Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Aprilia RST1000 Futura well honed it stands up to anything else in its class. Though the distinctively shaped screen is low enough not to make you feel you need to send a telegram to the front wheel to make it turn tight, there's enough protection at ton-up speeds for a sixfooter not to feel too blown about or suffer from any significant helmet bobble - perhaps thanks to the squared-off uppers which deflect the breeze off your shoulders. There's only one screen height available, by the way - nothing any taller for junior league basketball players, and it also doesn't tilt and adjust like the one on a certain BMW born in Rimini does, either. But it works well, as does the Futura's bodywork as a whole: Arru's styling offers good protection while retaining the lean build of a V-twin, without making the Aprilia seem as wide as a four. The Falco-sourced triple-reflector headlamp promises to work well, with the central lower lens working alone on dip, then joined by the upper pair on full beam. Top marks, too, for the clearly legible , dashboard, which combines two analogue dials for speed and rpm with a digital infocenter providing you with everything from the ambient temperature and a clearly visible fuel gauge, to telJing when you need to have the bike serviced next. Pity the mirrors aren't placed better, though, for while vibe-free and quite stylish in a Tamburini-esque way (e.g. indicators in the back), they're angled wrongly perhaps to obtain the increased down force Marconi speaks of - so that your shoulders get in the way. They need repositioning. But when you're more concerned about where you're going than where you've just been, the Futura delivers. For what is inevitably a relatively big bike, with a 57.4-inch wheelbase, it steers pretty easily but yet precisely into tight turns, and changes direction from side to side very well, like on the switchback climb up Mount Etna through snow-coated lava fields with a kitty-litter of pumice stones waiting outside every corner to give you a scrub if you make a mistake and start rolling around in them. No fear of an early bath with the Aprilia, though, which has a suspension package that delivers exceptional ride quality by sportbike standards over the kind of pockmarked road surface ~at passes for the main drag in a Sicilian town, yet -offers good compliance when ridden hard. Not sure the range of adjustment on the Sachs rear shock is as great as it needs to be, though: with no luggage, or passenger, and before a plateful of pasta for lunch, I had to crank up the preload to one click below max to make it work best and to stop the bike squatting down at the rear and understeering slightly under power. Still, while you wouldn't 30 MARCH 14.2001 • cue I fPD@[fD{}j]D@D !1fJCfJ[f@@[JDD8 !1fJW @W[JD fP@f?rB@[JDCfJD @fl@CfJDfJiJ@D!JI@ooo The RST Futura differs from previous models in the Aprilia V-twin lineup in having the name of a single 'progettista' firmly attached to it. That man is 43-year-old Pierluigi Marcon.!, for the best part of a decade the architect of Bimota's technical fortunes, before joining Aprilia in 1998 to establish the expanding Italian firm's new dedicated R&D facility in San Marino - just a stone's throw, by coincidence, from Massimo Tamburini's rival CRC design temple on the other side of the mountaintop republic where the MV Agusta F4 was conceived. But Marconi's first hands-on project for Aprilia is something very different from the motorcycling work of art that is the F4 - or, indeed, the technical flights of fancy represented by the hub-centre Tesi or fuel-injected Vdue two-stroke. Marconi designed both of those for Bimota during his days there as chief engineer, alongside the more conventional sportblkes which were the small specialist company's ticket to survival, and even - for a time - prosperity. Instead, the AprUia RST Futura derives some of its inspiration from one of the several designs the Rimini firm developed over the years on a consultancy basis for outside manufacturers. as a lucrative sideline to its day job of building bikes badged as Bimotas. That machine was the BMW R120QRS, the German company's first fourcylinder model with a separate chassis, a twin-spar aluminium frame which was designed in-house at Bimota. When you see the RSn 000 Aprilia unclothed for the first time, you can't help but be struck by the similarities between the two - even if it's slightly surprising that, as a peerless progettista of performance products. Marcall the Futura e~actly nimble, especially compared to its RSV sisters, it's quite easy-handling and fast-steering enough for this kind of two-wheeled sports coupe, and is totally planted in fast sweepers, where the twin-spar frame's inherent stability really comes into its own, even when you hit a bump or a series of ripples cranked over. It is a great bike for the long haul - and