

I would describe the Velocette as being a beautiful steerer, but a poor handler, due to the weak swinging arm mounting. I am amazed that Velo did not update the frame.

Mark is the best period-
and when Kevin stops doing these I will still happily listen to only the Boss for hours on end no doubt about it.
By then MH will have forgotten more about bikes and racing than most of us combined will ever know.
But…..Sometimes these podcasts feel like taking two steps forward then one back as
KC blows our minds for 10 minutes straight then the Chief confuses the hell out of us for 5. 😂😂🤣
And I wouldn’t want it any other way. ✌🏻

Cameron is gold, Hoyer should learn to be quiet.

Cameron is gold, Hoyer should learn to be quiet.

I didn't put the two together with Agusta Westland helicopters. I might have followed MV Agusta if they made off-road bikes, but they did enduro ISDT in 60s.
I can't remember which, but one of those racers won at motorcycles and cars - Surtees. I'm surprised at how many people on social media participated or attended races from another era. I saw a recent French interview with Jaco speaking French.

M V AH-GOOS-TAH, OK? AH-GO-STEEN-EE. Bravo for getting MAGNI (mahn-yee) right!
These fellows should stick to the technical moto stuff and leave the amateur psychoanalysis to others. I bailed on them after 40 minutes or so.

You talk about Giacomo Agostini and I will never forget the 1974 Daytona 200. I was pulling for my hero Gary Nixon to win. There was lot buil up during the week about the handsome world champion coming to America . I'm in the stands and the minute board has already been shown, all the angry 2 strokes reving up and Ago's mechanic is holding up the bike. Mr. Agostini casually struts up while adjusting his riding gloves one finger at a time. He throws his leg over, sticks into gear and let's out the clutch just as the green flag drops. How confident can you get! Funny thing was that with a handful of laps to go he was leading Nixon by a few seconds but he still had to make a gas stop. Nixon was in position to win then all of a sudden he crashed. Ago ended up winning. A year later I was In Nixons shop in Maryland buying some carburetors and I had to ask him why he was pushing so hard when he had the race in hand and with a cold stare he looked me in the eye and said the following. "Pit crew gave me a minus 4. That means I'm running second". End of discussion. Great memories.

My Harley bagger is more dangerous than my Sprung Hub Triumph.

I'm building an oil head custom to make the purist scream. I raked the telelever. LOL

I saw Ago on an MV 500 GP bike , Kenny Roberts on a TZ 750, , can't recall who all on works BSA/ Triumph triples and various Nortons all going hell for leather round Mallory Park and I think that Emma's the race Paul Smart came off at the hairpin due to some sort of brake failure and hurt himself badly, anyway I think Ago won and Kenny Roberts was second just in front of a lot of beezumphs but I might well be wrong about that, one thing that stuck in my memory was a Westlake 8 valve 750 triumph twin way down on power but being ridden so hard round the hairpin he made up places every lap

A story about the creation of the F4 750 would be interesting...!

A subject for a future talk: the evolution of safety equipment. helmets, leathers, airbags, kevlar, rip stop nylon, anti-lock brakes

Good show/video.
Please make a show/episode about Italian Moto Guzzi.
Thanks !

I love it when you guys get “off topic”. The range of knowledge you two display is wonderful.

Thank you so much for the mention of the Canadian GP featuring Hailwood, Agostini, Duff, Ivy and Read. Phil attended our 50th anniversary event !

My new favourite qoute from Kevin: " looking at the crooked windshield in the rear view mirror for a 1000 miles is punishment! Indeed!!"

I think you're missing the point about hairpin valve springs. The idea being low cam lobe loading, when trying to control large valves, particularly in a two-valve engine, like a Velocette. Such large valves required coil valve springs, which imposed too great a load on the cams.

In the early 70s to the early 90s I owned an Atlas. At first it was fairly fast. Modified Commando fast, anyway. I liked the handling. The vibration was awful. Later, it wasn't fast. It was smoother. Not smooth though. I still like a Commando.

One can look at the epic IOM battles in Premier 500 class. Exotic motors and purpose built. One supposedly breaks a chain. The one two finish becomes Peter Williams on a 40s tech Matchless in second. What if Williams was on a Honda four or MV THREE?