Price Motorcycle 2011 Aprilia RSV4 R

2011 Aprilia RSV4 R

Full throttle in third gear, knee down exiting the Senna curve, and once again I have to keep a sharp eye on the wet patches. 

The Metzeler Racetech rear tire spun up earlier at a speed of 100 mph, and whilst I don’t mind a bit of drifting, a relatively cold December day in Portugal is not the day to challenge the grip too much. So I’m a bit more cautious than I usually would be and the laptimes suffered.

The Parabolica Ayrton Senna leads me on to one of the fastest straights on the MotoGP calendar. The straight is almost a kilometre long, and leading up to it is a third or even fourth gear corner. I always short shifted up from second to third gear to allow the rear tire to do its job and to allow me to get the bike upright before shifting up to fourth. The six-speed gearbox is very precise and I’m working my way up the gearbox without using the clutch. I did see around 165 mph at the end of the straight, but with more confidence in the tarmac conditions I could have left the braking later for an even higher top speed.

2011 Aprilia RSV4 R Engine

The interesting thing about the RSV4 R is that despite the extra weight it still handles like a dream. The frame and swingarm can’t be adjusted in all the ways the Factory can, but you really need to spend a lot of time on a racetrack to utilize that adjustability. The RSV4 Rs tech specs also reveals that the variable intake ducts are not in place, but acceleration from 9,500 rpm and up to 13,000 is still immense whilst the midrange is also powerful and very useful, particularly on the road. The 999cc V4 acts like it has a turbo kicking in above 10.000 rpm, but it’s just Aprilia’s masterful natural big bang engine kicking in for real.

The V4 is very addictive and I felt no significant difference in this area between the two RSV4s apart from perhaps a slightly “milder” throttle response. The one good thing about Estoril being slightly damp in the morning was that I finally got a good chance to ride a lot more using the powerful midrange. Aprilia says 85 ft-lbs of torque peaks at 10,000 rpm, but at these revs the engine was way too powerful for the level of grip we experienced in the morning session. Between 7 and 10K rpm the midrange produces great pull, and even below 7,000 rpm there’s plenty of go that’s exclusively reserved for the roads.

If you wonder if you should choose the RSV4 R in favour of the RSV4 Factory, my advice is to go for the RSV4 R as the Factory isn’t worth the $5,000 premium unless you really are going racing with it. On the road it’ll still be just as much of a weapon as the Factory compared to its competition.