The MV Agusta 750 America is a motorcycle that was designed by Italians to meet a very specific American specification. By 1975 MV Agusta was in dire financial difficulties, so Chris Garville and Jim Cotherman of the sole US MV Augusta importer Commerce Overseas Corporation, sent a specification sheet to Italy outlining a bike they thought would work well in the USA.
They had seen the rampaging success of the Honda CB750 and the other UJMs that followed suit, so they decided to try a modern Italian version that would offer far superior handling – the only drawback would be the eye-watering price tag.
Whereas a new Honda CB750 cost $2,190 USD – the new MV Agusta 750 America cost $6,500 USD. At almost triple the cost of the quick and reliable competition, the MV was never destined to be a sales leader. It did offer superior horsepower, handling , looks, brand name recognition and heritage – but these factors will only get you so far when it comes to people parting with their own cold, hard cash.
MV Agusta threw just about everything they had into the 750 America, it came with 4 x VHB Dell’Orto carburettors, Ceriani telescopic forks, twin Marzocchi shock absorbers with preload adjust, and a beautifully engineered cast aluminium, air-cooled, 4-stroke, DOHC inline-4 capable of 75hp at 8,500rpm.
Stylistically, the 750 America was stunningly beautiful, both the faired and naked versions had their own charms and the faired version could manage 130.4mph – as tested by Cycle Magazine in period.
The almost flawless example of the model you see here is due to cross the auction block with RM Sotheby’s on the 14th of May – there’s currently no estimated value but you can expect it to be somewhere in the $120,000+ range – possibly more depending on who’s in the room on the day. If you’d like to read more about it you can click here.
Photo Credits: Tom Gidden ©2016 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
