Aprilia ’ s Tuono has had Rs and Factorys , but there ’ s only been one Racing . And this year it celebrates 20 years . Ben Wilkins takes a look at Aprilia ’ s limited edition .
Aprilia ’ s Tuono has had Rs and Factorys , but there ’ s only been one Racing . And this year it celebrates 20 years . Ben Wilkins takes a look at Aprilia ’ s limited edition .
I remember the Tuono Racing well . I was the Road Tester on UK ’ s Bike Magazine in May 2003 when the Tuono Racing debuted . Road Test Editor Steve Rose threw me the keys to the black and yellow Italian and said , “ Tell me what you think about that …” To be honest , I had no idea what to think about it . It looked like Aprilia ’ s RSV1000R , but with an upright riding position , wide bars and
a lot of carbon fibre . And that ’ s exactly what it was . With many riders at the time asking for sports bike performance and handling in a more liveable package , the market had sports nakeds like Yamaha ’ s Fazer 1000 , Kawasaki ’ s Z1000 and and Ducati ’ s Monster S4R . Nobody built a full-on , full-fat sports bike with upright bars . Triumph was getting there with its Speed Triple , but that was no sports bike .
Then came the Tuono Racing , which blew the doors off the market . Aprilia had taken the RSV , junked the fairing , slung top-spec Ohlins suspension at both ends , fitted Brembo radial-mount calipers when such things were exceedingly rare , wrapped it in carbon fibre body panels , all rolling on forged alloy OZ wheels . To further punctuate its sporting intentions , the first couple of hundred machines in 2003 came with a race kit . In the kit was a titanium ‘ silencer ’, carbon fibre catchtank belly pan , carbon nose-cone , pre-drilled brake banjo bolts , race-shift gear linkage and all the little bits to make the bike a full-on track weapon . Homologated for an Italian race series , the Tuono Racing is as rare as they come ( there are less of these that originally came with the race kit than Yamaha ’ s rare-ashen ’ s-teeth FZR750R OW-01 ).
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