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/128309
.--A p - ---=s:X .,4-.=---- - - - - - - - - -- ....L.-- - - - - - - ,.--: -c::- --- S n ia V C""iC ·/ Aprilia's original plan was to disclose the new machine a little later in the year, but considering that the 2003 racing calendar still held a few rounds of the FIM World Supermoto series, Aprilia Off-Road made the surprising decis ion to participate at the last two rounds to collect as much data as possible before entering into competition in both the 2004 FIM World Supermoto and World Motocross championships. But word in the paddock was that some of the Japanese manufacturers (and not only them) reacted negatively to Aprilia's twin The 2·into-l exhaust system snakes around behind the rear shock in the subframe before joining up with the single mufRer. Instrumentation on the 5XV4.5 is Aprilia's 77-degree V-twin is extreme- strictly for data acquisition. Production ly compact, nestling nicely in the models will not have the elaborate bike's chrome moly trellis frame. computer un its on their triple clamps. Another look at Aprilia's revolutionary V-Twin Supermoto STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARIO MARINI n the off-road uni verse , in recent achievements are the new and revolution- ye ars t he re ac t ually weren't many examples of radical tec hnical revo lutions. Thanks to Yamaha, in the late '90s the biggest inte rest came fro m the introduction of the new gen eration of co mpact and powerful four-stro ke engines mou nted into traditional frames . Now the four-stro ke concept dom inates the off-road tr ends, as most of the other manufacturers followed the same direction. Also, the popular aluminum-framed Hondas, introduced in 1997, captur ed massive att ention. Similar hype will surely surround the forthcoming two-w hee l-drive Y amahas. But certainly on par w ith t hese techn ical ary conc epts brought into the off-road wo rld by Aprilia's new V4.5 range of Vtw in four-stro ke racers. After 10 years of success on the asp halt, the Italian company has gear ed up for a return to the dirt. O riginally in Aprilia's genetic code, the off-ro ad eleme nt occup ied a privileged spot. From 1975 to 1993 the Ita lian co mpany fielded factory effort s in most of the majo r off-road and motocross series. Now it's back with the SXV4.5, a wea po n that pro mises to set new, unexpected standards for off-roa d use. The 4.5's Single-shaft, 77-deg ree electronically fuel-injected V-twin power unit I 32 FEBRUARY 4,2004 • CYCLE NEWS re presents the first solid approach to the tw in four-stroke concept for off-road (20 year s ago, Gilera made an attempt w ith a I25cc tw o-stro ke twin engine that didn't go far). The revolutio nary steel perimet er frame w it h alloy uprights represents another part of t he pro ject, w hich visibly ex pre sses some road racing pedigree as well as the ado ption of massive electronic featur es to produce extre me ly fine co ntro l of the engine's behavior. Another key part of the 4.5 prog ram has been to build an engine that will co mply w ith the most re stricte d em issions and noise stand ard s w hile at the sam e time offer ing plenty of power for off-ro ad use . 40th Anniversary This detail shot shows some of the 4.5's externally routed oil lines. pro ject and that an att empt at legislating t he design out of existence with in the 2004 ruleboo k was in the planning. But the 2003 rulebook did not place a rest rict ion o n the num ber of cylinders used in motocross and super moto. Therefo re , Aprilia opted for an early de but, demonstrating by doing so that t he project w as viable and completely legal, as pro ved by its being fullyallowed to enter an FIMWorld Supermoto round . The version pictu red on these pages is the supermoto unit, the one used fo r the unexpected debut in Spa-Francorcharnps on Novem ber IS-16 at the GP of Wallonie and conducted by road racing I25cc class vice-champion Alex de Angelis. For its new motocrosser Apr ilia is working on the very same platform but with t he requ ired ad justments - for example, the supermoto version features five speeds, w hereas the MX ve rsio n w ill have