Aprilia Pegaso 650 Strada
APRILIA PEGASO 650 STRADA
Redesigned, repackaged and ready for the road
BRUNO DEPRATO
THERE ISN'T MUCH LEFT OF THE OLD adventure-touring Aprilia Pegaso except the name. And if you don't get it from the "Strada," this is a purely asphalt rendition of the latest naked bike from the revitalized Italian manufacturer.
The Pegaso has been redesigned from the Mission Statement up. It is, in a sense, Aprilia’s response to the Ducati Multistrada, although it is much cheaper and less sophisticated. Just like the Bologna brand’s bike, it pulls some of its styling cues and definitely its riding position from the adventure-touring world, and its purpose is purely for the maximum enjoyment of winding asphalt. And maybe to have some utility, too.
Aprilia tried a street-only Single some years ago in the form of the Philippe Starck-designed Moto 6.5. To some this bike was elegant-looking; to others it was too quirky. But because Aprilia left the look of essentially every major piece to the industrial/interior designer, it never truly spoke to motorcycle people and its looks got in the way of its function.
The new Pegaso 650 Strada, on the other hand, is a product of Aprilia’s in-house design studio, and built with motorcyclists in mind. Neat and classy in the best Aprilia tradition, it remains fully respectful to the functionality demanded by the marketplace. In light of recent financial woes, Aprilia might have legitimately considered the supermoto shortcut and slapped street radiais on the old Pegaso’s existing running gear. But the intent is for the new 650 Strada to be the entry model to the world of Aprilia streetbikes, and consequently it had to be easily accessible to a broad range of potential customers, and the old chassis just wouldn’t do.
Thus the project started from a clean sheet of paper, including design areas where a carry-over solution would have made the designers’ job easier. Like in the powertrain department. Keeping the old Rotax dohc five-valve engine would have saved a lot of trouble, but it was sent into retirement, having reached its ultimate limits in terms of performance, reliability and emissions. Given the renewed business relationship with BMW (Aprilia will help develop and assemble the new middleweight BMW models powered by the K1200Sderived 800cc parallelTwin), Aprilia hoped to have an inside line to the latest BMWrefined and very powerful version of the Rotax 650, but access was denied. A viable alternative was found in the Yamaha 660cc sohc fourvalve Single that is locally produced by Minarelli, a company now owned by Yamaha. This liquid-cooled engine is a very sound, tried-and-true mill featuring a state-of-the-art integrated engine-management system, electric starting and a balance shaft that cancels a large portion of primary imbalance and related vibrations.
Sporting an actual displacement of 659cc from a 100mm bore and 84mm stroke, it features a 10.0:1 compression ratio, inhales through a 44mm throttle body and produces 50 horsepower at 6250 rpm, accompanied by 54.2 foot-pounds of peak torque at 5200 rpm. A massive underseat exhaust system-based on the same twin-muffler affair developed for the RSV 1000 Twin-ensures excellent flow and a very civilized note.
The engine is hung in a sturdy, mostly boxsection-steel open-cradle frame. The massive backbone also doubles as the oil tank (2.8 quarts) for the dry-sump powerplant. The boxed tubing results in a very rigid main structure that is also very cost-effective to build. The rear subframe, meanwhile, is made from .8-inch steel tubing.
Suspension at the front is entrusted to a new 45mm fork designed by Aprilia and features a 25mm-offset axle. At the rear, Aprilia’s APS progressive-link system activates a Sachs multi-adjustable shock. Front geometry sports a fairly conservative 27.6-degree rake and a moderate 4.1 inches of trail. In keeping with the road-bike nature, rims are 17-inchers, with Pirelli Diablos in 110/70 front and 160/60 rear sizes. Wheelbase spans a fairly agile 58.2 inches, and weight distribution is a well-balanced 49.5/50.5 percent front and rear. Claimed dry weight is 392 pounds. Seat height is a reasonably low 30.7 inches, a feature that makes everybody’s life a lot easier on what for many will be a utility/commuter bike.
A single 320mm Brembo disc handles braking at the front, while at the rear a 240mm disc and two-piston floating caliper are fitted.
The first impression when climbing aboard is that this new Pegaso 650 Strada is lightweight, well-balanced and easy to manage. The riding position has the same upright as the us enduro but with both feet (for most riders) now reaching the ground while seated. The engine starts promptly and is fairly smooth even at idle. The clutch pull is light and engagement predictable, while the fivespeed gearbox is adequately slick and quiet, even when selecting first gear. Engine response is robust, yet it lacks the low-end punch that is available from, for example, the latest edition of the BMW F650. Still, the highly refined exhaust system and engine management does improve the torque delivery curve over any other known application of this engine-Yamaha’s included.
The chassis feels agile and nimble at low speed, assisted by the easy-tomodulate response of the engine at low revs. At higher speeds, the 650 Strada is very stable and yet the steering
remains responsive. The riding posture is just right to both enjoy the ride and maintain full command of the bike at speed, and this alone induces plenty of confidence. When riding at a really brisk pace, the chassis shows a tendency to understeer when confronted with low-to-medium-speed corners, an obvious consequence of the fairly substantial amount of rake combined with a weight distribution that becomes slightly rearward biased with the rider aboard. Straight-line stability remains excellent all the way up to the approximately 110-mph top speed. This solid performance is supported by strong acceleration and easy-to-maintain 90mph cruise. When cornered hard, the Pegaso grounds the pegs, but by that time you are already using those sticky Pirellis almost to the edge. This is all good fun from what remains more of a general-purpose bike-this isn’t a supermoto racer, after all.
In addition to this solid performance, the Pegaso features some nice practical touches to enhance its versatility, such as the unusually generous underseat cargo space and the “glove compartment” carved out of the top of the 4.2gallon fuel tank.
Despite the fact that the adventuretouring aspect of the Pegaso is all but gone in this new Strada, it’s much more than a one-trick pony. □
