The RSV 1000R is perfect if you're under six feet – and can see through mist, writes Tom Robert
I COULD BE wrong, but I suspect that the Aprilia RSV 1000R has been designed specifically for Italian dwarves who live in designer caves deep in the Dolomites, crafting – with infinite care – tiny shotguns used by equally diminutive noblemen to bring down in their thousands the sparrows who fly south every winter, dreaming – as they do – of nesting in warm olive trees, only to end up hurtling from the sky mere seconds later in a flurry of bijou feathers and shattered ambition.
Excuse me for a moment, but having written that sentence, I’m going to have to go and lie down in a darkened room.
Ah, that’s better. What I mean is that any motorcycling gentleman measuring in at over six feet tall who makes the mistake of buying the Aprilia, will spend his days hurtling down the road with a stylish – but useless – view of his elbows.
He will probably also find that he is bowed over the handlebars like a demented hunchback, to the extent that his forward vision will be equally truncated by the top edge of his helmet – especially if he is riding towards the winter sun with a visor which, in spite of several determined applications with a square of increasingly damp kitchen roll, refuses to demist.
It was, all in all, a miracle that, in spite of all this, I ended up liking the RSV – if for no other reason than it reminded me of a civilised version of the Buell 1125R: that gnarly, snarly beast which spits in the face of quiet postmodernism.
Which is hardly surprising, really, since Rotax builds the V-twin engines for both.
However, while the Buell is as loud as a tourist in Rome and the Aprilia is as refined as the Italian looking on scornfully from his cafe table, it’s still got that magnificent visceral snarl as you wind up the throttle and roar away from the lights with an alacrity which reminds you that this bike is a product of years of racing heritage.
With featherweight and pin-precise cornering, it’s also a bike that cries out for countersteering – and rewards you in spades when you get it right.
Those superb front forks, fine-tuned by the boffins at the Aprilia plant in Noale from a string of world championship wins, mean that this is a machine you can fling into corners as hard as you like without fear.
I’d put it up there with the Fireblade for cornering confidence, and there really is no higher praise.
Out the other end, the seamless slipper clutch and some tweaking to fill a mid-range power gap which troubled former RSVs means that you can wind it all the way to the red line with minimal gear changes.
In short – if you’ll pardon the pun – if you’re under six feet tall and want an Italian sports bike, but haven’t had the titanium wrist implants you need to ride a Ducati for more than half an hour, then step this way.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just hang this kitchen roll on the washing line to dry out.
Factfile Aprilia RSV 1000R
Engine:eight-valve, liquid-cooled, 60° vee 997cc twin. Compression ratio: 11.8:1; power: 143bhp @ 10,000rpm
Chassis:aluminium twin-spar
Front suspension:fully adjustable 43mm inverted Ohlins forks
Rear suspension:fully adjustable Sachs monoshock
Brakes:front: radially- mounted four-piston Brembo calipers, 320mm discs; rear: single-piston caliper, 220mm disc
Wheelbase:1418mm
Seat height:810mm
Dry weight:189kg
Fuel capacity:18 litres with four-litre reserve
Price:€13,400. Contact Moto Guzzi Dublin, Oak Road Business Park, Dublin 12, 014603168, motopoint.ie
Test bike £8,689 from RR Motorcycles, Lisburn, N.Ireland, 028 92 666 033, rrmotorcyclesni.com. RR has an ex-demo at the moment for £5,800