Aprilia RSV-R Tuono - ROAD TEST REVIEW

From the February 2003 issue

Much of our older content has been stored on the back shelves of our offices... we always have fun looking back at days gone by and we hope you enjoy these little gems as well!

Riding the Aprilia Tuono R is like setting your driver's license on fire. While your wallet is still in your pants. Dangerous, yet somehow stimulating, and quite possibly a threat to your riding privilege.

No streetbike provokes you to misbehave and break the law so shamelessly and relentlessly. In fact, every time you thumb the starter button on this bike, you expect sirens to go off. Sometimes they do, if there are sensitive car alarms nearby. But that’s just because the accessory exhaust can our testbike was equipped with makes it as loud as a full-on Superbike. Only, that’s not it entirely: You just feel guilty, like you’re doing something very wrong every time you ride. But that’s because you probably are. Hell, you’re probably breaking the laws of physics.

The only bike in recent memory that comes close to inducing the same lawless behavior was our old "Yellow Peril" CBR900RR project bike. Built in 1994, we took a Honda testbike, stripped the fairing, slapped on some Superbike-bend tubular handlebars, a loud pipe and some equally loud fly-yellow paint, then went directly to jail. Well, we would have if the cops had known what hit 'em. The Aprilia Tuono is the same wheelie/stoppie/hack monster as that bike, but easier to ride, slightly quieter and actually for sale. Or, it was for sale, but the 50 brought to the U.S. of the 200 produced worldwide have already been snapped up at $17,299 per copy.

What did you miss? Silly, silly fun. Climb on board and the Golden Handlebar comes back to meet you. This is a tapered aluminum piece, 30 inches from tip to tip, held in a pair of ridiculously tall bar risers. Did I say “aluminum”? Aprilia press material tells us the handlebar is made of “Ergal,” as are many of the nuts and bolts. I knew Ergal was aluminum-esque, but decided to call Technical Editor Kevin Cameron for some clarification:

My rather old book, Engineering Alloys (Reinhart) describes three Ergal alloys, each touted as “self-aging, for aircraft castings.” These alloys are a system principally alloyed with zinc, but with smaller amounts of Mg (magnesium), Cu (copper), Mn (manganese), and Cr (chromium). Self-aging means that these are precipitation-hardening alloys, and that is the correct description to use. After production of the shape, the material is aged, either for days/weeks at room temperature, or hours at somewhat elevated temperatures, allowing/causing the formation of tiny submicroscopic zones in which aluminum, zinc, etc. atoms are associated to make regions of increased strain. This strengthens the metal by opposing the sliding of one plane of atoms over another, which is the usual mechanism of yielding. In effect, these “Guinier-Preston” zones act as mechanical keys to stop motion.

Oh, the other neat thing is that Ergal was originally supplied by an aluminum outfit based in Venice, which is only a short distance from Noale, where Aprilia HQ is.

Er, sorry I asked. I think what all this means is that the bars and such will resist crumpling, even under the strain of the most harshly botched wheelies. Also it’s potentially Italian aluminum, and therefore more stylish.

Mechanically, the Ergal Golden Bar is about it for changes from the Superbike-inspired Mille R upon which the Tuono is based, essentially the same philosophy we had with our Naked CBR900RR: stripped of fairing pieces, not performance. So with the Tuono you get all the track potential of a Mille R­–awesome handling, wailing 998cc V-Twin (115 horsepower thanks in part to the $649 accessory slip-on pipe and chip) and strong four-pad Brembo brakes–but with a comfortable, street-friendly riding position that gives you a much better feeling of control in real-world day-to-day ripping around than the low-clip-on Superfetus sportbike version.

In fact, the Tuono’s riding position is as close to perfect as we’ve found on a streetbike. Maybe you’re a little windblown at freeway speed, but over the rest of our bumpy, broken-tarmac-covered Earth, you’ll love the extra leverage the bars provide, and get to sit up like an adult the whole time. Plus, the abbreviated fairing does divert some windblast.

