EASY STREET

Aprilia’s RS 660 is meant to be swift, secure, and fun. Does it deliver?

- BRUNO DEPRATO

It was nice going back to Aprilia’s Noale factory, located in the beautiful countryside north of Venice, Italy. Last time I was there, I took apart and analyzed the mighty RSV4 1000 engine. Even during this post-lockdown period, the factory is still very much alive, particularly in the racing department, where I am not admitted. But there, the Aprilia people were hard at work on the latest evolution of their MotoGP bike, featuring a V-4 grown from the previous 72-degree vee to a full 90-degree vee, which ensures superior balance in primary and secondary order, for a higher mechanical and organic efficiency.

But as much fun as snooping around the MotoGP department would be, it’s not why I hopped on a train from Milan to Noale. No, what I came to see, and more importantly ride way ahead of production, was the Aprilia RS 660. This all-new bike and multirole engine platform is a daring attempt by the Italian company to reinvent the sport motorcycle in order to attract a new generation of enthusiasts by offering an affordable, light, compact, crisply styled, easy-to-ride, high-performance middleweight machine.

That is a huge pack of virtues loaded onto a single bike, and it represents a strong part of Aprilia’s strategy to address the progressive decline in popularity that motorcycling suffers among younger people.