AF1 Racing Open House - Rode an Aprilia Shiver

[Hellgate]

I drove down to New Braunfels today with my son and met up with Fred and Kilbane at AF1 Racing today. AF1 was hosting an open house with factory Aprilia demo group this weekend. They had all four stroke models available to demo.

I choose the Shiver to ride, a 750 Vee Twin. Bottomline up front, very nice bike. It would make and excellent commuter/everyday bike and outstanding for a tight track. I think short tours (one day) could be done on it too.

The ergos are kinda like a Supermoto and the FZ6 all rolled into one. The foot pegs a neutral and the bar is a traditional Superbike bar. The hand controls fell naturally but the IC was a little low. I had to drop my eyes a bit too much to check my speed.

The motor...ahh...the motor is SWEET! Lots of torque and low end punch. Due to traffic we couldn't open it up but I got in a few "lunges" and it pulls very nicely. Up top however, it does get winded. It's happiest from 5,000 rpm to about 8,000. Clutch engagement is very smooth, even and very easy to get used to. The best part of the motor is the sound, sooooo cool! It has a growl and thump all rolled into on. Just listening to it was enthralling.

The suspension was spot on, firm but compliant. Going over railroad tracks the wheels track over the bumps and didn't do the FZ rebound thing. Compared to my Buell it is more comfortable/softer, compared to the FZ6 is is firmer. Damping was spot on.

The brakes are amazing! True one finger brakes. They are Brembo radials and had excellent feel and control. The rear brake has excellent feel and feedback too.

The negatives are few. The seat shape is nice but for me could have been angled up just a little. I would also change the bar out. I'm not a fan of the Supermoto position and would like more distance between the seat and the bars and more drop and pull back to the bars. I had a slight bit of wrist pain at the end of the ride but nothing major.

All-in-all the Shiver is an excellent bike. Check with your local Aprilia dealer to see if they will be hosting an open house/demo day. :thumbup:

I'll let Fred and Kilbane tell you about what they rode.

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[Red Wazp]

Nice write up. Read some nice reviews on the handling.

 

[Kilbane83]

Thanks again for the heads up Pete and Fred I had a great time!
I rode a RSV1000. Here's my take on it.

Style
The bike looks sweet, it's a pure sportbike. The exhaust is a terrible eyesore though. Sitting on it was different, I'm a pretty big guy so I was a little cramped but not uncomfortable. It's a really agressive riding position, and the rearsets are very high. This makes getting of the seat and hanging off effortless. The seat was surprisingly comfortable for looking so thin.

Control, Handling, and Suspension
The first big difference is the hydrollic clutch. It's effortless to engage, it's smooth as butter. The thing that takes some getting used to is you simply can't feel the clutch engage as well as you can on a cable clutch. That's not good or bad, it's just different.

Secondly, I didn't care for where the turn signal was located, on the very bottom of the cluster below the horn. It was a mild distractionto have to look for it each time.

Third, the brakes where amazing. Use more than 2 fingers and you'd be doing endo's all over the place. The feedback was excellent and the brakes where very progressive. I simply have never used brakes that good on any bike.

Finally, the suspension. I can't knock it really the roads we where on had more potholes than asphalt. I also was off the seat a good portion of the time. I can say it felt very solid in corners, even though I didn't get any real action I can tell it rides like it's on rails. At low speeds it's very loose and handles like crap, as do most true sportbikes. Turning requires alot more input than the fz6. But hanging off it is so much easier that you simply don't have to countersteer as much to take corners.. if that makes sense. I think it's heavier than the fz6.. at least it feels and handles like it is.

Engine
I have no experience with vtwins, so it was a big change. It idles around 1.2krpm, and cruises around 4krpm at pretty much all speeds. At idle it shakes like a harley, but once you get moving it's smooth as butter. The power delivery is very linear. From 10mph-95mph it simply kept pulling very predictably. I don't know what the topspeed of this bike is, but I bet it hauls ass. The engine ran very hot though. Uncomfortably so. It was like sitting on an oven. The fairings actually have heat shielding to keep them from melting. The RSV had very different engine braking. I don't know if it's due to being a vtwin, a slipper clutch, or just the lower RPM's, but it doesn't engine brake nearly as much as the fz does.