also a deceptive one, as you're not aware you're traveling as fast as you really are at freeway speeds. Hauling the Aprilia down from high speed is easily done when riding solo, but the downsized Brembo brake package gives the impression of being merely sufficient rather than superlative when stopping a bike with a dry weight of 462 pounds, though that might be down to a choice of pads aimed at longer life over the touring season. Still, it makes you wonder if it's beefy enough to do the same job properly on a Futura loaded up with two people and all their luggage for a week or two away from home: there wasn't quite the bite you'd expect on a semi-sportbike package like this. Jury's out on that one, too - but for sure the ABS option is going to be worth having, once Aprilia dials it in. My day spent riding the RST1000 Futura around a volcano. that gently reminded you its fllse was lit by blowing smoke-rings all day long, showed this to be a genuine.alJ-arounder. The Aprilia combines sporting allure with everyday practicality in a package which matches Italian brio with a _ n __ s coni's first design for Aprilia should be something so relatively conservative as a sports tourer. "Perhaps it may seem so, but in fact this is what I asked Aprilia to let me do when I joined them - because it's my own personal dream bike, the one I want to ride myself," asserts Marconi. "Sportbikes have their place in the market for those who want to go fast and ride alone - but for a growing number of motorcyclists like me who, as they grow older, are looking for a more rational but still exciting bike to own, something like this is the best solution, which is fun to ride solo, but has good space when needed for a passenger like my wife or young son. I've tried to improve on what I regarded when I set out as the class benchmarks, which were the Triumph Sprint ST and Honda VFR, by creating a practical performance tour· er - but with the spirit of a Supersport, not of a BMW. I hope I've succeeded'" Thus the RST1000 Futura is here and now Aprilia's debut into the sport touring segment that Marconi considers one of the most sophisticated in the global motorcycle market. "People who buy bikes like this are generally very experienced riders who know a lot abo",t motorcycles, and want something with inbuilt qualities which holds its value well: Marconi sa.!d. "We considered at some length the option of introducing the Futura with a larger-capacity version of the V-twin engine, but we decided against an RST1200 or whatever, because our concept is to target the sporty side of the sport touring market, not to produce an all-out touring bike, which is what this would entail. That's a market.Aprilia may decide to address in the future, but not yet. For now. our management first preferred to allow me to build my own personal dreambike . and I hope that our customers around the world will enjoy the end result. To produce this bike from a clean sheet of paper to the finished show product in less than three years was hard work - but it was a labor of love I hope will meet with approvaL!" Teutonic degree of functionality and incorporates a build quality and attention to detail worthy of a product made in Japan. There are no rattles, no rubs, nothing waving in the breeze - it's just solid. As such, the Futura lays arguable claim to providing what may be the best answer yet to the eternal sport touring conundrum: how do you offer the best of both of these sometimes mutually exclusive worlds without compromising one or the other? That's not to say the Italian company's entry in the sport touring stakes is perfect, but it comes close ENGINE lYPE enough to providing the best of both worlds that I'll wager it winning the inevitable five- bike ST comparo tests that are slated to run around the world in the coming months. And let's face it, even three years ago, which of us would really have bet on Aprilia producing a one-liter V-twin this capable, this refined and this competitive i,n one of the world's most demanding motorcycle markets, ready for the 2001 sport touring season? This is a company that has come a long way in a short time and it's not done yet. CIN Liquid-cooled, four· stroke, four valves per cylinder, longitudinal60-degree V-twin with anti-vibrator double countershaft. BORE x STROKE 97 x 67.5mm DISPLACEMENT , ..........•............997.62cc COMPRESSION RATIO 11.4:1 VALVE ACTUATION DOHC FUEL-INJECTION .Ill«irect multipoint electronic Digital electronic with two spark plugs per cylinder IGNmON STARTER ..........................•...........................Electric LUBRICATION _ : , Dry sump TRANSMISSION Six-speed CLUTCH Hydraulic multiple dlsc in oil bath FRAME ..•..........Aluminum alloy box section with removable steel saddle mount MAXlMOM LENGTH ..........•..............•..................86.8 inches MAXJM(IJi\ WIDTH

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