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/1542354
BY AIAN Carxclnr PHoros gv Mrucno forged-aluminum wheels found on the RSV- R factory but are significantly heavier Asian- made Keenadvance copies, the new RSV- R's dry weight is unchanged at 415 pounds. in spite of the heavier Ohlins forks. with a l4l8mm wheelbase/l0l.7mm trail, the overall package is essenrially unchanged. lt's iust rellned - a fact confirmed during my day in Qatar. Hopping aboard the base-level RSVl000R, you notice its tflck-looking cockpit with the skeletal anodized upper triple clamp for the dhlins forks. and also that the 32.4-inch seat height isn't extreme by sportbike standards. ln fact, combined with the rational riding stance, it delivers a balanced feel to a bike that you feel at home on immediately. Thumb the starter motor and the Aprilia comes alive, with the close-coupled offbear lilt oI the 60-degree V-wvin motor settling to that lazy 1200-rpm idle, which, thanks to the PPC. hasn't been cranked up to combat rear-wheel chatter under engine braking- While there's not quite the same midrange muscle as on the less-potent Tuono R, whar's immediately notrceable rs that Aprilia's R&D team have produced a sportbike that in no way suffers from the imposition of Euro 3. EnBine pick up is actu- ally meatier and mightier than it was before on the previous Euro z-compliant model. The RSV-R pulls cleanly off the mark wrth veq,/ lit e abuse of the light-a(tion hydraulic clurch (riding this bike around city streets will gve little grief to your left hand), willaccept wide-open throttle in top gear from just 2500-rpm upward, and starts to build serious power from the 4000-rpm mark. The dip in the power curve that used to exist betlveen there and 7000 rpm has been completely filled in, and now fie Aprilia runs like a freight train all the way to the soft-action I 1,000-rpm rev- limiter with hardly a hiccup. lndeed, it pays to rev it out allthe way to the 10,000-rpm power peak and even a linle beyond - sim- ply because you can feel the power building progressively, yet inexorably, all the while. Pick up from a closed throttle is exempla- ry delivering a clean and smooth response when you get on the 8as again after you've tiail-braked into a rurn. What a nice motor - the greenies wall like it, and so will you- I was expecting to have to use the trans- mission a lot more on the RSV-R than I actually did in order to max out perform- ance, but even riding the torque curve, you'll notice the shift action is greatly improved compared to previous Mille- motored bikes. lt's definitely slicker and smoother shifting than before, with the exception of the change from third to founh. That one is unexpectedly harsh compared to the others and that maybe a problem with the selector drum desiSn. Otherwise. the transmission is a model of lightness and precision well Lrp to Japanese standards The RSV-R felt very stable and solid in corne6, especially after we iifted the rear end slightly to stop it from pushint the front while exiting a turn hard in second gear (at which point you do notice there's no steer- ing damper on the stock RSV-R as the bars iiggle li8htry in yo'.rr hands d.iving hard out of a turn), and after we dialed in a slightly more compliant setting for the 6hlins fork. lf anything, it felt too stable - to the point that it became pretty hard work flicking it from side to side in the fast turn-eight chi cane, or exiting the tight turn-two left-han- der and immediately throwinS the bike over to the riSht for the fourth-8ear sweeP- er leading on to the first long straiSht. It was the same when lifting the RSV-R up exiring a turn to let the far pan ol the rear Pirelli deliver maximum grip when you crank rhe throttle open. lreally had to work at doing so, maybe because of the slightly more raked-out front-end geome- try - or so it seemed. After a dozen or so laps at Qatar, I switched to the costlier factory version, fit- ted with exactly the same engine as the RSV-R - but with the addition as before of an Ohlins shock and steering damper. plus varioiJs carbon-frber sections helping achieve an almost nine-pound weight reduction over the R model. That scaled it down ro 407-pounds dry - thoLrgh a signif- icant part of that comes from the 5.5- pound savings obtained by the factory's lighter OZ forSed-alloy wheels - the front a 3.50 incher and the rear 6.00. Three-color combinations are available for the RSVI000R - white, bla.k and red, while you can have any color you want for the costlier factory - as long as it's black with an anodized-8old frame. I r-t l T the RSV in block D I .4 + i o\ / ,/, , t' ( 7 ) a "l t- -t- 1 \ ,l ? I r- \ F t -J I Alon Colh(ort .t speed on fhe new Aprilio RSVtOOOR. a \ cYcLE NEWS APR].26,2006 25