The ride
The ride was about 20miles, we started in some pretty heavy city traffic. This gave me a chance to get used to the clutch, brakes, and below 5mph handling. Once we got a bit outside of town, half of us hit a red light (The only time you WANT to hit a red light is when you're test riding in a group) This gave us a chance to play catchup on a slightly twisty backroad. I got it up to about 95mph without even realizing it, but it still didn't go over 5krpm. Hanging off the bike is effortless even though the turns didn't need it, I just wanted to get a feel. Unfortunatly the guy in front of me kept yoyo'ing and slowing down/braking midturn so I was a little hesitant to carry any kind of speed through a corner. But I can tell the bike corners like it's on rails.
It holds a line effortlessly.

Final Opinion
I wouldn't buy this bike even if it was reasonably priced.

First off, the thing simply gets way to hot. It's uncomfortable, Texas is hot enough already. Secondly the exhaust is a horrible eyesore. And finally, the engine sounds terrible to me, and feels like it's going to rattle apart at idle. I think I just prefer I-4's.

 

[Fred]

My bike: Aprilia Donut.^H^H^H^H^HDoono^H^H^H^H^HDumbHo

Oh hell, I can't spell it.

The handlebars. Well, they suck. Instant wrist pain. The angles of the handgrips are just plain wrong.

The suspension. "Solid state springs" is the term that Ed coined to describe the rock hard suspension.

Engine: Loads of torque, but vibes to go with it. Geared way too tall. On a torquey motor, you should not have to slip the clutch in a 5mph turn. The owner of AF-1 confirmed that it was a problem. The EPA rates bikes based on noise / mph, and to get past this regulation, Aprilia geared the bike tall. Less revs = less noise. AF1 does a lot of business changing out sprockets on these, to the point that they knew the ideal sprocket sizes from memory.

Brakes. Awesome. As Pete said, 1 finger brakes, and even then you should be careful not to lock the front wheel.

Handling. It felt odd in corners. This could be the tires or just my inexperience on the bike.

The seat. Comfortable, for about 74 seconds.

This could be a fun bike with some tweaking. But it sounds like the Shiver would have been a better fit for me.

Thanks to AF1 for being great hosts and providing lunch and drinks. Thanks to the Aprilia test ride crew for letting me play with their toys. A good time was had by all!

Fred

 

[Shinn]

My bike: Aprilia Donut.^H^H^H^H^HDoono^H^H^H^H^HDumbHo

Oh hell, I can't spell it.

The handlebars. Well, they suck. Instant wrist pain. The angles of the handgrips are just plain wrong.

The suspension. "Solid state springs" is the term that Ed coined to describe the rock hard suspension.

Engine: Loads of torque, but vibes to go with it. Geared way too tall. On a torquey motor, you should not have to slip the clutch in a 5mph turn. The owner of AF-1 confirmed that it was a problem. The EPA rates bikes based on noise / mph, and to get past this regulation, Aprilia geared the bike tall. Less revs = less noise. AF1 does a lot of business changing out sprockets on these, to the point that they knew the ideal sprocket sizes from memory.

Brakes. Awesome. As Pete said, 1 finger brakes, and even then you should be careful not to lock the front wheel.

Handling. It felt odd in corners. This could be the tires or just my inexperience on the bike.

The seat. Comfortable, for about 74 seconds.

This could be a fun bike with some tweaking. But it sounds like the Shiver would have been a better fit for me.

Thanks to AF1 for being great hosts and providing lunch and drinks. Thanks to the Aprilia test ride crew for letting me play with their toys. A good time was had by all!

Fred

I do believe you mean you were on the Dorsoduro.

 

[xj750_Pete]

Sweeet, 3 reviews in one thread! Great reviews, nicely written. I'm starting to really enjoy reading these reviews/comparos.

 

[Hellgate]

I read the propaganda this morning that came in the goodie bag and the RSV and the Tuano are 60 degree motors. The Shiver is a 90 degree. I think that explains the difference in the smoothness, the Shiver was very smooth.

I also saw that they make 450 and 550 77 degree vee twin off-road bikes! Enduro and MX, they look pretty cool, not that I know anything about off road bikes.

I think the Roland Sands roadracer we saw there is based on one of the off road bikes. That would be a fun track bike.