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three races at Valencia, though - then add another victory at Laguna Seca, after cruising through from sixth place on the first lap to overhaul first-race winner Noriyuki Haga's Yamaha R7 with what looked like embarrassing ease. Third place in the final points tally for Corser was twice as good as tbe best Ducati rider could muster - the other Aussie Troy, Bayliss by name, in sixth. Revenge is sweet.. , Ironically, the chance to tryout Corser's works ApriIja RSV 1000 came at a sunny Va1encia post-season test session in November, on the very same day t)1at I'd ridden the Bayliss Ducati ;rhat meant comparisons were inevitable between the two Latin V-twin Superbikes - and very different from one another they indeed are. The Aprilia is one of those deceptive bikes that is completely djfferent to ride than you think it will b from looking at it - and even my first impressions after riding it for a couple of slow warm-up laps to heat the tires and dial myself in, turned out to be flawed. At that point the session was redflllgged after new Duca.ti recruit eben Xaus obligingly crashed his 99:6R desmoquattro (rider fortunately o ay), giving me the chance to return to base and relay my initial reactions to the team. Which were? Well, the Aprilia even more flexible a racetrack friend Superbike actually seems~o::w~f:]~r=+::I!!Eaimill Ducati, with an even flatter more compact tha reetbike SP torque curV' :d most as wide a Mille it's d i-ved from and, most spread of power, tHat 1 es you to import y, it isn't nearly as wide to cut down on gearshifts an eel2 up sit n as it appears from looking at it. cornering speed, using a higher gear 'fhe rather bulbous-looking fuel tank everywhere than you might otherwise is actually quite well-shaped and relhave chosen. It's all something the atively slim, providing a tucked-in but capable chassis is happy to help you fairly spacious riding position behind to do. Nevertheless, it's also less the tall screen, which delivers much muscular in terms of lowdown pickup more aerodynamic protection in a than the Ducati, so that it pays to straight line than the only fractionally keep the Aprilia revving above 8000 narrower Ducati's more abbreviated rpm in any of Valencia's tighter turns. bodywork. You also sit a lot lower Otherwise, you do feel the bike lag aboard the Aprilia than on the Ducati coming out of the corner as the with its taller 90-degree L-twin motor. engine struggles to get back on the But the 50-degree Aprilia V-twin pipe again. engine seemed to want to be revved The answer is to use the reassurharder than its Italian mechanical coming handling of the twin-spar alloy patriot - it felt buzzier and not so frame to max turn-out speed, and to torquey. The polite but blank looks this keep the engine revving as you do so. comment induced in the faces of team Do that, and you only need to use low manager Fabrizio Guidotti and his pit gear at Valencia once per lap, in order to get a good drive out of the crew should have given me a clue I was talking trash - but then the recovery turn-two left-hand hairpin. Everytruck trundled past down pit lane carrywhere else, I could hold second gear ing the remains of the Xaus Ducati to squirt it between turns, where even scraped up off the tarmac, and it was on the Ducati both Bayliss and myself time to head out on the track once again had to keep switching back and forth between first and second. When you - to discover the error of my judgment. First impressions are not always do that, the way the Aprilia's geared the right ones. you sometimes end up using a lot of My next, longer session revealed engine braking from high rpm stopthat the Aprilia is in fact arguably ping for the next turn - in which case cue I e the slipper clutch does its job really well, with no chatter from the back wheel as you slow for the next bend. The trademark click you feel through the lever from the Ducati's slipper clutch is absent on the Aprilia, though accelerating from a standstill own pit lane in what passed for a pr ctice start, it does graunch a fair bit on take off, though not as bad as a Ducati, and take up is smoother and more controllable as you slip it off the line. It's not so all-or-nothing It's not as if the Aprilia's transmission is so awful that you need to cut back on using it, however. Quite the opposite really, for tbe slightly harsh but not overly sensitive wide-open powershifter action of the race-pattern gearbox allows crisp upward changes as soon as the red light on the dash flashes on at 11,800 rpm. The soft-action revlimiter only flutters the engine when it cuts in at 12,200 rpm, but you shouldn't really encounter it unless you're trying to The Aprilla is a stunning motorcycle and was easily the unexpected revelation of the series last year. When Corser was dropped from the factory Ducatl team, Aprilia was the first place he went looking for a ride. They welcomed him with open arms and were rewarded with race wins and pole positions. n e _ os • JANUARY 24,2001 13