KIWI RIDER 01 2020 VOL1 | Page 42

tunnels, and I found them, by god! In exactly three minutes, I knew this was the bike of my dreams (such as they are currently) and I was hatching plans for ownership, ruining the ride until I put such thoughts firmly aside – for later. (It’s later, and he’s still working on it - Ed) There’s a school of thought in the ‘racer’ crowd that says you have to own the Aprilia ‘Factory’ version – to be taken seriously. I don’t believe that’s true, and I’m not alone. And here’s why. The RR is in nearly every respect an identical machine except that it has the Sachs suspension set up and doesn’t get the Ohlins active suspension that comes as standard on the 42 KIWI RIDER Factory. That version gets the Ohlins NIX fork and STX46 Shock, managed electronically, but to all but the most race-hardened maniac this will not make a lot of difference, and just means a little more hands on tinkering with race set up. As a track day serious contender you’re going to do this anyway. So, this bike is almost identical - except for one very important point… Mr Cross is offering the RR at a saving of a staggering six thousand dollars. The Factory retails at $28,990 and the RR at $22,990 and that’s with the extraordinary Akrapovic thrown in to the party pack.