RIDE REVIEW I 2021 APRILIA TUONO V4
P98
played its part.
Get out of the traffic,
open up those quartet
of 48mm throttle bodies
and let the sweet, sweet
V4 music blare out as
you crack up through
gearbox on the knife-
through-butter quick-
shifter, and the Tuono V4
absolutely comes alive.
The semi-active Oh-
lins, once switched into
Sport mode on the dash, give
the Tuono such poise it is very
difficult to fault. On the track,
I much preferred the manual
setting for the suspension in
the ECU, but on the LA roads,
with the baffling level of crappy
surfaces you must endure, the
semi-active Ohlins are a god-
send.
It's a stiff ride in Sport mode,
and you'll likely want to dip back
down into the Road settings for
your trip back home, especially if
you live in the city.
The motor is as you were, sir.
There's very little to hint that this
is any different to the last itera-
tion, except the dreaded flat spot
due to emissions regulations has
reared its ugly head—although
not as badly as some-
thing like the Honda
CBR1000RR-R SP.
The motor needs to
labor past the 4-6000
rpm dead spot in a bit
more of a pronounced
fashion than the more
powerful RSV4, which
simply tears past it
as though it weren't
there. Changing modes
doesn't help as it's an emissions
issue, but it's not as bad as it
could be.
You're still met with that lovely
throttle response below 4000
rpm and get the motor charging
past 7000 rpm and you better
hang on as there's still 4500
rpm to go before the engine
tops out at 13,500 rpm. You're
met with a cavalcade of forward
Sachs conventionally adjusted suspension is a
focal point of the base model Tuono.