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/128142
Troy Corser's Aprilia RSV1000 But where the big improvement in the Aprilia's performance has come over the past year has been in the engine. Whereas in 2000 this was a bit of a slug out of turns, but had a nice, fat midrange and reasonable top end - albeit with a quite conservative, but pretty vivid 12,200-rpm revlimiter - now the power curve has been completely redesigned, and the bike made a lot more potent: from being a weak point, the Aprilia's acceleration is now transformed into a serious asset out of slower bends. It doesn't wriggle and wind itself up beneath you as you gas it up out of a turn like a Ducati does - but there's still an element of communication from bike to rider, a sense of the chassis talking to you as it puts the power down. Only the Apri\ja feels more of a class act - more Fl Ferrari than the Ducati's turbocharged lndycar, in their respective responses. Wrong color, though. The 2000 Mille's short-stroke engine also used to have a snatchy pickup from a closed throttle that was quite unpleasant - not as bad as an R7 Yamaha, but getting there. This has been transformed on the latest bike to a response that's quite comparable to the World Champion Ducati 996R I was testing exactly one week previously on the same track, so the memories were quite vivid. Uke the Ducati, the Aprilia now has an ultra-clean transition into the powerband, though not as low down as the desmo V-twin. This one drives cleanly from as low as 6000 rpm, but 7500 rpm is the power threshold, and it's not quite as muscular down there as the Ducati is, plus there's a little more vibration, mainly through the footpegs but not el1er bad enough to Tror e-r rode the fKtoty Aprilia RSV1000 to fourth In the 2001 WOItd SUperb/lie Ch8mplonshlp, though the P*tnv couldn't IIUItch the eerty-season pace they set wIttI wins In Sp8In at the beginning of as. _ . become an issue. But then, as the 60-degree engine picks up revs to the higher-pitched music of its Termignoni exhausts, it starts to accelerate notably faster than the desmoquattro from 9000 to just under 11,000 rpm. By now, the two bikes feel equal in performance, and the fact that the Aprilia is supposedly faster on top end on a fast track may be down to its undoubtedly superior aerodynamics - it really doesn't feel any bulkier or wider than the Ducati to ride, but you definitely do get better protection from the bodywork, .. and especially from that nicelyshaped screen which invites you to tuck well down behind it along the straight. Nice. The two bikes - coincidentally sharing the same bore and stroke dimensions for just a single season, before the Ducati goes to a 104mmbore format next season with the 998R - now have almost an equal appetite for revs, though the Aprilia's engine flattens out a little powerwise after the 12,200-rpm power peak. It's definitely best to change up when the red shifter light in the cockpit flashes at you as the extremely legible analog tachometer reaches the 12,400rpm mark. though Corser says he often changes up just below 12,000 rpm, to ride the torque curve which peaks around there. The revlimiter was set at 12,700 rpm, but there's no point using it I I because of the tightened-up ratios of the Mille's '01 gearbox. T~ese don't lose you more than 1000 revs in any gear, and so keep the engine really chiming away in its peak power zone if you change up around 12,000 rpm, as Corser told me later he usually does. Even so, the spread of power is now so wide that you can run a high-I er gear most of the way through the Valencia infield, holding it while you, play the throttle back and forth between turns. You can get away with just using bottom gear twice a lap at Valencia - once for the tight first hairpin, then again for the last turn leading onto the main straight, where it'll pull out of there in second if you use a wide line, but it's better in terms of drive if you hold it in tight and kick it into first for extra punch out of the apex, leading to another 300 rpm more in fifth gear, before you back 'Off and brake for the second-gear turn one. This is important, because the change from bottom to second gear is very harsh and requires you to back off the throttle for an instant to be sure of changing gear okay, or even fan the clutch for an instant, as you flat-shift it dirt-track style - but I I I • • 22 FEBRUARY 20. 2002' cue • e n __ s The RSV1000 has been described as bulbous, but both Corser and Alan cathcart say It doesn't ride like It is.