Aprilia

Video: Standbike, the 140kmh, 250cc scooter you ride like a wakeboard

By Loz Blain

05:32 April 8, 2009 PDT

In today's peaceful, safe and buttoned-down Western world, people go to all sorts of lengths to get themselves the charge of adrenaline they crave so much - whether it's BASE jumping with a wingsuit instead of a parachute or strapping high-powered motors to things not normally associated with motors at all. We need to dice with death and danger, we say, in order to feel alive - and our creativity in coming up with new ways to scare and test ourselves is quite amazing. Take this odd contraption from Hungary - the Standbike SuperBikeBoard is a 250cc scooter with a custom-built rear section. It comes with a seat mounted on a pole, but that's entirely removable so you can take it to a tight track and ride it something like a motorized wakeboard, moving your body around the bike to balance, steer and stabilize it. You'd need thighs of steel to enjoy it for any length of time, because it looks like a very physical riding experience - and with a top speed over 140kmh, you'll want to keep your wits about you. Read More

2009 World Superbike Championship: season preview and predictions

By Loz Blain

23:52 February 2, 2009 PST

The global financial crisis has clearly hammered the highest echelons of prototype racing, with established teams like Honda and Kawasaki pulling out of F1 and MotoGP respectively in the last couple of months. But for the production-based (and much cheaper) World Superbike series, things have never looked better than they do at the start of 2009. Despite the retirement of beloved champion Troy Bayliss, the 2009 WSBK grid will field a record 32 bikes from a record 7 manufacturers as BMW and Aprilia join the fray with exotic new machinery. There's also an influx of phenomenally talented riders - including AMA champ Ben Spies, BSB champ and ex-GP god Shakey Byrne, and precocious youngsters Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam to do battle with battle-hardened veterans like Nitro Nori Haga, Biaggi, Corser and Kagayama. The first pre-season test has been run, giving us a glimpse at who's fast and who's faster, so it's time for a WSBK season preview, looking at the class, the teams, the bikes and the personalities that make SBK the race series to watch in 2009. Read More

2009 Aprilia RSV4 superbike - the most powerful, most race-focused Aprilia ever

By Loz Blain

00:37 September 24, 2008 PDT

We've been following Aprilia's 2009 V-4 engined superbike closely through its development stages, excited to learn what the company can do with its brand new, fully electronically managed and incredibly compact 1000cc motor. And the first official images and press information have been released. Stunning to look at, the RSV4 will make at least 180 horsepower in roadbike trim (and somewhere around 220 in the version Max Biaggi will race in WSBK 2009) - but more astounding than that figure is the amazing amount of chassis tuning the RSV4 will allow. With adjustable steering head angle, swingarm pivots and even engine mounting points, the new Aprilia can lay a genuine claim to being the most race-focused production motorcycle on the planet. Read More

Aprilia RSV4 racebike unveiled

By Noel McKeegan

16:26 February 25, 2008 PST

February 26, 2008 Aprilia has taken the wraps off the 1000cc, V-4 engined superbike it plans to race in the World Superbike Championship in the 2009 season in front of an audience of more than 1,200 dealers attending the International Piaggio Group Convention in Milan. The race version of Aprilia's first ever 4-cylinder engine is already making a claimed 207 horsepower - with more room yet for development potential - and the new bike is due to make its road debut by the end of 2008. The unique, compact four-cylinder 65 degree V engine configuration achieves peak power at 13,500rpm and uses a computer controlled fly-by-wire system similar to that found in the recent R1 and R6 Yamahas for controlling power output and traction. Read More

Phillippe Starck designed Voxan Cafe Racer Super Naked

By Noel McKeegan

23:19 February 12, 2008 PST

February 13, 2008 French designer Phillippe Starck has created this striking minimalist Cafe Racer Super Naked around Voxan's 1200cc engine. Weighing in at 180kg and putting out 140hp, the Cafe Racer Super Naked prototype is just that at the moment - here's hoping it makes the showroom floor. Read More

