Dirt debutant

MV Agusta creates uncompromising masterpieces. Taut, sharp, focused, fast, loud, beautiful, expensive motorcycles that, with the odd exception, ride like racebikes with lights. But now, for the first time in its long history, the Italian manufacturer has set the stopwatch aside to develop its first-ever production adventure bike, complete with a 21-inch front wheel and exciting off-road potential.

- Adam Child

Lucky Explorer 9.5 

The Lucky Explorer 9.5 isn't ready yet. The machine you see here is a prototype; a development mule still some way from sign-off on final specification. Riding modes and rider aids are still with the boffins in the lab, while the exhaust, switchgear and paint scheme are clearly pre-production.

The engine and chassis, however, are '95%' close to ready, and pretty much as they will finally appear when the 9.5 goes on sale in 2023.

A day in the saddle chasing MV's development riders along glorious roads and the odd gravel track near the manufacturer's Varese factory showed that the adventure bike market the midweight segment especially is soon to be joined by a serious new player.

Aiming for flexibility

The new DesertX stirred things up earlier this summer by bringing Ducati's engineering and sporting values to the dirt, and the 9.5 promises the same from MV. It wails and howls like all MVs, and excites on the road like only an Italian triple can, while its twin headlights and close-fitting bodywork pay homage to the Cagiva Elefant that took victories at the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1990 and 1994 - so racing remains in the mix, too. But there's also genuine touring and off-road potential, plus a new sense of everyday usefulness we see less often from MV.

Let's start with that power unit, a new 931cc inline-triple derived from the 798cc '800' found in the supersport F3, naked Brutale and other MV middleweights. MV has made internal modifications, including a new cylinder head, pistons and valve train, but that capacity hike is key because the heart of the 9.5 concept is flexibility.