First Ride
Aprilia RSV M
illeSP
By Alan cameart
Photos by Kel Edge
LD
nyone who ever doubted Aprilia's ability to take the step up in
p roduct deve lopment fro m
building two-strokes tha t bea t the best
of Ja pan Inc. to wi n Wo rl d Cha m p ions hips, to making fou r-stro ke V-twins
that can street-sweep any other massprod u ced s u perb ik e in term s of rea l
worl d s port ri ding, obviously ne ver
rode an RSV Mille.
Sin ce it en tered produ ctio n 1i
mon ths ago, the Mille has esta blished an
en viable worldwide reputation as an allarou nder tha t d oes everything well - not
merely adequately . Even in modified prod uction guise (pending the debu t of
the SP race version), the new 6D-degree
V-twi n h a s pro ve d to b e a brill ia nt
sportbike. It's as ca pable on the stree t as
it is of winning wo rld- leve l sp rint racesas evidenced by Spa niard Davi d Oliver
Bulto' s lea de rship of th e Eu ro pean
Superstock s e r ies run a lo ngsid e the
World Superbike Series this seaso n.
Add in th e impressive performance
of the fleet of custo mer Aprilias in 24hou r marathons like t h e World
Endurance round a t Spa last mon th ,
where the 100 percent mechanical reliability of the eig h t-st ro ng Aprilia army
contrasted with the 100 percent failure
ra te of the "other" Itali an V-twin - the
desmo kind! - and it's little wonder that
Aprilia has had to step up V-twi n production at their Scorze factory from the
4000 bikes plann ed fo r th e firs t 12
mo nths of production , to the 60
