VOL. 52 ISSUE 24 JUNE 16, 2015 P103
you hit third, making me glad I
had the Sachs steering damper
well wound up. But hold the
gear and at 10,000 rpm there's
another dose of top end power
that will send you rocketing
forward as the engine heads for
the revlimiter in a way that's seri-
ously satisfying, and definitely
dramatic. There's a degree of
rideability that's literally intoxicat-
ing, especially when combined
with the APRC rider aid pack-
age. You especially can't help
appreciating the smoothness
of the perfectly dialed-in pow-
ershifter, no auto-blipper for
clutchless downshifts, which is
a pitty; this would allow you to
just tap in one gear after another
with the throttle wide open in a
flawless manner worthy of a fac-
tory Superbike racer.
BONES OF A CHAMPION
In spite of the subtly altered
chassis geometry, I found the
new Aprilia's handling on a par
with the RSV4's, which is to say:
excellent. Well, maybe it should
be, since this is the same chas-
sis that the reigning World Su-
perbike champion has. The one-
piece handlebar gives enough
leverage that you can soon
forget about the longer wheel-
base in terms of compromising
agility, but the big surprise was
how rock-solid stable the Aprilia
super-streetfighter was under
fierce acceleration. No handle-
bar waving in the wind, no speed
shimmy even when you hit a
bump, just totally planted. Aprilia
was aware this could become a
problem with a naked bike with
such a high potential top speed,
so it made extensive wind tunnel
testing in designing the revised
half-fairing, and especially made
sure it's mounted to the frame,
not the forks, in pursuit of stabili-
ty. The Sachs suspension on the
RR version I was riding seemed
a little stiffly set up, but both the
piggyback nitrogen rear shock
with the variable-rate linkage off
the RSV4, and the 43mm upside
down fork are fully adjustable
⎯ compression damping in one
leg, rebound in the other ⎯ so
with more time I expect I could
tion on four-cylinder machines, to
protect the 1000cc twins. By the time
this restriction was removed from
the SBK rulebook for 2008, when
they allowed 1200cc twins, it was
too late for us to change. So to get
more displacement in Tuono form for
more torque and more riding plea-
sure, we simply increased the bore
from 78mm to the 81mm we always
intended it should be, while maintain-
ing the same stroke.
There's no auto-blipper system
on the Tuono or the RSV4, which
seems strange considering Aprilia
has always led the
field in electronic
assistance, and so
many of your rivals
have now adopted
this. Why not?
We are working
on it. We have the
technology, because
it's on the Superbike
racer. But we are be-
hind in bringing this
to the street, though
it will follow later this
year.
