First impressions are often largely visual , and the sporty new number from the Big A is every young sportsbike fan ’ s fantasies all rolled into one attractive package , but we had the chance at Aprilia ’ s trackday to delve a little deeper . A sceptic ’ s check noted Aprilia branded tyres from India , so a bit of an unknown , but on the lightweight 457 , once pressures were dropped for the task ahead , they acquitted themselves well on the warm track . From there everything else was more of a known quantity , so it was time to ask Aprilia ’ s new LAMS weapon what it had . As a moral disclaimer , Todd and I were out on the diminutive bikes in the fast group on 457cc 175kg ( gassed up , ready to roll ) 47.6hp ( 35kW for the metric geeks ) so we were certainly asking a bit from them . No track tyres and being , um , careful ( ssshh , it is a relative term ) meant sessions with the normal modes activated , as in TC , ABS , normal road mode and sessions that were not . The ‘ not so much ’ sessions had TC off , sport mode and a neat feature of the RS457 , you can switch off the rear ABS and retain a pretty sporty front ABS , just in case ( the ABS cannot be disabled completely ). This allows you to brake hard enough to unweight the rear without triggering an ABS response . With standard brake pads , you can get that single front rotor system to fly the white flag but for road pads and muppets seeking the answer to how hard you can brake on consecutive laps , the fact that the brakes told me to piss off in a predictable fashion is no big deal . If I was going to regularly torture the bike on the grippy track surface , I would simply buy aggressive brake pads . I have lost count of how many bikes have done the same and on the street , I very much doubt it would ever raise its head . The RS457 ’ s powerplant is a peach . Surprisingly punchy out of corners ( makes you want to be a youngster on L ’ s ) and content to not run short of breath before nudging the limiter at 10,400rpm , peak power is at 9400rpm , so unless you are stretching the gear rather than adding an up and down for the corner , it is there if needed but you are not gaining power at the very last but the gearbox happily does either well . A quick-shifter