Thoroughly Modern Mille
Thoroughly Modern Mille
Is Aprilia's new RSV1000 sport-Twin another case of Mille Vanilli? Not a says Road Test Editor Don Canet
FIDGETING ABOUT MY AIRLINE SEAT IN A FEEBLE ATTEMPT TO get comfy, I thumbed through the March, 1998, issue of Cycle World, reading Kevin Cameron's tech preview of the new Aprilia RSV Mille for the umpteenth time. Bound for Barcelona, Spain, and the press launch of the world's latest liter-class sport-Twin, I had plenty of idle time to ponder the upcoming ride.Not all my preconceptions were good ones.
Hard-core Italophiles, sport-Twin fanatics and most anyone who’s captivated by the latest motorcycle technologies might relate to my anxiety. Following the progress of the Mille (Italian for “thousand”) since the project’s birth in 1994-and through its repeated release-date delays-has been a cruel exercise in over-extensive foreplay. As I gazed at the delicious photos and read Kevin’s praise of Aprilia’s clever engineering achievements, my practical and somewhat pessimistic sense prevailed. Based on past experience with certain Italian-built specials, I found it easy to imagine the RSV as another finicky exotic, beautiful beyond belief, but disappointingly rough around the edges. Taking advantage of the few perks of international air travel, I ordered a complementary cocktail to help calm my nerves.
Let’s see. The 998cc liquid-cooled, four-stroke V-Twin marks Aprilia’s first foray into the full-sized streetbike market. Having built an empire in the small-displacement scooter and two-stroke sportbike categories, the liter-class RSV is a bold step for the Venice-based factory. But tempting fate and beating stiff odds is nothing new to a firm that’s become the Cinderella story of modem GP racing. Driven more by a passion for racing than a practical business sense, Aprilia entered into 125 and 250cc GP competition back in 1985. It took several years for Aprilia to unseat the Japanese giants, but it has now become a major force, captur ing six world titles since `92.
While I hold the greatest admiration for Aprilia's racing achievements and its unbridled tenacity, my doubts remained.
Aprilia has every intention of going after the World Superbike Championship with a race version RSV!000, but the bike I would be testing was billed as a production street bike, and would be expected to behave as such. A good roadbike requires a high degree of real-world refinement, something that can easily be lacking in a first-generation design or a sports machine that leans too heavily toward ontrack competition.
No worries, it turns out. At the evening press briefing, I finally get an up-close-and-personal peek at the RSV1000. Perched in the saddle with closed eyes, I feel out the placement of the pegs and foot controls, the angle of the clip-on bars, the shape of the sculpted fuel tank. It fit like a glove. Having recently conducted a 916 vs. TL1000R comparo (CIV, September), I would say the RSV’s riding position falls smack between the two, not nearly as cramped as the Ducati nor as spread out as the Suzuki.
Beneath the Mille’s wind-tunnel-developed plastic resides an elegant frame and swingarm made of castings and stamped aluminum sheet with an attractive matte sheen and remarkably clean welds. The main spars are dished out along their top length to allow the rider's knees to be tucked in tightly, and recesses just aft of the headstock provide ample steering lock for sharp U-turns. The very stout swingarm, a masterful piece in itself, would not look entirely out of place displayed in a museum of modern art.
A fully adjustable Showa inverted fork with 43mm stanchion tubes, and an equally adjustable piggyback-reservoir Boge-Sachs shock control the ride. There’s a compact, nonadjustable steering damper located below the top tripleclamp in front of the headstock to help keep the peace if the bars try to get out of hand.
Wheels and brakes are all Brembo items. A 3.5-inch front wheel carries a pair of 12.6-inch floating steel rotors pinched by differential-bore (30mm leading, 34mm trailing), four-piston calipers. A 6-inch-wide rear wheel sports an 8.7-inch rotor with a compact dual-piston caliper. Racecompound Pirelli Dragon Corsa radial tires come standard in 120/70ZR-17 front and 180/55ZR-17 rear sizes. This is the stuff dreams are made of.
The following morning we were transported to the worldclass Circuit de Catalunya, site of the rain-sodden Kawasaki ZX-6R press launch 1 attended earlier this year. This time, however, summer heat and high humidity provided the only moisture. Inside the paddock garage was an orderly row of RSVs, each parked on a work lift and attended to by an Aprilia mechanic who was prepared to make chassis adjustments as needed. The riding schedule called for two 30minute track sessions followed by a 100-mile street ride; after lunch we would get three more 30-minute sessions on the racetrack. I asked if the current suspension settings were
standard as delivered to dealers or a baseline derived for this particular circuit. A simple enough question, but it seemed to get confused in the translation from English to Italian. At any rate, I intended to ride the first session with the current settings. I later learned the chassis setup had indeed been tailored for the circuit and included the fork legs pulled up 4mm in the clamps to quicken steering.
