80th Anniversary of MV on Two Wheels

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Designed in 1943, the MV 98 two-stroke engine is the two-wheeled starting point of MV Agusta. (MV Agusta/)

The roots of MV Agusta date back to 1919 when Count Giovanni Agusta decided to surf the mounting wave of the aerospace industry based on the huge evolution aircraft had gone through during World War I. Although new at the business, Costruzioni Aeronautiche Giovanni Agusta enjoyed the generous support that Air Marshal Italo Balbo granted to the Italian aerospace industry that at the time marked some very conspicuous achievements. Some of those under the personal lead of Balbo, who led a wing of 25 Savoia-Marchetti S.55X flying boats that, on August 15, 1955, landed on Lake Michigan in front of Chicago.

Count Giovanni Agusta died in 1927 and young Count Domenico Agusta took the company in his hands. Just as for the rest of the Italian aerospace industry, those were rich years, but then came the Second World War. In 1943 Domenico Agusta realized there was not much future for the aviation business and turned his attention to the more promising business of economical vehicles. That year his technical team defined a very simple and economic engine that could easily be installed on a motorcycle, but which could be adapted to various utility devices.

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The original name of the MV 98 would have to be changed for obvious reasons. (MV Agusta/)

But times were dark over northern Italy under the occupation of the Nazi army. Count Domenico and his faithful collaborators were able to hide the drawings of the project that was promptly resurrected in 1945, when the MV 98cc engine was finally installed in a complete motorcycle that was called Vespa. That identification had a short life because the now-iconic brand Vespa had been registered in 1934 by the Balsamo brothers.

For the above reasons the first MV 98cc went into production in 1945, but the 80th anniversary celebration of the first step of MV into the motorcycling world is legitimate because all the production plans, assembly lines, and most of the casting molds were all defined and ready in 1943.

The unit consisted of a very simple and economical three-port two-stroke single. It featured a few touches of smart engineering, with a two-speed transmission in block with the power section and was grease lubricated. The MV 98 was offered in two levels of execution: Economica and Turismo.

As it was rather normal in the motorcycling world of the time, MV 98 debuted almost immediately in local competition and won the first two it was entered. This suggested that a Sport version would be created, featuring a crude telefork in place of the classic girder fork and a plunger rear suspension in place of the rigid frame of the other versions.

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The MV 98 Sport was fitted with rear suspension and a telefork. (MV Agusta/)

The Sport engine delivered 5 hp. In 1947, the original MV 98cc evolved into a two-stroke 125cc that was soon replaced by an all-new two-stroke 125cc with three-speed gearbox. But in the meantime, MV had created a 250cc four-stroke single and soon would leave the two-stroke road.

In 1952 MV—now MV Agusta—became the licensee of the Bell Aircraft Corporation and would return to the aeronautical business, specifically in the helicopter domain. The association with Bell assured a constant flow of very advanced metallurgical technologies that Count Domenico Agusta would soon smartly transfer to the motorcycle production or, better yet, to the MV Agusta racing motorcycles that rapidly became the absolute masters of motorcycling competition.

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The early beginnings of MV Agusta motorcycle production. (MV Agusta/)

Those technologies appeared obvious during the 1958 125cc World Championship, where the three-cam desmo Ducati was dominating the scene thanks to its ability to achieve stratospheric rpm. Then, new “American” valve springs came to be and made the MV Agusta and Ducati 124GP even, and the very smart Carlo Ubbiali won the title.

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