VOLUME 58 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 12, 2021 P81
T
urns three, four, five, six
and seven at Buttonwillow
Raceway in California are
an excellent bunch of bends to
test a machine's handling.
The long, cambered-then-off-
cambered right of turn two is
followed by a short straight and
some heavy braking for the right
of three, then it's a snap left-right-
downhill right-uphill right and
over the wheelie jump on the exit
of Grapevine (turn seven). You
can tell when a bike works by
how quickly it gets through that
last section of turns, and this is
just one area the Aprilia RS 660
shows its considerable teeth.
Fitted with ultra-sticky Pirelli
Superbike SC1 slicks, Aprilia's
first mid-size dynamo is absolute-
ly on rails, allowing me to brake
extremely late into turn three
and pass a series of bikes twice
its capacity when the anchors
are heaved on. Having just had
the stock suspension fetted by
my Pikes Peak International Hill
Climb Crew Chief Jeremy Toye,
the braking stability of the RS
660 chassis is absolutely superb,
even if the actual power offered
by the radially mounted Brembo
four-piston monobloc calipers
Ripping into the New Year
on the rear wheel. The
Aprilia RS 660 is the Twins
Cup bike we've all been
waiting for.
