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/128218
Aprilia RSV Mille R Edwards (Left) All of the additional engine goodies bring the RSV Mille R Edwards' power output up to 136hp at 9750 rpm measured at the crankshaft. (Right) The Edwards replica is adorned in his MotoGP sponsor Alice (pronounced, "Ah-Iee-cha,.") livery. before the 10,750 rpm revlimiter would have cut in, best as I could tell from the very obscure red numbers that Aprilia insists upon using on the tacho face. I wish they'd use white ones you can actually read without a torch - but in any case, this is a very fast motorcycle on standard gearing, and fitting the smaller engine sprocket would only enhance the already potent acceleration even more. The way it picks up engine speed from that 7500-rpm threshold is really impressive but also refined - there are no steps in the powerband, just an irresistible rush of extra performance that is exhilarating, and addictive. Yet brake deep into one of the trio of Monza chicanes, using the great engine braking available from the Vtwin engine - without risk of chattering the rear tire, thanks to Aprilia's patented PPC pneumatic anti-lock system - as well as squeezing the radial Brembo front brakes hard, which provide awesome stopping power but with a much less fierce, snatchy lever response that their original spec delivered, and you'll find a similarly refined response awaiting you from the Aprilia's EFI. This has been brilliantly remapped to harness the extra performance from the big throttle bodies and revised intake system, but not at the expense of a brusque response from a closed throttle when you get back on the power again, eXiting the apex of a slow turn. The EvoMilie would be a bike you could enjoy riding to a track day, even though city streets or narrow, winding country roads, where its flexible rideability is seemingly at odds with the impressive engine performance (though better take care to use the excellent mirrors to best advantage to watch out for unwelcome followers of the blue flashing light variety!), and then spend a memorable day trackside riding it to somewhere close to its considerable limits before wending your way home again. Few other sportbikes that I've ridden have such an accessible yet as impressive an outright engine performance in street-legal form (well, with the kit exhaust it is, mainly - just not very green) as La Edwards. This is a rUe all-rounder. The EvoMille also retains the same 46 JUNE 1 1 , 2003ยท cue I e essential chassis specification as the stock Mille R, which is to say it comes with fully adjustable Ohlins suspension - the 43mm forks are the gold TIN-coated variety for enhanced compliance, and ride quality is good, too - with a trick, almost skeletal, lightweight upper triple clamp unique to La Edwards, anodized blue and made from Anticordal aircraft alloy. This matches the forged wheels made around the corner from Aprilia's Veneto base by industry leaders OZ. The wheels are also anodized blue and save a remarkable 6 pounds or 25 percent over the stock cast RSV1000 equivalents, all of it unsprung and thus a crucial factor in getting the Ohlins suspension to perform at its best, as well as advantageous under braking and acceleration owing to the reduced gyroscopic mass. Finally, to help produce a claimed dry weight of just 409 Ibs., with the heavy stock single-can exhaust, in addition to numerous carbon-fiber goodies - such as the Akropovic exhaust's mounting brackets, the redesigned front mudguard directing cool air to the radiator better than the stock Mille R component it replaces, the dashboard trim, or the air intake and radiator extraction shrouds on the fairing, there's a slimmer, sexier new - ah, posterior for La Edwards (sorry, Alyssia!). The stern sports a redesigned tail section to the seat, which is lower and sleeker than the one on the stock Mille R, so it's easier to cock a leg over while remaining relatively spacious and comfortable once you're aboard, by sportbike standards. I had the impression that the fairing itself was also altered or at least that La Edwards felt smaller, and thus more agile and adept at changing directions easily in the Monza chicanes for reasons over and above Aprilia's praiseworthy decision not to over-tire the bike at the rear for styling purposes - the rear Pirelli is a 180/55, so it still allows the bike to change direction easily while offering more than adequate grip when you crack the throttle hard open at the exit of Lesmo 2 or after the 90-degree right-hander leading into the Parabolica. However, when I mentioned after one session that the bike seemed n e _ s smaller and handier, I was told this wasn't the case - the rest of the bodywork is unchanged from the MilJe R. But it was left to works tester Franco Pellizon to come up with the answer. "I get the same feeling," he says, "and to begin with I thought I was imagining it. But the lower 'culo' ('arse' sounds so refined in Italian!) means that when you switch the bike from side to side, there's less aerodynamic pressure on the flank of the seat when you do so, and this makes it seem more agile. We tested it both ways, with a taller stock seat as well, and it's definitely the case." The EvoMille's handling is really stable and sure-footed, imparting loads of confidence, especially under heavy braking from those radial Brembos or riding the car-induced bumps flat out in fifth gear around the long, long II Curvone sweeper between the first two chicanes at Monza, where it just stays planted on line and shrugs off the road rash there's no need to call on the Ohlins steering damper fitted as standard. There were only two places where this wasn't the case, though - and that was in Lesmo 1 and at the exit from the Parabolica, where La Edwards understeered noticeably on part-throttle. It's a responsive enough bike handlingwise that you can correct this front end push with a bit of muscle and pull it back on line, but it was also noticeable that as soon as I got hard on the throttle again, it became more controllable and held a line perfectly. All a question of steering geometry and tire profile, I guess - but others among the Italian guest testers riding the bike with me remarked on the same characterjstic. Just something you have to watch out for. The only other serious criticism I had on "my" bike was that the gear-change was definitely rather stiff and notchy, needing quite a lot of concentration and effort to make it shift smoothly if not easily up through the new-for-2003 close-ratio cluster, which retains only fourth gear from before, with the others closed up on either side of it. Could be because the bike was so new, with only about 680 miles on the clock when I started riding it, but this was an irritant only partially cured by having the adjustable pedal reset to offer greater leverage. But these are relatively minor considerations, when compared to the liquid power and effortless midrange pickup of that wonderful engine. Aprilia deserves every credit for producing the EvoMille, even if the marketing-led decision to put Colin's name on it when he never ever raced an Aprilia V-twin (and still doesn't!), seems somewhat questionable. Guess they better make it up to him by giving him one to beat up the Texas Hill Country highways aboard, in between his regular on-track appointment with Valentino and Nicky and all those nice guys from Honda he'll meet in the paddock who figured they didn't owe him anything after winning two World Superbike titles and all those Suzuka 8-Hour victories. "Aprilia is a great company, with so much passion and enthusiasm for motorcycles, and the technical expertise to produce great bikes like their V-twins and what I know the RS Cube has the potential to be," said Colin as we sipped a drink together at the Valencia World Superbike round a month before his MotoGP debut for the Italian company. "Switching to ride for them was the best thing I ever did - I can't speak highly enough of them as a company." This was in non-PR mode, just taLking as friends, so I hope Colin won't mind my repeating here what he said - but if the satisfaction Aprilia's customers get from riding La Edwards is as great as mine after my day at Monza with the bike, I reckon Aprilia will be cranking up produc~on of the EvoMille to significant evels in the months to come. Especially if they paint it the proper colors... eN