Before entering the track I received a quick brieting on the RSV’s cockpit, a pretty trick affair with an analog tachometer flanked on either side by multi-functional LCD displays. Along with the usual array of indicator lights, coolant temperature, battery voltage, digital speedometer and time clock displays, there were two features of particular interest: 1) a shift-indicator light located on the face of the tachometer programmable to
flash at the rpm of your choosing, allowing you to keep your eyes focused on the road ahead rather than the rev counter; and 2) a built-in lap-timing stopwatch triggered by pressing the passing-lamp switch on the left handgrip. You can record and recall up to 40 laps to monitor your ro~zress.
Within a few laps of the 12-turn, 2.94-mile circuit, my pre conceived notions about the RSV were fading fast. The engine grabbed my immediate attention with a surprisingly refined feel. Changing gears is a smooth operation, with a light, short throw at the lever and very little drivetrain lash. Power delivery is strong and seamless with enough midrange grunt to make gear selection more of an option than a neces sity. Pin the throttle in low gear and the front wheel torques up into a full salute as the revs rush through 4000 rpm. After all the talk of tooth-rattling vibration inherent in a 60-degree V-Twin, I'm happy to report that Aprilia's Anti Vibration Double Countershaft (AVDC)-covered in detail in KC's article-works its magic. Vibration levels are never intrusive, even as revs approach the 10,500-rpm redline. Most impressive was how perfectly spot-on the RSV's fuelinjection system is. Throttle response is snappy without being abrupt, and there was not a single burble, buck, surge or stumble to be felt anywhere throughout the rev range. This held true throughout the entire day of track and street riding.
As I gained circuit knowledge and picked up the pace, the RSV maintained its steadfast composure, willing me to push even harder. Catalunya offers everything from a second-gear, flip-flop chicane to a very long, fourth-gear sweeper-the lat ter an ideal test of high-speed cornering stability. In this sense, the RSV is right on par with the rock-steady Ducati 916, displaying no wiggle whatsoever while driving off the 100-mph-plus turn with the throttle pinned. Flick the RSV aggressively through the right-to-left transition of the chicane and it responds beautiful ly, taking a solid, sure footed set when smartly pitched over from full right to full-left.
While the RSV's sus pension felt nicely reactive to bumps. many of Catalunya's corners have subtle surface ripples caused by F-i cars. This constant-frequency wash board caused a steady pat ter through the RSV's
suspension that got worse the harder I rode. A tew suspen sion adjustments were tried with little effect.
Other than the sidestand tang scratching the pavement through hard lefts, cornering clearance is seemingly limitless-or so thought Aprilia's technicians and test pilots prior to my scraping the fairing lower on the left and nicking the tightly tucked exhaust can on the right. Those sneaky Aprilia folks had hidden a lap-timing transponder on each bike and presented us with a computer printout of our times at day's end. It was a bonus to learn I'd cut the quickest laps of the meeting and smoked off the best of the Brit scribes by several seconds. Good-natured rivalry aside, the RSV works extremely well at any pace, and certainly inspires a high degree of rider confidence.
Tilting the horizon isn't the only trick up the RSV's sleeve. Corner chargers will appreciate the strong brakes and unique pneumatic power clutch system. The front binders provide strong stopping with excellent feel and consistency at the lever, while the rear works well enough without being overly sensitive and prone to locking. On that same note, Aprilia has addressed engine-induced rear-wheel hop-a characteris tic of large-displacement Twins under engine braking-with its patented clutch system. In simple terms, clutch spring pressure is reduced (via intake-vacuum pressure) when the throttle is closed, allowing clutch slippage to absorb the back torque of downshifting, particularly at high rpm. It proves very effective and transparent in actual use.
If any doubts about the RSV Mule remained, they were left curbside once we took to the public roads outside the circuit. Put into familiar terms, the Aprilia feels as much at home on the street as does Honda's CBR900RR. Cruising the tollway at 80 mph has the engine humming along with incredible smoothness. It's not until the revs exceed 6000 rpm (100 mph in sixth gear) that vibration really becomes prevalent. The windscreen is tall enough to get fully tucked in behind and its optics are very clear. The mirrors achieve a blend of style and functionality I was beginning to believe impossible on a modem repli-racer.
Based on my experience aboard the RSV 1000-an actual production model at that-Aprilia's entry into the big-bike market is no Mull Vanilli lip-synch act. This is the real deal. Exotic styling, Italian flair and stunning performance all at a fair price. I haven't felt this charged up since the introduc tion of another fully refined supersport performer: Yamaha's YZF-Rl. It's been a good year.
