Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127765
RACERJEsr· Max Biaggi's Aprilia RSV250 By Alan Cathcart Photos by Emilio Jim enez t w as no con tes t, really. Retaining you r world title by winning eight out of 13 races in a sing le season, finishin g second in th ree m or e and only fini sh in g off the rostrum once (and that in a boat race cu t shor t b y a Japa nese typhoon) is a pretty impressive stateme nt of class supremacy. But that's exactly what Max Biaggi did riding his works Aprilia RSV250 in 1995, overcoming the season-long challenge of the brilliant Te tsuya Harada on a ree d-valve Yamaha that was frankly ou tclassed by the rotary-valve Italian bike. In d o in g so, Max a nd t he Ap r ili a ac hieved a level of cons is te ncy ev en Mick Doohan co u ld n' t match o n h is NSR500 H ond a . Biaggi was th e o nly rider in any World Championship class I o to score points in every race, in a year he . showed he had completely cured his '94 habit of stepping off the bike with victory in si gh t. Ama zingly, Ma x on ly crash ed th e Aprilia a single time th is se ason - in p ractice, a t Doningt on . A fast, consisten t rid er on a reliable, rid able machine takes a lot of beating. Add in Ma x' s brill ia n t racecr aft a n d the Ap rilia's edge on perform ance, and the othe rs were re ally jus t m aking up th e numbers once the Italian duo got into full stride at the German Grand Prix and onward. Like I said, no contest. Th e chance to ride Aprilia's 250cc world champion at Mu gello just a couple o f weeks af ter sa mp ling Ok ada' s works Honda NSR250 underlined the Italian bik e' s su premacy . Even more than last year, the Ap rilia's rotary-valve engine makes the bike a gui de d missile in a straigh t line wi th improba ble top- end performance, thanks to a signi ficant milest one in Grand Prix development: Biaggi 's RSV250 is the first qu arter-liter rac er to d eliver mo re than 100 bhp at the gea rbox, admits Aprilia's chief enginee r Jan Witteve en with some prid e. Yet at the same time a constant p rocess of evo lu tion has yield ed thi s dramati c power output with both complete reliab ility - every race a sco ri ng fin ish, re membe r - a n d a wi der s p rea d o f power, aimed at improving rid ability. Just amazing. Amazing - th at 's th e righ t wo rd to describe the way the Aprilia pulls out of a Mugello chicane in second ge a r a t 11,000 rpm . Th e re's loa ds m o r e mid ran ge punch than on Max' s '94 bike, which was hampe red by the low-oct anegas regula tions in t r od u ce d for '94 . Ap rilia was ab le to claw back th e five horsepower the low-lead fuel had cos t initiall y, but only at the expense of narrowing the real powerband quite a bit, to between just 11,500-13,000 rp m. That brought back memories of the traditio nal hand icap of rota ry- valve engines in terms of sudden power delivery. Apri lia had adopted electronic power-valves to replace th e traditional pneumatic exhaust valves inherited from Rotax, but that only parti ally cured the sud den hit. The low-octane tu ning mad e the Aprilia harder to" ride than before, underlining Max's feat in capturing his and the Italian facto ry' s first 250 w orld title, on a bike with a more- rad ical, abru pt power delivery . But hard work by Jan Wilte veen and hi s engineers over th e winter a nd the early part of th e ' 95 season redressed th at problem - and ho w! Not only is there three more horsepower available all the w ay through th e powerband