Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

fee l q u ite ta ll , perh a p s even a li tt le un wi e ld y to s it o n . But thumb t he starter, crank the eight -valv e mo tor into life, and prepar e to have the scales fall from your eyes. Th is is b y so me w ay th e best -b a lan ced , most rid able V-twin s po rtbike I' ve yet encountered - and , mor eover , one w ith a di stinctive eng ine note tha t sou nds p aradoxicall y m ore m uscular yet also higher-revving than a Ducati or Suzu ki TL. This no d oubt comes abou t from a combination of the Ap rilia's 60d e g r e e vee- engine fo rma t (w h ich it s hares with t h e on ly other b ik e its eng ine n ote resembles , a Harley VR1000) an d it s lon g er-stroke 97 x 67.5mm di me nsions, compared to the 98 x 66m m la yout of a ll it s s u per tw in ri va ls . The m a ssi v e a n d ra the r .u g ly s ilenc er pre su mab ly does a good job ge tti ng the Mille past the noise police, but I'm sure Termi gno ni and Akra pov ic a re a lrea d y ge ared up fo r a he althy aftermarket in carbon -clad end cans tha t will take ca re o f th e looks as w ell as enhance the sou nd . But now comes the bigges t su rp rise: Dro p it into bottom gea r an d feel th e clutc h take up smoothly as you feed it ou t - absolu tely none of the grabbing . and racket associa ted with some othe r su perbikes - and discover how this is a really capa ble, spo rting st ree t bike, one t/lat success fu lly attempts to comb ine t ea l-w orld prac tica lity with race-level allu re. e: For a star t, the Aprilia's Rotax-developed DOHC, d u a l-ignition engine is ~trong bu t extre mely linear in its power d eli ve ry . It fee ls m ore like a VTR or TLIOOO than a 916, wi th a torque delivrfry that is vivid ra ther than muscular. In sp ite of the b ig 51mm throttle bodies, it pulls ha rd from low down thanks to the effective mapping of the Nippondenso EFI, yet runs clea nly with only a little extra kick at 7000 rp m , when engine Speed qu ickens and th e exhaust not e hard ens, all the way to the 10,250-rpm ma rk , at wh ich p oint th e cha nge-u p light th at Aprilia was th e first vo lu me bik e ma nufacturer to borrow from the rac e-car wo rld flash es bri ghtl y on th e da sh to tell you it' s time to shift gear. It' s jus t as well the Mille has th is giz mo, becau se its eigh t-va lve fou r-cam mo to r is so free-r evvin g a nd w illi ng, sailing in to five-figure territory wi th no sign of the power tailing off above the S12SQ-rpm po wer peak, that you' re glad of th e reminder th a t now w ould be a . go od m o m e n t to work th e le ft foo t, befo re you hit the IO,SOO-rpm rev -lim iter . How ever, you can flutte r this if you wa n t to hold the engi ne aga ins t it to save a gea r change, as it was bes t to do b e t w ee n th e la s t le ft - ha n d e r on th e Catalunya GP circuit an d the first of the three righ t-han d ers leading on to th e main straight past the pits - and in fact the pro tot ype Superbike racer Aprilia is currently d evelopin g is safe to II ,SOO rpm in the gears, indicating the margin of safety adopted on the street version. You can shift up as a matter of course wit hou t using the clu tch - shifting action is smoo th and precise - bu t rem ember, thou gh, tha t th is isn 't a d esrno, so you need to a void th e risk o f tanglin g th e valves, especially on down shifts - especially if you use the Aprilia's pn eu matically-operated slipper clu tch to max out engine braking. Rotax claims to have pate n ted this idea, but in fact it wa s first d rea med up by Bimota to allow their big 7S0cc GiJera-engined works Supe rm ono racer to ou tbrake desrno singles back in '94, withou t ho pping the back wheel on the overru n! It works extremely well on the Mille, though , and you can make the quite high 11.4:1 compress ion ratio really wo rk to your ad vantage braking hard at the 200-meter board fro m w ha t th e digita l sp eed o tells yo u is 140 mph at th e en d of the ma in s tr aight , co mi ng down four gears for the tight chicane all without a trace of chatter from the rear wheel, eve n if I caught myself us ing what on non-desmo mo to rs is a b ad habit any Duc a ti racer us es to advantage, flashing the gea rchange ligh t on the overrun throug h u sin g too m an y revs. Slap that wrist... . Gea r ratios are well chosen, but those fa ncy red Brembo calip ers on th e bi g 320mm floating fro nt di scs have a very progressive actio n rather th an a lot of bite w hen you first squee ze hard . This is alm ost cer tain ly a facto r of the pad s chosen as standard by Aprilia, w hich claims . to hav e res isted the tem ptation to fit race pads for the press launch. Out on the street in real-world rid ing , the progressive feel is a bonus, espe cially if it rain s: The last thing you want is to lock the front wheel by squee zing too hard , as the six-pis ton calipers fitted to ano ther Italian Superbike in the mak ing w ill surely risk doing. Thi s linear power delivery does n' t mask perfor ma nce, though - just that the Aprilia gets it on good in a d eceptively smoo th man ner. Sudd en ly, the digital sp eed o on the acceptably legi ble infocenter dash derived from the RS250 tells you you 're cruising at well over 200 kph - bu t the strange thing is tha t it doesn't feel it. Like on the Suzuki TLl 000R, the Aprilia's bod yw ork ha s been scu lp ted w it h the a id of a wind tu nnel - bu t. u nlike the Suzu ki, it doesn' t feel like a boat in handli ng terms as a result. Wh ile still ret a in ing the slim build and nim ble agility of a V-twin, the Mille has a win d -che ating fairing th at gives much m ore prot ecti on th at o n a 916 Duca ti - or an Rl Yamaha, for tha t matter. This mea ns th a t, a t hi gh speed , instead of havin g to crouch on the tank , tryi ng to fla tt en you rself behind the . slash-cu t screen while still ha ving to put

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