Aprilia motorcycles combine the exotica of their Italian counterparts Ducati, with the reliability and build quality of the larger Japanese manufacturers. As a smaller outft they have a relatively small model range, but they make evey single one count!
The RSV Mille, or RSV 1000 in its more recent guise, is a phenomenal motorcycle competing with the high-end Ducatis as the leader of the supertwin sports class. It represents the pinnacle of development in the Aprilia range, the current model featuring a magnesium engine.
The Tuono is the closest thing there is to a factory-issue streetfighter. With its skimpy bikini fairing (with bits very much on show), upright bars and the same monstrous engine as the RSV it has to be ridden to be believed. If you haven't had the pleasure get yourself down to an Aprilia showroom now.
The standard exhausts on the RSV and the Tuono are absolute whoppers. This is because by rights they should be double whoppers - large performance twins like this suit twin exhausts exiting on either side of the bike or under the rear seat, like Honda's VTR 1000, Suzuki's SV1000 or any of the Dukes. Aprilia dispensed with such conventional wisdom choosing a single exhaust in the interests of weight reduction, aesthetics and lean-angle. Unfortunately, in order to meet emissions regulations what they ended up with is so large it compromises any supposed benefits in weight reduction, aesthetics or lean angle! Fortunately there are no shortage of exhaust manufacturers offering aftermarket sports exhausts that remedy the defects of the standard exhaust and turn the sound up a notch too!
At the other end of the model range is the RS 125, every 17 year old's dream entry into the motorcyling world. This is very much a race replica machine, much in the same mould as its barn-storming bigger brother the RSV 250. Performance two stokes benefit more than most in the power stakes when a replacement race pipe is fitted as they released the howling banshee living in that single piston that the stock exhaust was doing its best to suppress.
