Off The Scale

Catastrophically bad fuelling found and fixed.

2003 MV AGUSTA BRUTALE 750 CHRIS NEWBIGGING

I RECALL A sanctimonious arsehole once telling me dynos were a waste of time, and that he could jet his old Kawasaki just as well by feel. Cobblers: until you stick a proper O2-sniffing probe up a bike’s bum to record your air:fuel ratio, you don’t really know what’s going at every rpm and throttle opening. What feels OK often isn’t.

As was demonstrated by me: my MV’s low-speed fuelling was obviously to cock, with snatchy pick-up and a surge at 4000rpm or so. But into the midrange and up top, it had a linear feel and no obvious issues – apart from the stench of partially-burnt fuel in my kit when I arrived anywhere. That’s not unusual in cases of slightly-off fuelling, but to be sure I handed it to BSD for a simple power run and fuelling check.