Consider the curious case of one Erik Buell. By all counts a mad genius who was able to make even the archaic push-rod Harley lump semi-attractive to sporting riders, he is also the embodiment of a tragic hero from an Euripides epic, fatally flawed and ultimately falling short of immortality. The shades of gray that…
Erik Buell Racing had to provide a toned-down version of their flagship 1190RS superbike, since even their managers couldn’t afford the RS. The 1190RX has some of the expected Buell innovations and a refreshing level of tech compared to earlier offerings. 2014 EBR 1190RX for sale on eBay Buell had earlier turned a corner and…
After the introduction of their RSV Mille, Aprilia knew they needed something a little less extreme, at least in terms of riding position. But while Ducati’s original approach to the naked bike was to put a lower-spec engine into a frame from an older sportbike, Aprilia was forced by necessity to go a different route:…
For a while, World Superbike rules favored v-twins, thanks to the… um, influence of Ducati. Soon everybody wanted to get in on the act: Honda switched from a V4 to a twin for their RC51 and Aprilia’s first big bike fit a Rotax v-twin into a revised version of their gorgeous aluminum twin-spar beam frame.…
Look, I need to get this out of the way up front: this Aprilia Tuono 1000R Factory is a very ugly bike. The proportions are strange, the details are overwrought, there are creases and angles everywhere… Honestly, the only really positive thing you can say about the bodywork on the Aprilia Tuono 1000R is that…
I’m a big fan of “budget exotica” mainly because I’m on a budget and I like exotica. First generation Speed Triples and Daytonas, Brutales, and Monsters are all really affordable ways to get a rare performance motorcycle for very few dollars, relatively speaking, but if you want a single motorcycle that can do just about…
The engine of any motorcycle is its living, beating heart and the powerplant of Aprilia’s funky RSV Mille R was, at the time, as unconventional as the bike’s styling. A 90° v-twin is generally considered ideal for sporting applications, as the angle between the cylinders provides “perfect primary balance” where the unpleasant vibrations caused by…
Although the American motorcycling community seems divided along impractical bikes at either end of the spectrum, journalists and riding enthusiasts long bemoaned the lack of real performance nakeds like this second-generation Aprilia Tuono: bikes that had the performance of a sportbike with all-day ergonomics. A bike you could ride to the twisties and then in…