P90
RIDE REVIEW I 2021 APRILIA RSV4/RSV4 FACTORY
It has matured into a beast of a
bike, sprouting winglets and an
inverted swingarm and all man-
ner of electronics. But under-
neath, it's still the same charm-
ing, cheeky little Italian designed
for Max Biaggi to go and win a
couple of WorldSBK titles on it a
decade ago.
As usual, you've got two flavors
for your RSV4—the base RSV4
that was previously known as the
RSV4 RR—and the up spec RSV4
Factory, complete with Ohlins
Smart EC2 semi-active electronic
suspension, forged aluminum
wheels and a wider choice of
paint schemes.
Aside from those differences,
the bikes are the same, which
includes a now 1099cc V4 motor
with a lighter crankshaft packing
a pants-tightening 217 horsepow-
er at 13,000 rpm and 125 Nm of
torque at 10,500 rpm.
The great thing for Aprilia is
they've managed to get the motor
through the Euro5 emissions reg-
ulations without losing too much
in the way of midrange torque.
As the old saying goes, "if you
want more inches, stroke it," and
that's exactly what Aprilia has
done by going from 52.25mm
to 53.32mm to accompany the
MotoGP-specific 81mm bore.
Compared to the 2020 RSV4,
the '21 edition maintains more
torque from 4500 rpm right up to
13,500 rpm, with a substantial in-
Factory in red, RSV4 in
silver in the grey pits
of Laguna Seca. The
difference isn't as big as
you might imagine.
