Weird Flex: Meet Motrac Unicorn 800, The MV Agusta Superveloce 800’s Oddball Chinese Cousin

"Look how they massacred my boy!"

MV Agusta is well-known for making some of the most beautiful motorcycles on this planet. Of course, the unimaginative Chinese manufacturers had to emulate one of the Italian brand’s best-looking bikes, the MV Agusta Superveloce 800. Motrac, a Hong Kong-based two-wheeler manufacturer, has built a rather weird-looking Chinese clone, called the Motrac Unicorn 800, of the real deal from Italy. The motorcycle was showcased at this year’s Chongqing Auto Show in China.

In the Motrac Unicorn 800, the Superveloce’s 800’s circular headlamp with the gorgeous fairing has been copied, but with complete disregard to the proportions that lent the MV so much of its style. While the fairing still looks palatable, the brand has completely ruined the rear. Instead of a single-sided swingarm, this one gets an extremely basic-looking box-section unit linked to twin rear shock absorbers! The rear suspension juts out like a sore thumb and the circular rear light integrated into the tail panel, along with the split seat setup can only do so much to mask the blasphemy. 

Thankfully, both front and rear 17-inch wheels are shod with properly meaty tyres to play the part. The bike rolls on a fat 140-section front (that’s as fat as the Yamaha FZ-S Fi V.30’s rear tyre!) and a massive 200-section rear unit. The front end features a 43mm inverted fork along with twin 320mm discs with Nissin radial calipers whereas the rear uses a 300mm disc, with dual-channel ABS. 

The motorcycle is powered by an 800cc twin-cylinder engine churning out a measly 61.1PS at 7500rpm and 70Nm at 5000rpm. Comparatively, the MV Agusta Superveloce’s 798cc three-cylinder engine produces a whopping 146.8PS and 88Nm. Having said that, the Unicorn comes with a generous 27 litre fuel tank. This coupled with the massively raised clip-on handlebars should ensure a comfortable riding position for extended runs. 

Motrac claims to have its own R&D centre along with 25 patents under its belt. It’s a shame that the company had to resort to such blatant mimicry. But you know what they say: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.