Aprilia’s newwinged wonder we apon has been given abunch of ex traponies and is set to impress, so we headed ove rtothe launch to check it out…

WORDS:BOOTHYIMAGES:APRILIA

What a truly awesome bike the RSV4 is. In guise or another, it’s won seven of the last eight FB SBOTY tests and, in the process, won the hearts and minds of all of us here at Fast Bikes. Over the years, it has been nigh-on perfect on track and pretty bloody good on the road, too. So how do you improve on perfection? Can it be done? Well, Aprilia certainly seem to think so. This, the new RSV4 1100 Factory, has been given some proper saucy Upgrades in order to make it, and I quote, ‘the absolute best and fastest uncompromising superbike, the one that comes the closest to the Aprilia racing bikes in terms of performance and effectiveness.’ For starters, it’s now an ‘1100’, and the eagle -eyed readers amongst you will have already spotted the MotoGP inspired carbon fibre winglets grafted to the side of the bodywork. And the even eagle-er eyed will have spotted the also MotoGP inspired, also carbon fibre air scoops on the fork bottoms, directing a cooling blast of air to those big Brembo brake callipers. Top-of-the-range Brembo M50 callipers, I hear you ask? Oh no, these are one better. The Factory comes equipped with Brembo’s new Stylema callipers (the likes we have previously seen on the Ducati Panigale V4 range) and they’re lighter and more efficient than the M50s, which is nice.

Some slightly less obvious Upgrades to the RSV4 Factory are subtle tweaks to the full Öhlins suspension set up and the geometry of the adjustable frame. The Öhlins NIX forks have been given another 5mm of travel and the swingarm has been made stiffer, to help keep things tasty on track (I can’t imagine it’s going to do anyone any favours on UK roads, though). And in an attempt to improve stability without affecting agility, the head angle has been pulled back, resulting in more weight over the front wheel and a 4mm shorter wheelbase. But unlike any other showroom superbike, the RSV4 chassis can be faffed with to within an inch of its life; the position of the engine can be adjusted within the frame, the headstock angle can be altered, as well as the swingarm pivot and the rear ride height - although I wouldn’t fancy it myself (I’m pretty sure the boys and girls in the chassis development team at the Aprilia factory know more about sportsbike geometry than I do).

Obvious and subtle Upgrades aside, the invisible ones are almost certainly the most important, the new l,078cc V4 engine J being a case in point. When the Tuono V4 went l,100cc (from W l,000cc) back in 2015, we loved it. Everyone loved it. So Aprilia decided that it would be a great idea to do the same with the RSV4 Factory model. It makes perfect sense to us, and it sure as hell worked with the Ducati Panigale V4 - if the bike isn’t destined for competition, why limit the cc to 1,000? The extra capacity has been achieved with a 3mm bigger bore (from 78mm-81mm), although the stroke and compression ratio haven’t changed. There are a bunch of other engine Upgrades to the Factory as well, which club together to produce a whopping 214bhp at 13,200rpm. Serious power. Max torque, unsurprisingly, is also up with a value of 122Nm at ll,000rpm, but probably more important is the fact that it’s up by over 10% throughout the entire rev range, compared to the previous l,000cc model. Impressive. To help you tarne all that power, there are a few invisible Upgrades in the electronics department, too. Weight-saving and electronic Upgrades don’t normally go hand in hand, but in the case of the fourth evolution of Aprilia’s APRC (Aprilia Performance Ride Control), the full ride-by-wire throttle mitigates the need for an electronic throttle valve management, saving over half a kilo compared to a traditional system. The dash is brighter and can be connected to your phone via Bluetooth, meaning you can download your session’s data like a true MotoGP rider, or just phone to order a pizza whilst on the road.