RSV4 under the fairings

The guys at superbikeplanet posted some great pics of the RSV4 WSBK under the fairings. Go check them out here

Fourth place for KWS Aprilia at Barber Motorsports park

The Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies scored it’s best finishes of the year in Sunday’s Daytona SportBike race with a sixth place result from Ben Thompson and a fourth place finish from Chaz Davies, only .027 of a second off the podium.

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Motorcycleusa reviews AMA Daytone Sportbikes competitors

Motorcycleusa tested three bikes that compete in the AMA Daytona Sportbike Championship. THe Buell 1125R, Aprilia RSV1000R and Kawasaki ZX-6R. There has been some contreversy about the rules in the series. Racing a 1125cc V-Twin against a 600cc inline four doesn't make a lot of sense. Or does it make sense? The guys at Motorcycleusa tested the bikes on the track to find out.

Read the review here and check out the video here

MCN tests the RSV4 on the road

Biaggi finishes strongly in Monza

Monza is synonymous with excitement, not only on the track, but also in the stands and more than 118,000 people rushed to the historic Autodrome throughout the weekend to witness two amazing races.

Race 1 was almost unbelievable both for how it evolved and its incredible final. Spies took off like a rocket with Fabrizio, Haga, Biaggi and Kagayama right behind him but the Yamaha and the Ducati broke away after five laps at a pace that was just under this little track’s record from last year. The three drivers battled it out for first place up to the very end, and Spies seemed to be in the best position up until the entry to the last curve, the legendary Parabolica, when his R1 ran out of gas and died. So, Fabrizio took the victory, just ahead of this teammate Haga, while Biaggi conquered third place, followed by Kiyonari who had moved up from the rear. However, when he climbed atop the podium, the loudspeaker announced a 20 second penalty for the Roman driver because of a suspected, yet highly debatable cut at the second chicane in the seventh lap. So Kiyonari took Biaggi’s place on the podium and Max dropped down to eleventh position. Nakano finished in thirteenth place after a decent recovery.

Instead, Spies made no mistakes in Race 2. He started off strong and broke away from everyone else, holding on to a five second margin halfway into the race up until he reached the chequered flag. Behind him there was a battle for the podium among Fabrizio, Kiyonari and Rea and Biaggi also got back in to the groove in the fifth lap after a bad start. However, at the tenth lap, the Roman driver made an error at the first chicane and lost contact with the group. He tried to recover, but ended up in fifth position in Rea’s wake. Michel Fabrizio stepped onto the second level of the podium after beating out Kiyonari in a gruelling battle. It was a twelfth place finish for Nakano, who had a good race and drastically improved his time.

Full report

Biaggi 7th in WSBK Monza Superpole

Max Biaggi qualified 7th in today's WSBK superpole at the famous Monza track in Italy. Nakano didn't do that good with a 17th place.

Full results

MCN RSV4 Launch report

Race report WSBK Valencia

Race 1

Biaggi had a good start from the eighteenth position, but got stuck in the pack at the first curve, miraculously remaining upright after a series of contacts with his adversaries. The Roman driver pushed forward, trying to recover as many positions as possible on the track, even though it proved to be extremely challenging to pass the other drivers. After the first lap he was in fifteenth place and by the fifth lap he had moved up to eleventh. Halfway through the race he was in ninth place and during the sixteenth lap he managed to pass Byrne on his Ducati to take over eighth position. Max tried his best to catch up to Sykes and Kagayama, but the attempt failed and in the end he crossed the finish line in eighth place at 16:316 behind Haga.

"We analyzed all of the available data after yesterday’s Superpole,” declared Luigi Dall’Igna, Technical Director of Aprilia Racing, “and we didn’t encounter any specific problems with the bike. We brought a number of novelties with us to try out here in Valencia. Some of them were used during the race, and gave us very positive results. We decided not to use the others because they still need to be developed. We can certainly say that we brought a much more evolved RSV4 here with respect to the round in Qatar.”

Race 2

Biaggi started off well, but just as in Race 1 ended up stuck in the pack at the first curve. This time, however, he managed to avoid contact with his adversaries. The Roman driver threw himself into the race in an attempt to recover as many positions as possible and he was in tenth place by the eighth lap. Then a battle for eighth place ensued with Sykes, Kiyonari and Hopkins, which saw the drivers fighting for impossible breakaways along the backstretch, perhaps the only place where it is possible to pass on this track. During the twentieth lap Max managed to launch a final attack and finished the race in eighth place.
Shinya Nakano is doing well after undergoing surgery yesterday to repair the compound fracture to his left shoulder blade.
The operation, which required the application of a metal plate and eight screws, went off without a hitch and now Shinya and his physicians are deciding if he will undergo physical therapy here in Spain or return to Japan.

