V4 testbike spotted at Mugello

The Italian magazine Specialmag was doing a tyre test on the track of Mugello when they discovered that Aprilia was testing their new V4. A team of technicians,engineers and test pilots where doing test runs on the new V4.

They where asked not to take any pictures of the pitbox but they where able to take some low res pics of the bike on the track. Fabrizio Pellizzon and Marcellino Lucchi where the test pilots riding the bike.

There is not much to say about the looks of the bike because it is still disguised as a RSVR.

More pics at Specialmag

Aprilia 2008 news for the American market

Last week there was the dealer meeting for the American Aprilia dealers with some news about the 2008 model range.

2008 Street-legal SXV/RXV, big gas tanks, new seat, revised suspension settings, new cold start lever, new throttle cam, no selectable mapping (as far as we saw or mentioned). Same engine specs as second batch 07s. Production issues have been addressed since very early 2007. 30 day warranty on de-restricted versions just like current bikes.

SXV4.5 $8799 available Q4 2007
SXV 5.5 $9499 available now
RXV 4.5 $8599 availble now
SXV 5.5 $9299 available Q4 2007
MXV late 2008, around $8499
SXV-VDB replica bikes arrive in December $23,999
New Shiver SL 750 $8999
New Scarabeo 200 $3399
New Scarabeo 100 $2699
Tuonos and RSVR remain the same as current 07.5 versions, same pricing.

Mana 850 auto.....no price given (figure between $9-13K), figure very late 2008 arrival.

WSBK and AMA superbike racing with the v-4 in 2009, and maybe, just maybe MotoGP in 2010-2011.
No v-4 street bikes until 2009.

08 SXV in action at Alpi Del Mare

This weekend’s Grand Prix of Alpi Del Mare had a few surprises to show the 6000 spectators, who saw both Bernd Hiemer and Jerome Giraudo come back to the podium. Offcourse the Aprilia of Road team was present with the SXV in the new 08 colors!

S1 Heat 1

Thierry Van Den Bosch was the winner of the opening moto, where he worked his way up after Adrien Chareyre’s holeshot. VDB moved past Thomas Chareyre and started to chase early leader Adrien, who slowed down at the sky section, but Thomas moved in front of both. Unfortunately the younger of the Chareyre’s had a technical problem and dnf’d; the battle was again between Adrien and VDB, but the latter passed and pulled away with the lead, leaving his rival behind in second place. Jerome Giraudo secured the third place after he got rid of a strong Ivan Lazzarini

S1 Heat 2

Thomas Chareyre was a man out for revenge in this heat, and once he got the lead at lap four, he never looked back at his brother Adrien and rode to a well deserved win. With Adrien finishing second, VDB showed a perfect demonstration of the champion’s attitude, rejoining the race from 12^th place and working his way up to an eventual eighth.

S2

Christian Iddon of Aprilia Off Road came back to victory in the 2nd heat, which was his second of the season after Torino’s maiden triumph. TM Factory’s Davide Gozzini, who won the latest GP in front of Iddon, brought the bike home in second place ahead of CH Azzalin’s Gerald Delepine, who fought his hardest despite a problem with the plastics of his bike in heat one. Attilio Pignotti lost the red plate, which is now Delepine’s, and also ended his four podium row by finishing fourth overall, ahead of Nestor Jorge.

Finally some good results for the Aprilia MX team

On Sunday, September 9th, the 7th trial of the national Belgian Motocross Championships place at Opr Le Grand saw Cedric Melotte and his Aprilia twin as protagonists. Melotte’s season was supposed to end at the Holland Grand Prix, the last engagement of the international calendar, but the push from friends and fans led him to participate in the race just days before he is set to undergo surgery on his right knee (injured at the start of 2007).

Melotte and the official MXV 4.5 presented themselves to the Belgian public by winning the pole position. Cedric marked the best time (1:56.172) that was also the top time in the MX1, finishing ahead of a slew of official riders.
In the first of the three heats, Melotte took off in 8th place and made his way up to 2nd place. Then his front wheel lost traction as he went into a curve and he ended up on the ground. Getting back up, he closed out the heat in 4th place and marked the fast lap.

