Aprilia Motorcycles

About Aprilia

Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle company, one of the marques owned by Piaggio.

Aprilia was founded after the Second World War by Cavaliere Alberto Beggio, as a bicycle production factory at Noale, Italy in the province of Venice. Alberto’s son, Ivano Beggio, took over the helm of the company in 1968 and constructed a 50 cc "motorcycle" with a dozen or so collaborators. The first production Aprilia mopeds were named Colibrì, Daniela and Packi. Aprilia later produced a motocross bike in 1970 called the Scarabeo. Produced until the end of the 1970s, the Scarabeo came in 50 and 125 cc versions.

In the 1980s Aprilia added enduro, trials and road bikes of between 50 and 600 cc. In 1981 Aprilia introduced the TL320 trials machine. In 1983 Aprilia launched to St 125 road bike. In 1984 Aprilia launched an improved model called STX, and an enduro, called the ET 50.

In 1985, Aprilia started outsourcing engines for some models to the Austrian company Rotax. In 1985 Aprilia launched a 125 STX and 350 STX. In 1986 Aprilia launched the AF1; a small sports model, and the Tuareg; a large tanked bike for African rallies like the Dakar Rally.

Aprilia has 124 times won 125 and 250 cc class Grand Prix, 15 Road Racing World Championship titles, and 16 European speed titles. Many world champions started on Aprilia such as Biaggi, Capirossi, Gramigni, Locatelli, Sakata and Rossi.

Also in the 1990s, Aprilia entered the scooter market starting in 1990 with Italy’s first all-plastic scooter, the Amico. In 1992, Aprilia introduced the Amico LK and the two stroke Pegaso 125, both with catalytic converters. In 1993 Aprilia launched a large diameter wheel scooter reusing the name Scarabeo with a four-stroke, four-valve engine. Later Aprilia launched more scooters such as the Leonardo, the SR and the Gulliver.

In 1995, Aprilia commissioned Philippe Starck to design the Motò which was shown in New York’s Modern Art Museum. Also in 1995 Aprilia launched the two stroke RS 125 and RS 250 sports bikes. In 1998 Aprilia launched what is its current flagship model the RSV Mille, a 1000cc V-Twin Superbike, and the Falco, a 1000cc V-Twin sport tourer with emphasis on sport. Both bikes used a variation of a Rotax 1000cc engine.

During 2000, Aprilia acquired Moto-Guzzi and Laverda, both historic heritage Italian marques. In 2000 Aprilia launched the 50 cc DiTech (Direct Injection Technology) two stroke engine for scooters which provides high mileage and low emissions, and also the RST Futura, a sport tourer, and the ETV 1000 Caponord; an adventure touring motorcycle. Both of these latter two motorcycles used a variation of the Rotax 1000 cc V-Twin.

Most recently, in 2003, Aprilia launched the RSV Mille Tuono which was essentially an RSV Mille with motorcross-style high handlebars and only a small headlight fairing. Most of the major motorcycle magazines picked it for the best bike of the year. In 2004 Aprilia was acquired by Piaggio & C. SpA, to form the world’s fourth largest motorcycle group with 1.5 billion Euro in sales, an annual production capacity of over 600,000 vehicles, and a presence in 50 countries.

Despite being a relatively small company by global motorcycling standards, Aprilia is very active in motorcycle sports. It contests many Road Racing formulae, including the FIM 125 cc World Championship, the FIM 250 cc World Championship, and the now-defunct FIM 500 cc World Championship.

Moto blog

Small steps to a bright future

A small but very significant addition to the BSB paddock in 2010 has been the Racing Steps Foundation GP125 team.  RSF is an organisation founded by wealthy businessman Graham Sharp, to help talented youngsters with no funding make their way up the motorsport ladder. As a boy, Sharpe wanted to become a racing driver but soon realised without a serious amount of cash, this was virtually impossible. He never forgot this dilemma so is now in the business of making dreams come true for young UK racers in Karting, GP2 and Motorcycle Racing.

Moto3. Recession racers?

I've sat through enough manufacturer' presentations recently to know that we're in trouble. Ignoring the still booming Asian markets, the rest of the motorcycle World is in free-fall. Even looking at the figures optimistically we're still only selling half the volumes we were in pre-crash 2006.

2011 Aprilia RSV4 Factory APRC: First Ride

UPDATE: Read the full on Motorcycle.com Motorcycle.com’s European correspondent, Tor Sagen, recently had a chance to run some laps on the brand new Aprilia RSVR Factory APRC. We’ll be getting a full review soon, but here’s a quick taste test. Wow!

RSVP from an RSV4

Aprilia’s RSV4 Factory has to be one of the most interesting and adrenaline-inducing literbikes around, and that’s just part of why we gave it an Honorable Mention in our Best of 2010 Sportbike category. We recently had opportunity to put on a poor but passing Max Biaggi imitation with one particularly fine example. This RSV comes courtesy of our friend Kaming Ko, who often helps us on test rides.

Mega-rare Aprilia RSV250 GP bike on eBay

THIS SUPER-RARE 1997 Aprilia RSV250 is for sale on eBay, offered for a gulp-inducing £25,000.The seller says bike was purchased in 1998 through Aprilia Racing by Moto Gold Racing and was campaigned in the 1997 European 250 GP championship series, consistently scoring "top high speeds. "It's claimed the machine was raced by Nobi Iso in AMA in 2002 and 2003. It's since undergone a full restoration and comes with a comprehensive spares package,  Don't confuse this with the road-going RS250 Aprilia; it's a proper GP250 machine, similar to the bikes raced by Biaggi and Rossi in the early part of their careers.

Back from the Ulster GP

Just rocked home after a really good cross-country blast home from Birkenhead docks. The VFR developed a weird hiccup this morning in Belfast on the way to the Norfolkline ferry terminal and occasionally feels like it’s suffering from fuel starvation – like a blocked fuel tank breather or something – but only around 2,000rpm and only now and again. It’s not consistent and the only way round it is to dip the clutch and give it a few blips and then it seems to clear its throat.

We're off to the Ulster Grand Prix

I was pretty excited about going to the TT in June and it didn’t disappoint – three days of ram-packed entertainment,  on all fronts. But the Ulster Gp is a different buzz. For starters I’m taking racing mad offspring no 2 for a lads and dads weekend away.

The Japanese oddity to naming teams

Whenever the calendar shifts to a major Japanese race, such as the Suzuka 8hr, one of the more amusing things to do is glance down the team sheet This years highlight for me has to be team Moto Bum, with other stand outs including aprilia D.D.BOYS, Team Etching Factory Yamaha and MITO MOTO & e'freaks Honda. Looking back through the ages some of the great Japanese team names have been Burning Blood Racing Team, Dog Fight Racing and Team Moto Space amongst others. Credit to a member of the Twitterati @temalive

Aprilia did electric. 10 years ago...

I was delving around old press kits and found this Aprilia Enjoy, electric push-bicycle from 10 years ago. It had a top speed of around 20mph and a range of (probably) about 25 miles. But who cares?

Aprilia Takes a Shot at BMW [video]

The very successful viral video BMW created for its S1000RR sportbike earlier this year has yet again been made fun of by another manufacturer, this time being Aprilia with their RSV4.  Now I am sure its not going to get the same amount of attention as the BMW spot but I love a good cat fight, hopefully BMW will respond…  stay tuned. Get the Flash Player to see this player.