Avis car rental used to have an advertising campaign that said “we try harder”. Aprilia is kind of like the Avis of Italian motorcycle brands; they historically have had to try harder, to take the occasional chance on something different. Just before being bought by Piaggio, Aprilia produced several bikes that were representative of this…
9.27.14: This Featured Listing sold in just 1 hour, a new RSBFS record! Congratulations to both buyer and seller! If you have a very good to excellent condition sportbike, that is priced to sell, contact me about purchasing your own Featured Listing. -dc Aprilia has a history of producing bikes that feature shall we say…
We’re on a roll here this week, with quasi-, barely, or not-even-remotely road-legal machinery. This Aprilia RS125 might, depending on your finesse with DMV chicanery, be made roadable: it does feature all the requisite equipment, including lights, and mounts for mirrors and signals, since it was originally intended to be a street-legal motorcycle. The RS125…
The goal in filling my fantasy garage is to have as wide a range of engine configurations as possible: a thumpy Ducati v-twin, a shrieking four in a big-bore MV, an older KTM Duke single, a howling triple Laverda. But I’ll also need a two-stroke. Maybe an old Kawasaki H1 triple, or something like this…
The first-generation Aprilia RSV Mille is a pug-ugly bike. There, I said it. The styling is bulbous and overwrought, with weird, gimmicky details and bits that don’t really hang together. Look, owners and fans can spare me the outraged comments: I really like these, and I’d take one over almost any Japanese sportbike you could…
Here in the US, there’s always been a limited market for small-displacement bikes. And when it comes to sporting machines, this seems doubly true: in many circles, a GSX-R600 is a “learner’s bike,” and anything smaller might be slapped with the dreaded “girl’s bike” label. Which is sort of funny: I’ve met some girls who…
Update 6.28.2014: Bike is now sold. Thanks to everyone for your interest and congratulations to Jim! -dc Today’s post is for my own 1995 Aprilia RS250 Chesterfield. This is a great rider quality bike with easy restoration potential. I’ve put less than 600 miles on it since buying it in early 2011, which is precisely…
I started reading the British bike magazines back in the late-90’s, when Suzuki’s TL1000S was busy making headlines for its wayward behavior and monstrous 115whp. My girl at the time was working at Tower Records in the San Fernando Valley, and every month, unsold magazines had their covers ripped off and returned to the publisher,…