In Race 2, he took off in 7th place and recuperated position after position before climbing to the 3rd step on the podium. He jumped out of the starting gate in 2nd place and soon commanded the race with more than four seconds of advantage on his closest competition. The ride that seemed a heat victory was rudely interrupted by a stone that caused him to fall. However, Melotte jumped back on the bike and was able to finish in 5th place.

New Manablog movie

Aprilia posted a new video about the new Aprilia Mana 850 on their Manablog

The video shows a little bit of the Aprilia factory in Scorzè,some footage of the dyno room and an explanation how the production of the Mana works inside the factory.

Its in Italian but the footage is still very interesting. Check out the video here

Aprilia RXV 2008 model released!

Aprilia released pics and info of the new 2008 Aprilia RXV. Looks like they used a lot of info from enduro riders like Stefan Merriman to improve the handling & rideability of the RXV.



A nice improvement is the ability to switch between 2 different ignition maps on the ECU with the touch of a button. A "fullpower" map to use when conditions are optimal and another "soft" map with smoother engine characteristics for difficult terrain and low speed slippery tracks.



Changes:

-New graphics & colors
-Red/black seat
-Dry weight reduced by 4kg
-New tank
-New handlebars
-Improved suspension
-Option to switch between ECU maps (fullspeed & soft)with the click of a button
-Better maintenance intervals: race use was 45 hours now 75 hours.
Normal use 75 hours becomes 150 hours.
-New sponge air filter
-Option of the newly developed Arrow exhaust
-Euro3 homologation

Aprilia of the Week: RSX550

This week we have a RS125/SXV550 hybrid from Germany. This bike was build by Aprilia Germany's press spokesman Tommy Bayer. As a big time rs250 fan he couldn't hold out any longer and wanted a nice 130kg 70hp trackbike to play with.


So in a couple of weeks a front frame for the rs125 race fairings was build. Also the rear suspension got shortened for race track use. The front fork was replaced by a showa unit from an RSVR1000. Various other parts like the oil tank,rear subframe,gastank and some other parts had to be adapted/remade.


The result is a beautiful 134kg trackbike with a 71hp twin engine. Sounds like a fun bike to ride doesn't it? If you can read german the full article by Motorrad can be found here

Do you want your own Aprilia to be featured in Aprilia of the Week? Go find out how here

Another Aprilia double at Misano

250cc


Reigning 250cc world champion Jorge Lorenzo took another step towards the 2007 world title with his eighth victory of the season, at Misano, on Sunday.

Home hero Andrea Dovizioso stole the lead from Lorenzo into turn one, and the Spaniard was later briefly bumped down a further position by arch-rival hector Barbera.But the #1 soon regrouped and began a thrilling dice with Dovizioso, which ended prematurely when Dovi's Honda ground to a halt with mechanical problems.

Lorenzo was unchallenged thereafter, with KTM team-mates Hiroshi Aoyama and Mika Kallio overcoming Barbera to battle for the runner-up position. That battle also ended early, in spectacular fashion, when Kallio suffered a huge highside.That allowed Barbera to regain the final podium position, but only after holding off class rookie Thomas Luthi and home star Alex de Angelis at the line.

Lorenzo, set to join Italian legend Valentino Rossi in the factory Yamaha team next year, celebrated his win by dressing as a Roman Gladiator - complete with helmet, body armour and sword! The Fortuna Aprilia rider is now 54 points ahead of Dovizioso in the title chase, with five rounds remaining.

125cc

Mattia Pasini has taken his third victory of the 2007 125cc season with a dominant home win in the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano

Pasini took the early lead from third on the grid, then recovered after being bumped down to fourth to make a clear break by the halfway stage of the 23 laps.

The Italian, whose world title hopes were smashed by an appalling run of bad luck earlier in the year, went on to take Aprilia's 100th 125GP win by 4.774secs - while a furious four-rider fight for second ended with three of them on the floor!

Pole sitter Lukas Pesek was the first to go, after falling on his own, leaving Simone Corsi and world championship leaders Gabor Talmacsi and Hector Faubel to fight for the remaining podium places.

With two laps to go, Talmacsi edged inside team-mate Faubel, who then clipped the back of Corsi - bringing them both down. Talmacsi was thus left to collect second place and the world championship lead, by 10 points, while Corsi was out on the spot and Faubel out of the points.