Words: Peter Elliott Photos: Geoff Osborne

never met an Aprilia I didn’ t like, and I’ ve ridden a bunch in the last few years. Not all, but some. To wit: the Shiver, quite a few RSV4s, the Tuono, a 1200 Caponord and now the Dorsoduro 900. There is something about the willing delivery of galloping power, coupled with a glorious Aprilia soundtrack, that drags you out of your breakfast chair and says get out and ride, every day. I’ ve spent many happy hours aboard the higher seat position of an enduro, a motocrosser or scrambler in past years( although my chosen dirt sport is trials, and seatless), but I confess it’ s the first supermoto I’ ve spent air time on. And‘ air time’ is how it feels. It takes an hour to adjust to the feel of height above the traffic, the 17-inch wheels and the feel of braking slip in a down-shifting trail, and the increased yaw from exposure to crosswinds. Travelling over Scenic Drive from Titirangi to Piha and on to Swanson, I also worked on the fact that I was putting my head over the centre line in right hand corners. It took a good ride to figure out how to alleviate the changes to the centre of gravity that extra seat height and upright ride position was causing. In effect, I was losing about 250mm of road width, on the corner, by keeping my head inside the white line. This meant my road track was narrower, and that to be safe I was having to throw the bike round harder, but found that I could really put some force into those 17-inch Dunlop Sportmax Qualifier tyres. Yes, they could break traction on quick down-shifts and under hefty braking, but the ATC also kicked in and I got used to it, and began really enjoying the process. To start with, the Piha twisties made me long for the Thruxton I’ d been riding last month, but I decided to belt down to Karekare and back up Lone Kauri Road, giving myself a cornering workout( about 400 corners) in a few short k’ s. A mad hoon in a Mazda minivan slaved like a maniac to stay ahead of me. He managed it, just, but, more importantly, I learnt how to throw the Dorso through arcs quickly, and had a fantastic time of it. I pulled up at the Piha Rd intersection beside the van, and the toothless driver

gave me a beaming grin and a double KIWI RIDER 55