Aprilia gives you wings — and 217 horsepower

Nov 04, 2018

Aprilia is introducing a new RSV4 1100 Factory at the EICMA show, a Superbike for the street with a claimed 217 horsepower, weighing 439 pounds with a full fuel tank and boasting an electronics suite straight from Elon Musk's fantasies. And of course everyone is going to be talking about the wings.

I guess the only thing I find surprising is that it took this long for one of the manufacturers to fit aerodynamic aids onto one of its flagship sport bikes as stock equipment. (Aprilia did have its RSV4 RF limited edition, but that was just a few dozen bikes.) Ever since wings started sprouting on MotoGP race bikes a few years ago, I assumed it was only a matter of time before they showed up on street bikes. Can I ride fast enough at my local track day that I need aerodynamic aids (in addition to all the electronics, including wheelie control) to keep the front end down under acceleration so I can challenge Eugene Laverty's lap times? No. (And it's a travesty Laverty doesn't have a ride for 2019, either, but that's another story.)

The 2019 Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory. Aprilia photo.

But I could just as easily ask if a formerly sweet-handling 600 cc sport bike needs a 12-inch extended swingarm to convince all the dudes at the Sunoco station that it's fast. Or if Mr. ADV guy needs a three-box, all-aluminum setup on his manly adventure bike to ride to Starbucks. Or if a 65-horsepower cruiser needs to shatter my eardrums with straight pipes to convince the uninformed that it must be powerful.

What we need and what we buy are often not the same thing, so Aprilia is giving us wings.

Really, though, there's more than that to the new RSV4 1100 Factory. For 2019, the Factory gets the boost to 1,078 cc we saw on the Tuono a few years ago. Stroke remains the same at 52.3 mm, but bore is increased from 78 mm to 81 mm (which just happens to be the limit in the MotoGP rules). Aprilia claims the result is 217 horsepower at 13,200 rpm, very close to the 13,600 rpm limit.

The chassis of the Aprilia Superbike already offered more adjustability than just about any other motorcycle and Aprilia tweaked the RSV4 Factory's geometry a little more, all of it in single-digit millimeter increments. Beyond that, the Factory gets a new Öhlins NIX fork and TTX shock for full adjustability. Brembo Stylema front brake calipers replace the M50 calipers of before.

And if you're going to go full-stylin' with the Factory and the carbon fiber winglets, you probably also need to go for the optional carbon fiber air ducts for the brake calipers. Because when you're throwing down lap times that will make Aleix Espargaró jealous, you don't want your brakes to overheat. Ahem.

But really, the most impressive part of the RSV4 1100 Factory appears to be the APRC (Aprilia Performance Ride Control) electronic rider aids. APRC gives you traction control with eight different settings that can be adjusted on the fly, wheelie control with three different levels that can be adjusted on the fly, launch control with three different settings, an electronic gearbox allowing both upshifts and downshifts with no clutch, a pit-speed limiter and even cruise control. All of that is in addition to the three-level cornering ABS, which adjusts braking force based on lean, pitch and yaw, plus lateral acceleration and brake pressure. Then there's the three rider modes (Sport, Track, Race). All three engine maps provide full power but deliver it differently, Aprilia says.

All of this electronic magic means you can fine-tune the Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory to razor-edge perfection — or get so lost in the settings that you'll never find your way out of the digital woods.