A glance is enough to tell anyone this Martin Longmore-styled machine is not for the weekly shopping run to Tescos and it would count as cruel and degrading treatment to condemn it to the role of a commuter. This is a machine which is at home on the track.
This is the fastest twin-cylinder production bike on the track today, and recent developments have made it even faster. It now has a new V60 Magnesium engine, new aluminium perimetric frame and a new double banana swinging arm. It is lower, shorter, more compact and has an even lower drag co-efficient of 0.3.
Even if this is not your sort of machine from a riding point of view, both the race-bred standard of engineering and a look at its technology could not fail to impress.
The new engine gives increased performance; 102kW at the crank shaft giving a maximum speed of 280km/h. Torque is 107Nm at 7,500rpm. This new engine, whilst based on the well-known V990 engine, is a turning point for Aprilia.
It has been revised with new cylinder heads with magnesium covers, new camshafts and valve springs, a redesigned dry sumo lubrication system with a double trochioidal pump, new throttle bodies, and a new "Air Runner" intake system. The effect has been to increase the rev limit to 11,000rpm. The engine is coupled to a 6-speed, close ratio gearbox, with final drive by chain.
The electronic fuel injection uses 57mm throttle bodies and one injector per cylinder. The single plug per cylinder CDI ignition is controlled by an engine management system which monitors performance every 10º of every engine revolution - around 396,000 times a minute at peak revs. It can, technically, be converted from a monoposto to a two-seater by adding a rear sub-frame and seat. Doing so would merely indicate you have totally missed the point, and don't deserve this machine.
Front forks are 43mm Showa USD with continuously adjustable preload and hydraulically adjustable rebound and compression. The Sachs shock absorber has a built-in piggyback nitrogen cylinder and is adjustable for rebound, compression, preload and length.
Brakes are Brembo Triple Bridge Gold. At the front there are two four-piston 34mm callipers operating through a radial type pump onto double 320mm floating steel disks. At the rear there is a Brembo Gold Series 220mm stainless disk and 2-piston 32mm calliper. Throughout, aeronautical quality braided metal lines are used.
The frame uses cast aluminium-silicon and die cast Peraluman 450 parts and weighs a mere 9,650 grams. The lightweight instrument panel, a mixture of digital and analogue is also part of the auto-diagnosis system.
None of which tells you what it is like to ride. To do justice to the machine we got our colleague Jonathan Coburn, a track day aficionado and owner of one of the fastest bikes on the planet, to give us his impressions.
The mirrors are for decoration only, the only thing you can see in them are your elbows. The seat is not made for comfort; in true racing style it is not expected you will be sitting for long. The front brakes are something special, super sensitive and extremely efficient.
There is a lot of vibration from the big V-twin engine, it does not affect handling, but with the very firm saddle seems as if it could knock the fillings out of your teeth and leave your lower back stiffer than an ironing board.
The gear change is smooth and with a short travel which speeds up gear changing but makes finding neutral difficult.
The hydraulic clutch has a small movement which also helps rapid gear changes but it is heavy, not a problem on the track but becomes a real pain in traffic. The bike accelerates quickly through the gears but once you get into the 3-digit sector of the speedo, like most V-twins it becomes a bit lack lustre.
Roadholding in the dry, the Irish weather did not oblige throughout our test so we had no chance to try it in the wet, is very good. Bear in mind this is an extreme machine not meant for everyday use.
Its best features: fun to ride, acceleration, braking and styling. Its less good ones: heavy fuel consumption if ridden properly, the seat, low handlebars, that back brake and the windblast. Currently costing €12,999, this buys you a machine that is "hotter than Satan's underpants"!