While the riding position may be perfect in terms of handlebar, seat and pegs, its relationship to the tarmac might be a bit extreme for some. Seat height is 33 inches, 1 inch higher than the last Mille R we tested. If your inseam's got you down, you'll be on tiptoes at stops. Also, you're perched up so high the Tuono at first feels a little wrong once you're on the move. But it's only a brief feeling of awkwardness. After a little while, you begin to feel invincible, almost talented, because the bike is so fun, responsive and predictable. When our Italian correspondent Bruno de Prato said in his riding impression (October, 2002) that this was the best version of any Mille to come from Aprilia, we all thought, "Maybe Bruno's been hitting the grappa…" because, really, so little was changed from Mille to Tuono–we're talking handlebars and a restyle. Yet, the Tuono is the best Mille.

One staffer after another rode the bike and came back raving. In this biz, you sample enough stuff that you usually don’t get too bubbly about even the fastest and most exotic bikes–you sort of adopt this clinical detachment as part of trying to write a fair test. The Tuono takes hardened clinical detachment and turns it into so much stupefied goo. Staffers came back talking (blathering, even) about the Tuono with an unbridled enthusiasm, shaking their heads in disbelief at what they just got away with.

In Don Canet’s book, the Tuono was like a double-500cc monster motard. “That thing does the best hacks,” he said about the ease of backin’ ’er into corners, SuperTT-style. Post photo shoot, Mark Cernicky stood outside my office window, pointing at the bike and gesticulating wildly in ways that suggested impossible stoppies, wheelies, slides, and then he started sticking his foot out as though he were on a dirt-track bike. He does this frequently, but this time he wasn’t just hallucinating.

The underlying excellence of the Mille R makes all this possible. Oh, Öhlins, isn’t it wonderful? Yes. In the Tuono’s case, the fully tweakable fork and shock were plush over little stuff, firm without being cruel on larger hits, through it all offering excellent control and fine feedback. You’re never uncertain about how the wheels are relating to asphalt. At least when the wheels are actually touching asphalt.

Because if you’ve got the balance and desire for stoppies or wheelies, this here is the absolute best tool of choice. Is it the fab, pad-for-every-piston front Brembos, full of feel, packed with power, all on tap with a loving, single- finger stroke on the adjustable lever? Or perhaps it’s the torquey, injected V-Twin’s willing, immediate snap that gives the Tuono the slightly terrifying instant rotation up on the back wheel? No tug of bars or snapping of clutch necessary, just roll it on and hang it out! It’s all that, and it even weighs 10 pounds less than the Mille R.

By now, you must be thinking that stupid pet tricks are all this bike is good for. After several days of commuting (“Sorry I’m late, boss.”) and late-night neighborhood supermotard laps (“Honey, we’re out of toothpicks–I’m going to run to the store.”), we too began to think so. Turns out it isn’t so.

We had a nice back-to-back spin with our Ducati 999 testbike last month on one of our favorite backroads, and the Aprilia rider felt like he was cheating. Sure, the Tuono feels huge and sort of rough next to the low and tiny, super-refined 999, but at the same time it was easier to ride and seemed less serious, more like you were out for some harmless fun.

Wide bars equal effortless countersteering and comfortable seating, the Superbike chassis lending awesome handling and whacko cornering clearance. The low effort and quickness of the steering gives a certain freedom of line you just don’t get from clip-on-equipped motorcycles.

Perhaps the greatest fun is when exiting slower corners, because it’s so easy to hoist the front wheel while still leaned over. The Öhlins adjustable steering damper helps here by quelling negative head-twitch vibes, as the front wheel lightly skims the pavement until it’s time to slow for the next bend, or you’ve accelerated to a ticketable velocity.

Despite all this, one tester actually managed 10 consecutive miles (once) without wheelying or sliding the back end, and the Tuono makes a nice mellow streetbike for putting around–comfy, nice clutch, good seat, smooth engine. Not that you’ll ever ride it like that for very long. On a similar note, like most Aprilias that we’ve tested, from cold the Tuono likes to stay on fast idle for a while, or else it comes unstarted. A small usability issue. Also, the gauges are in a land far, far away now that your head is up so high. If you wear bifocals, you may be screwed. In fact, we’re sure of it. We noted with humor that the horn is much easier to reach than the turnsignals, but if you’ve ever ridden in Italy, you know the emphasis is definitely on honking, not signaling.

