VOL. 52 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 27, 2015 P97
However, with that many
revs to play with, it's hardly
a problem. Gunitoli told me
he lets the bike run as low as
5,000 rpm in slow turns like
Strubben at Assen, or turn
one at Sepang. At Mugello
I was using 7,000 rpm as a
baseline to exit a tight turn like
the Correntaio right-hander. At
the other end of the rev scale,
the soft RBW limiter kicks in at
15,500 rpm. What differs from
this year's bike, however, is
that there's an extra 300 rpm
overrev available for a last-lap
dash—if needed.
But the biggest advance in
2014 was in the team's elec-
tronics package.
"Things changed a lot in just
one year," Albesiano said. "We
developed new strategies which
we kept building on all through
the season. I think that was why
we were able to mount such a
serious challenge for the world
title in the final races. We were
increasingly better able to use
the performance that we had
built in to the bike."
My good fortune in being
given the keys to all of the
factory Superbikes every year
means that I'm able to compare
and contrast the latest and great-
est with each other as well as
with what came before. And very
honestly the 2014 Aprilia is the
best motorcycle I've ridden yet,
as an infinitely refined version of
what was already a brilliant bike.
It is phenomenally fast, if not
exactly easy to ride, with a linear
but explosive build of power
from way low to way high. It's
so refined (that word again) in
the way it delivers such serious
horsepower—the transition point
at which the variable length in-
take system operates raised this
year to 12,000 rpm from 10,500
revs yet completely undetectable
in the way the throttle body trum-
pets lift off them at those revs.
It's just seamless in the way it
does it and I was indeed looking
to try to spot it, but couldn't.
In the past the payoff for the
Aprilia's amazing acceleration
and blinding top speed was
a fierce pickup from a closed
throttle that was just the control-
lable side of aggressive. Thanks
to electronics, the 2014 World
Champion Superbike has a
softer, but no less effective low
down response. While revised
valve timing, altered cylinder
head porting and other detail
engine mods have delivered that
significant step up in horsepow-
er, it's not been at the expense
of rideability. Quite the reverse,
in fact. You can understand
why Aprilia decided to keep its
software in house and just use
Magneti Marelli hardware, rather
than risk the fruits of their work
being shared among Marelli's
other customers—as in, most of
the rest of the World Superbike
paddock.
You can feel that this has led
to still better drive out of a slow
"IT'S ONE OF THE
MOST DISTINCTIVE-
SOUNDING
SUPERBIKE
ENGINES YET MADE,
ISSUING AN ULTRA-
DISTINCTIVE MEATY
BURBLE AT LOW
REVS FROM THE
AKRAPOVIC CARBON
CAN. AS ALWAYS,
IT SOUNDS LIKE A
HIGH-PITCHED TWIN
LOW DOWN, BUT A
DEEP-VOICED FOUR
UP HIGH."
Guintoli won the title over Kawa-
saki's Tom Sykes by six points at
the final round in Qatar.
