Aprilia of the week is back!

After a long time of no submissions for the Aprilia of the week I decided to cancel that feature. But now I got a few submissions and enough special Aprilia's to last a couple of weeks so the Aprilia of the Week feature is back! I will also be building a gallery of past Aprilia's of the Week. So send in your Aprilia now!

The first Aprilia of the Week of 2008 is from Richard Rimmelzwaan from Holland.

• Please introduce yourself first. Who are you and where are you from?

Richard Rimmelzwaan age 35 from Holland (king okkie for bikefriends)

• Did you add any mods to your bike?

It’s a Mille that I transformed to a Tuono, 2004 swingarm, modified suspension,evo exhaust with chip and pipercross airfilter.

• Why did you buy an Aprilia and what do you like so much about it?

I chose the tuono because its big,has a lot of power and looks good.

• And what don’t you like about your bike?

Suspension and wind protection could be better.

• If you could ask Aprilia to design a new model what would it be?

They already did with their new concept: the fvs1200, build it please!

• ·And finally do you have any motorcycling tips for the readers of Aprilia News?

For Dutch motorcycle fans www.motor-forum.nl (with a rsv,tuono topic and a topic about my transformed mille) and for international fans www.apriliaforum.com

Do you want your Aprilia featured as Aprilia of the Week? Click here to find out how

Slovenian SXV van den Bosch video

The slovenian riders of Moto Magazin tested the 07 SXV550 VDB and made a nice video of the bike on the track. Even for the people who can't understand slovenian its worth watching just because of the sound of the SXV. Check out the video and the review here

Black Dorsoduro

Spotted at the Bike Expo of Padova. Its also on the Aprilia website. I like this version a lot more than the white/red/gold version. High res pics at Apriliaforum

Aprilia's Racing department gallery

Our Italian friends at Motociclismo.it have posted a nice gallery full of pics of Aprilia's racing department. It shows some great details of Aprilia 125 and 250 GP bikes. Check out the pics here

AMA supermoto SXV video

K&N airfilters (sponsor of the Aprilia AMA supermoto team) has uploaded a very nice video on their website featuring Darryl Atkins on his AMA supermoto SXV. Definately a must see. Go check it out here

RSVR vs 1098s

Motorcycleusa tested the 2007 RSVR against the Ducati 1098s. They liked the RSVR but it's way down on power compared to the 1098s. But what do you expect with a 10 year old engine vs a 2 year old engine. They also shot some nice videos of both the bikes on the track. Go check out the review and the videos here

Dakar Cancelled

As you may know the organisators of the Dakar rally cancelled the rally because of the terrorist threat in mauretania. It's a shame that the greatest desert rally in the world gets cancelled because of this. Its even more sour that the organisator does this when the drivers are almost at the start line. They where doing approval tests with the bikes and 2 hours later the rally got cancelled. It's a damn shame.

The Canon Kamera-Express Aprilia team is gutted and will be returning home this week. Aprilia News wishes them all the support in the world.

Aprilia Mana road test & Aprilia Factory video

Motors tv is a french tv network which only airs motorcycle related tv programs. They have uploaded a very nice video on youtube in wich they test the new Mana. At the beginning of the program they also show the Aprilia factory and design department. Also a very nice completely black SMV750 Dorsoduro.

Definately a must see video! Check it out here

Canon Kamera-Express Aprilia team ready for Dakar

The Canon Kamera-Express Aprilia team is totally prepared for the Dakar 2008 rally which will begin this weekend in Lisboa Portugal. Henk Knuiman visited the Aprilia Factory 2 weeks ago to test the hand build factory tuned engines which will be used in the RXV. He also trained with Aprilia testdriver and enduro specialist Stefano Passeri to set up the bike with a heavy load of fuel. Also the suspension specialists from Marzocchi finetuned the suspension for the harsh conditions in the Rally. Stefano Passeri was surprised by the great job the team did with building this bike. The RXV450 is already in Portugal and the service truck left today for Lisboa.

Stay tuned for more Dakar news.