Remarkably, this is the quickest Mille we’ve tested, running about three-tenths faster through the quarter-mile than any of our previous testbikes. The Tuono ripped off an excellent 10.49-second run at 132 mph–smokin’!

Styling was received in a mixed manner. “Carbon-fiber car crash,” noted one staffer. Bystanders at the local sportbike hangout said, “Look, that one’s primered and ready to paint.” Another commented that it wasn’t a restyled Mille, but a “de-styled” Mille. Nobody, however, denied that it looked badass, even if none said it was pretty. But you don’t want a “pretty” streetfighter, do you? And you definitely don’t want “pretty” if you’re going to jail…

We dubbed it the Manic Mantis, with its carbon-fiber exoskeleton (that’s handmade c-f, buddy, hewn by the same folks who made the bodywork for Noriyuki Haga’s factory racer) and mass of mechanical muscle. We think it’s a species know for eating its mate, too. Anyway, there is a certain beauty to this bike’s effectiveness, not unlike that associated with certain handguns or stealth aircraft.

As stated, all 50 Tuonos coming to America are sold. We’re sorry you didn’t get your opportunity to ride the bike. Frankly, we’re glad we made it out of ours with licenses intact. In fact, we all were a little bit relieved to see the Tuono go, with neither impound nor jail time involved. But Aprilia is producing a stripped version of the regular Mille, a “plastic” Tuono, if you will. The price is lower ($11,999), production numbers are higher and performance is no doubt very similar. We’ll call you from jail!

MARK CERNICKY, Assistant Editor Sorry, but with just a day-and-a-half in the Aprilia's saddle, there wasn't enough time to experience all that this limited-production offering had to offer. I dare not call it a "standard" because it's anything but.

Considering that the Tuono started off as an Öhlins-equipped Mille R, it would have been a hard thing to mess up. The Tuono’s torquey Twin thunders out some solid power, levitating the front wheel effortlessly when accelerating away from stops. And stop it does! Braking by Brembo leaves little to be desired, empowering the pilot to rotate the bike around its front contact patch with one finger.

When riding machines like this, with moto-style bars and upright ergos, I tend to push down supermotard-style rather than hang off in corners. This is the first streetbike that I could ride hard in that fashion and still have abundant cornering clearance. Hey, two bikes in one makes for twice the fun!

MARK HOYER, Feature Editor I'm not sure why it is that every time I get near an Aprilia sportbike, I think back to my time in mental hospitals.

First off, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I was an employee, not a patient. Second, there was a saying in the psyche ward: The only difference between the staff and the patients is who’s got the keys.

This is where riding the Tuono confused me. Because when I walked up to it, I had the key, and was calm and collected. Then I climbed on. Is this what transformed me from cool-headed staffer to capital-M Mmmmental? I’m not sure. But this bike made me completely nuts, inducing me to do stuff on the street I’d never think of doing, even on a similar bike like a Triumph Speed Triple. Yes, the Tuono R costs more than its Brit counterpart, but it’s worth every cent. Plus, the cheaper base-model should be in dealerships now.

Maybe if I’m wearing a leather straightjacket when I get pulled over I can plead insanity.

David Edwards, Editor-in-Chief A little too pimped-out, was my first reaction. The gold-sprayed frame, the zigzag carbon-kevlar, the brassy fork tubes, the snorkels sticking out, the beak-like bikini fairing, all just too-too. Does a bottle of Brut come with each purchase?

Then I went for a ride.

Can I just say, OhhMyGawd! This thing is sick! Leave 120-mph straightaways to the speed boys on their Chiropractors’ Dreams, the Tuono rules in the 85-mph-and-below real world that most of us inhabit. Eight years ago, with our Project “Yellow Peril” Honda CBR900RR, we told you how good stripped sportbikes could be. Maybe this is the year that Naked Sports (ooh, a new Olympic discipline?) really catch on. Buell Lightning, Ducati Monster 1000, Honda 919, Kawasaki Z1000, MV Brutale, Suzuki SV1000, Triumph Speed Triple, Yamaha FZ-1, let’s get ready to rumble!