#Aprilia

Usually when we have a shootout here at Motorcycle.com, the participants are somewhat defined for us. First, we choose a class of motorcycle, and then, we put the latest versions of those bikes in a head-to-head-competition. This time we’re doing something a little different. Each MO editor chose whatever bike they wanted to ride to Monterey, CA, for the U.S. round of World Superbike. The only caveat would be that the bike had to be capable of participating in the annual Pirelli Track Day that takes place the day after the races finish at Laguna Seca. Okay, there was one other rule that I tried to enforce, but the one editor just couldn’t bring himself to choose a bike that had OEM bags available for it.

This article originally appeared on Late-Braking MotoGP.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to grace the 2018 EICMA show floor last November was Aprilia’s RS 660 concept. In a market where middleweight sportbikes seem to be on the wane, Aprilia bucked the trend with the concept and its 660cc parallel-Twin engine derived from the 1100cc RSV4 and Tuono V-4.

I’m a happy man. Not because I enjoy staring at my computer, sporadically typing as the coffee slowly warms my sleepy cockles, on yet another bright and breezy California morning. I’m happy because my head no longer feels like it’s being squeezed between the bowling balls of a nasty oil-stained concussion, whose relentless grip has steadily faded with every passing day. His BFF, vertigo, has been stalking me for weeks and only makes itself known when I stand up too fast or move about too quickly. Like slamming a fifth of tequila with every flight of stairs, the dizzying effects of slapping one’s brain against the sides of a thickened skull, preferably your own, can be quite debilitating. But I’m feeling better now… much mo’ betta’. Perhaps 93.98% mo’ betta’.

In this internet age, we understand everyone’s attention spans are very short. So we get (even if we’re a little saddened) if you didn’t get to read all the way through my First Ride review of the 2019 Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory. It’s a couple thousand words long, and though I thought it made for a good read, inevitably some of you didn’t get all the way through it. Thankfully YouTube exists, and while at the glorious Mugello Circuit in Italy, I recorded my thoughts and impressions of the RSV4 for the video you can view below. It’s complete with a short overview of the bike and some action footage, including a blast down the 1.1km Mugello straight where the 1100’s speedo flashed 307 kph at one point! Later, my GoPro GPS revealed my top speed to be only 180 mph, but it was still a rush all the same.

The 2019 Argentine Grand Prix produced another dominant display by Repsol Honda prodigy Marc Marquez. A benevolent dictator, Marquez allows the other MotoGP riders to follow him around these tracks, not bothering to charge for lessons. Today’s easy win at Rio Hondo was the Catalan’s third in Argentina, putting him on top of the championship standings and bringing a sense of foreshadowing to the rest of the grid.

Inside a former tool-shop located on the Piaggio facility’s grounds in Pontedera, Italy sits a treasure trove of history, a time capsule if you will, which allows visitors a look into the past of some, but not all, of the brands currently included under the Piaggio umbrella. The 32,000 sq ft Museum is located in one of the oldest parts of the Piaggio complex where, in the early 1920s after purchasing the facility, Piaggio began production of airplane engines.

Blah, blah, blah, we say it all the time – the Aprilia RSV4 is one of our favorite bikes ever. But seriously, it really is special. So how, then, does one improve upon a fan favorite? Give it more power, of course. That’s exactly what we have with the new 2019 Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory. On the surface, you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong in saying Aprilia telegraphed this move long ago – four years ago in 2015, actually – with the Tuono 1100, even though doing so would make the RSV4 illegal for basically every racing class out there.

In just a few days I’ll be the lucky bas—- who gets to unwind the new Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory around the legendary Mugello circuit as part of the bike’s international press launch. Stay tuned next week for my thoughts on it. However, in anticipation for that event, I thought I’d look back to see what makes the RSV4 such a darling in the eyes of the moto press. So rewind your minds back ten or so years to 2008/2009 and think about the literbike landscape back then. With the benefit of hindsight, we can say with confidence the space looked pretty bland, with the Big Four Japanese, Ducati, and KTM’s RC8 the only real players (sorry MV Agusta fanboys). The field then got a jolt in 2009 with the announcement of both the BMW S1000RR and Aprilia RSV4 – both models promising to shake up the status quo. If you’ve read any motorcycle magazine since then, you undoubtedly know each bike lives up to the claim. Personally, the Aprilia is one of my favorite liter-class bikes out there. Here are seven ways the RSV4 shook up the game.

Right, it’s that time of year again when all the new bikes are out, and we ask ourselves, which one must I have? Followed by a look at the price tag, and an immediate switching of the Train of Thought onto the Used Bike siding, particularly all the ones that have slipped below the $5,000 threshold ($5k is usually my cut-off point when it comes to buying automobiles – I have my eye on a 2004 Jaguar XJR right now – but in the spirit of the Trump Economic Miracle, let’s pretend like I’d spend that much on a motorcycle).

When Aprilia released word of its new 217-horsepower RSV4 last week, my reaction was “that’s too much,” naturally opening myself up to all kinds of ageist criticisms. I mean, more power (!) to those who can handle and afford all that, but this new concept just unveiled at EICMA – “a 660 cc parallel twin-cylinder, a very compact new generation unit derived from the 1100 cc V4 that powers the Tuono V4 and RSV4 1100 Factory,” might be way more accessible for the vast majority of riders, no? Bellissima.

The Model Year 2019 show season is fully underway, and so far, we’ve seen some exciting news. It began in Intermot with the unveiling of new models from Aprilia, Ducati, Indian, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki, and Triumph. Then the focus turned to Las Vegas, NV, and the AIMExpo where Motorcycle.com was on-hand to witness the unveiling of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R and other offerings from the motorcycle industry as a whole.

To say Ducati has a lot riding on the Panigale V4 series is quite an understatement. For Ducati to finally admit its beloved V-Twin had reached the limit of development and abandon it for its flagship model is a huge deal. It meant whatever replaced it would have a lot to live up to. Ladies and gentlemen, the 1103cc V4 more than lives up to the hype. It’s fast, it’s ferocious, and yet, it’s surprisingly easy to ride at the limits of your talent – assuming your skills are enough to warrant you riding a bike of this caliber, anyway. Maybe best of all for Ducati fanboys (and girls) out there – it still sounds like a Ducati but better. The Twin Pulse firing order ignites the front cylinders together before doing the same at the rear, essentially making the Panigale V4 a glorified V-Twin, at least as far as exhaust note is concerned.

Aprilia sprang its latest 201-horsepower superbike on the crowd in Cologne. While the RR might look pretty much the same on the outside, it’s what’s inside that counts – and the main addition is the fourth generation APRC electronics that keeps it all in check: Aprilia Performance Ride Control. Now there’s cornering ABS, a downshift-enabled quickshifter, and a host of other refinements including optional V4-MP which lets you access and download via smartphone corner-by-corner APRC calibration. It also manages incoming and outgoing phone calls. You could conceivably order a pizza on the last lap, should you find yourself coming over all peckish.

On the racetrack, the fight between the Aprilia RSV4 RF and Ducati Panigale V4 S was so close, it resulted in one of, if not the, closest shootout in Motorcycle.com history, with the two protagonists separated by 0.2% – two-tenths of a percentage point! – on our scorecards. On paper, anyway, the Ducati emerged victorious for a track tool, but it was only our racetrack ringer, Shane Turpin, who ultimately picked the Panigale V4 S – and its $4k heftier price tag – as his weapon of choice. Meanwhile, both Tom and I would elect to save the extra dough and be perfectly happy with the Aprilia – despite what the scorecard says.