Aprilia’s FV2 concept bike

By Noel McKeegan

18:19 February 7, 2008 PST

Providing a futuristic showcase platform for the company's upcoming technical and styling directions, Aprilia’s FV2 concept bike incorporates a fly-by-wire injection system, traction control, ABS, electronically adjustable suspension and carbon fiber construction with a 1200cc, 90-degree v-twin engine that we are likely to see in the RSV and Tuono in the next couple of years. Read More

Aprilia’s upcoming V4 engine to deliver up to 220hp

By Loz Blain

20:12 October 7, 2007 PDT

October 8, 2007 Aprilia tell us their much-anticipated V4 engine is currently undergoing durability testing in four states of tune – from a huge 185 horsepower up to an eye-watering 220 horsepower. Which one will we see in the road-going superbike they’re building? Read More

Lancia Aprilia Sport – built for the future from the past

By Mike Hanlon

December 5, 2006 To celebrate the centenary of Lancia and the long standing affiliation between the marque and the Milanese coachbuilder for its Sport versions, Andrea Zagato decided to create a Lancia Aprilia Sport identical to the car built by his grandfather Ugo in 1938. This “car of the future” could aptly be described as an original 1930s design brought to life using the technology of the third Millennium. The complicated process did not start from hand drawn sketches, as with today's cars, but from two faded monochrome photographs – the only remaining source of accurate information. Read More

Aprilia Magnet: Hybrid three-wheeler with supercar performance

By Mike Hanlon

January 22, 2005 Take a Formula One driving position, three wheels, a high-power 550cc v-twin engine designed for motocross, put an additional electric motor into each wheel, and an ingenious tilt system. Finnish student Heikki Naulapaa designed this vehicle as the main project in his design degree at the Royal College of the Arts in London. It landed him a dream job in the design department at Aprilia and maybe, just maybe, the adventurous company might build this excitement machine. With specs like that and a low aerodynamic profile, the hybrid would match any 1000cc superbike in performance and blow a Ferrari into the weeds. Read More

Aprilia RS250 - the LAST fire-breathing two-stroke roadster

By Mike Hanlon

UPDATED March 2006 It's the closest thing you'll find to a genuine Grand Prix racing machine on the road, be it two wheels or four. Its 250cc two-stroke motor produces in excess of 60 brake horses, giving it a specific output of 240 bhp per litre - more than the fastest MotoGP bikes and on a par with competitive Formula One engines. And it's the last one - the fire-breathing two-stroke racer-roadster is about to become extinct. The next batch of Aprilia RS250 road bikes will be the last - as the last bike of its type, it's the last chance to own one new. Ever!!!! Read More

Aprilia 2004 RSV 1000 R Factory arrives

By Mike Hanlon

Thursday October 30, 2003: The latest Aprilia supersport bike is an enhanced RSV 1000 R that brings together a twin V60 Magnesium engine and new RSV 1000 R settings with special ultra-light materials and quality production components to bring the Factory model up to track-riding standards. Read More

Aprilia Tuono 1000

By Mike Hanlon

Aprilia has produced a stunning naked bike, the Tuono R Limited, which is essentially an RSVR 1000 with the fairing removed and replaced with carbon fibre and kevlar, where you would normally find panelling... Read More

Aprilia's Electric Assist Bicycle - sensible inner city commuter

By Mike Hanlon

The prospect of testing an electrically-assisted bicycle appealed to no-one at Gizmo. A bicycle weighing 29kg is positively obese and the top speed of 27kmh can be achieved easily by most relatively fit humans. Yet, by the end of our two week test period, there wasn't a single person who rode it who didn't rave about the experience. The Enjoy is aptly named.The Aprilia Enjoy is the most convincing argument we've yet seen for hybrid vehicles. Elsewhere this issue you will read about Honda's latest concept cars which use a combination of electric and conventional power units. The Aprilia uses a combination of electricity and human power and until you feel the way in which the microprocessor blends the electric assist with one's own endeavours, you won't understand how compatible the two power sources are. Read More