MV Augusta to enter Moto2 for 2018

https://www.gpone.com/en/2017/09/29/moto2/mv-agusta-to-enter-moto2-in-2018-with-team-forward.html

GP One reporting that MV is supposed to enter the Moto2 class again for the first time in forever with Team Forward.

 

I love seeing more diversity on the grid, so I'm a fan of the idea.

From the financial side, considering they are always on the brink of collapse, I don't know if it's the best financial decision for them.

So for 2018, we now have Kalex, Suter, KTM, Speed Up, NTS and MV Agusta in Moto2? Love it!

 

I don't understand this. I can see how the chassis manufacturers would want to play, but why would a complete bike manufacturer want to be in a class that uses somebody else's engines?




Edit: I guess at least for MV, it's a way to get the bike to the end of the race

 

MV Agusta...please report to the burn unit!!

 

KTM seems to be showing that fans don't give a shit about what engine is in there. If it says KTM all over the bike, it's a KTM.

I thought the same thing about MVs reliability

 

Well that escalated quickly.....

 

Yeap, makes NO sense. Maybe they will rebadge a Kalex or got the IP from a dead moto2 chassis manufacturer.

This might be stupider than Bimota and EBR going WSBK.

 

I have no idea how MV stays in business, much less goes racing.

 

Expensive product placement to the motorcycle crowd or insane Italian passion to go racing?

 

Nah !!!!

 

Maybe MV would be more inclined to invest in WSBK or WSS if anyone actually attended or watched the races.

Moto2 is unlimited chassis development in a championship that ppl actually watch. Def seems like a good place for an Italian racing-obsessed factory, esp when compared to WSS.

 

Chassis development and marketing.

 

Same reason Tech3 does Moto2 - product development at the sharp end. It's not profitable immediately, but the information gained is huge of you're going to go racing elsewhere or sell your product down the line to customers in feeder series. If the engines are the same, then it's all about chassis. Kalex has it dialed, everyone else is playing catch up. It's actually a fascinating series, and I wish there was a series in the US for these machines.

 

Word on the street is that they made a ton of capital investments in designing and building the 3 cylinder platform which was hurting their financials BUT that they have been selling a ton of bikes with healthy year over year growth.

They are actually fairly healthy at this point. As for the reliability of the 675, didn't that happen to the Triumph as well? It just seems like triple and twins have to be wound so tightly to be competitive with 4s.

 

If only MV could put together a decent WSBK effort like Honda and Suzuki...

 

More than that, why not wait one more year? Isn't Moto2 changing to the Triumph engines in 2019? Now MV will only have one year with the Honda engine and then start over from scratch the next year.

 

A new chassis manufacturer that wants to compete should prob b making 2-3 chassis a year anyways. So I don't think it's that much of a set back or extra work. They'll learn the tires, weight bias, stiffness, etc and have much more data to make a better chassis for 2019.

2019 might be such a crapshoot w the riders and teams learning the electronics and engine that having a better chassis then might be a damn good idea. They'll have a better chance to actually win w all the variability.