Interview with Adrian Morton, Senior Designer CRC/MV Agusta Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track, Le Castellet, France, F3 world launch February 8th 2012 _small.jpg) At a freezing Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France I hooked up with MV Agusta’s senior designer, Adrian Morton. Adrian is an Englishman with an impeccable CV in bike design involving mouth watering designs of motorcycles from Benelli, Ducati and MV Agusta. Morton is himself a motorcycle rider and is a genuinely down to earth guy. Just the type of bloke you’d expect to bump into at a bike rally.
The designer might not be extroverted in the same way as some of his Italian colleagues and there are no sign of neither ego nor exhibitionist tendencies. His designs however are proof of a diverse and creative mind. Morton came to Italy straight from London a fresh graduate of the Royal College of Art just when Ducati experienced its renaissance in the 90’s and today we’re talking about MV Agusta’s most “Mortonistic” (not to be confused with Mortonism) design, the F3. The F3 is Morton’s definitive stamp on the MV Agusta and CRC (Cagiva Research Centre) design history. By: Tor Sagen/Photography: Milagro
Tor Sagen: Just in case somebody still doesn’t know who Adrian Morton is I asked him if he could give a brief history of events. Adrian Morton: I graduated in ’95 at the Royal College of art and I came directly to Italy to work for initially Ducati and CRC in San Marino. I worked expressly for Cagiva and Ducati. I started my career there basically and I worked on what became the Brutale, I did a lot of work on the original Brutale. I left the company after about a year and a half and went to Benelli and spent about six years at Benelli. There I worked on a superbike, the Tornado, which was a very interesting project right from the humble beginnings. Then I worked on the TnT and I began to work on the Tre-k and then left halfway through the project because of the change in ownership of the company. Unfortunately Benelli were sold to the Chinese and I made a decision to return to what was then MV Agusta. I returned to San Marino where I worked on the evolution of the Brutale, the F4 and the new F3 which is why we’re here today. TS: As an F3 passes by us in the Paul Ricard HTTT pit lane I comment on the sound. AM: It sounds pretty good. TS: So basically you have got quite a lot of experience in designing triples really? AM: Yes I seem to be associated with triples and Paul Ricard really as we presented the Tornado here a few years back. Three cylinders seem to be omnipresent in my career yes. TS: Any special considerations you’ll have to take designing around a triple engine rather than a v-twin for instance? AM: I don’t think so really, I mean obviously in terms of the packaging and how the bike is laid out technically it’s got a different proportion to a v-twin engine so everything fits around a different sort of volume in a way, but I don’t think in term of styling or what have you it doesn’t make a great deal of difference the engine you’re using. Obviously the technical layout, the packaging and the volume of things will be somewhat different but that doesn’t directly influence the styling I don’t think. It will influence the technical part which obviously has an impact on the styling but… TS: Is the F3 narrower than the F4? AM: It isn’t actually much narrower than the F4 ironically. It just allows us more freedom to have some more contrast or movement from the external surfaces of the bike to the inside of the bike. It’s not really much narrower, well obviously the bike is a lot more compact with the lower exhaust and the smaller tail unit. But it’s not really substantially smaller in terms of width but obviously it’s much narrower round the seat area. The ergonomics of this bike is for a slightly bigger market, a shorter guy or a girl can sit on the bike comfortably. It’s very narrower in the seat area which unfortunately with the F4 is a little more difficult to achieve. AM: An MV has to be, I’d like to think that people who buy this bike will spend a bit of time having a look at the bike after parking it for the evening. There’s been a lot of effort, energy and love if you like put into every surface on the bike so when you look at it it’s quite a sensual product too. Obviously we have a tradition to retain, you know the original F4 was considered to be one of the most beautiful sportbikes on the market and although this is obviously a much lower priced product the perceived quality and perceived values of a brand like MV should be retained to the same level and I think we’ve done a good job achieving that with the difference in price. TS: Any particular F3 design elements you are happier with than others? AM: For one I think the perceived quality of the product is pretty good even though there is a big difference in price. Another thing that was important to me was to make this for a wider audience because the F4, when you sit on it compared to this it feels a bit more intimidating shall we say in terms of seat height and how comfortably you fit on it. The F3 have to appeal to a wider group of people and for that reason certain areas have been developed around that sort of philosophy. Particularly around the frame plate area, the fact it is so narrow underneath the seat, I think it is quite a nice area of the bike. Also things like the swingarm, normally on a supersport bike there is a quite crude twin spar swingarm. But on the F3 we have kept the sort of philosophy of MV because every MV has a single sided swingarm. It’s quite a strong feature of the bikes and we’ve kept that on the 600 which I think is quite a nice feature to have. It allows a single sided wheel as well obviously so it really does come across as a true MV. TS: The exhaust distinguishes it quite a lot from the F4’s under seat four pipe exhaust. AM: We’ve taken the F4 as an inspiration, the four elements of the four explain it has a four cylinder engine and we’ve done the same on the F3 to explain the three cylinder engine as well. AM: This is an incredibly important project for MV. This isn’t just about the F3 project but also the starting blocks for an entire range of products. All the key elements, for example the exhaust system, frame plates, the frame, engine and wheels, those components will carry on into other types of bikes. It’s a starting point and it’s not just a sportbike but also a platform with the possibilities to develop other products to expand our range because we want to appeal to more people. The sportbike market is more limited now than perhaps 15 years ago so we have to offer different types of bikes but retain the values of MV. TS: Was the F3 a lengthy project? AM: The project was relatively short and when we presented the bike in 2010 it was just a final sign off model in terms of styling and we had some more work to do to turn it into a production bike following the presentation at the Eicma Milan show. TS: Are you happy with the initial reactions to the F3? AM: When it was presented in Milan it won the accolade of being the best bike of the show so that was a pretty good start. Now it’s a functional vehicle that people can test and we’re looking for the positive reaction that matches the styling. END MV Agusta F3 675 test | 
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