"It was a very difficult race,” said Biaggi. “I gave it my all, but it’s very difficult to pass on this track and I also took a lot of risks trying to do even better. These two eighth place finishes may seem disappointing, but after the bad results in the Superpole, it really was impossible to do any better. We did pretty well during the single-lap trials, but we weren’t able to set the pace with the racing tyres. My team-mate and I, to whom I wish a speedy recovery, experienced the same problem with vibrations at the back of the bikes that we had at Philip Island. We tried changing the alignment but the situation didn’t improve and the Superpole reflected the situation we found ourselves to be in. This can be viewed as a success in that it has taught us to better evaluate the problems that we encounter and find solutions as quickly as possible.”

Bad saturday for Biaggi and Nakano

Friday was a good day for the Aprilia team with Biaggi scoring a 1st place in the Qualifying session. On Saturday the team wasn't that fortunate. Nakano broke his collarbone during the 2nd Qualifying this morning and will be out all weekend. It is unknown how serious his injury is and how long it will take until he is recovered. Biaggi also had a bad saturday with a Superpole that didn't went according to plan. He didn't make it through the first round and now he needs to start in 18th place..

Full results of Superpole

Biaggi, Aprilia claim Friday pole at Valencia

Max Biaggi has put the new Aprilia RSV4 on provisional pole for round three of the 2009 World Superbike Championship, at Valencia.

During a topsy-turvy opening day, when many riders struggled to set fast lap times in both sessions, Biaggi claimed a solid third place in free practice - then lowered his best lap time by one-second during the afternoon qualifying hour, allowing the Italian to edge out Ben Spies by 0.132sec.

Superstar rookie Spies, winner of three of the first four races, had been just 17th fastest in free practice, but made quick progress up the order during qualifying. The American steered his factory-backed Yamaha around the Spanish circuit a massive 1.783sec than he'd managed in free practice, squeezing out Ducati's championship leader Noriyuki Haga by just 0.001sec as a result. Haga was ninth fastest in free practice.

Biaggi's Aprilia team-mate Shinya Nakano qualified eleventh.

Aprilia RSV4 launch videos and pictures

Official pics

New RSV4 videos

Aprilia Shiver 750 GT and GT ABS official video

Great weekend for Aprilia at Qatar

Yamaha's WSBK rookie rider Ben Spies took a spectacular double win in the second round of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship at the Losail circuit in Qatar. The 24 year-old Texan powered to his third win in the opening four races, dominating both today's 18-lappers and twice finishing ahead of Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) and Max Biaggi (Aprilia), who were classified second and third to make up identical podiums. Nakano scored 4th in the first race and 7th in the 2nd race.

Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing): "I tried to keep up and have a good rhythm without losing concentration. We have a new bike and every session we try to improve, but it's not easy to win right away. These guys did a great job, I rode very hard and today I was comfy, both front and rear, and looking good."

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Biaggi starts 3rd at Qatar, Nakano 6th

After dominating the two WSBK qualifying sessions, Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) powered to the same result in Superpole with his second success in two races. The 24 year-old Texan lapped the 5.380 km Losail desert circuit in a time of 1 minute 57.280 seconds, almost eight-tenths of a second quicker than Troy Corser's best mark from 2008. The starting-grid was similar to the opening round in Australia, but this time Jakub Smrz on a customer Guandalini Ducati 1098R placed second, a fraction of a second behind Spies, and ahead of Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) in third. The front row of the grid was completed by Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox), who managed to move up to a fourth place slot following two below-par qualifying sessions.

With fifth place on the grid, Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike) confirmed that the four-cylinder Japanese R1 machine is proving to be a very competitive machine indeed this year, and the British rider will start tomorrow's two 18-lap races with Japan's Shinya Nakano (Aprilia Racing), Spain's Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Shane Byrne (Sterilgarda Ducati) from the UK alongside.

Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing): "I'm very happy again to be fighting for the pole position, I think we did a very good job today. We tried to find the best set-up on both bikes, and I'm going to chose the one that feels the most comfortable. I have already made my tyre choice and feel quite comfortable so thanks again to my squad, they are great guys."

Biaggi 4th in 1st WSBK Qualification at Qatar

Yamaha's Ben Spies storms to provisional pole position for the second round of the World Superbike Championship in Qatar, ahead of Jonathan Rea and Carlos Checa.

The first qualification of the WSBK race in Qatar also went quite well for the Aprilia team. Biaggi finished strong in 4th place and Nakano followed in 10th.

Full results

Aprilia USA's Sales Were Up 66.4% In 2008

Aprilia USA, the U.S. importer and distributor of innovative, technology-driven motorcycles and scooters, finished 2008 with strong sales gains across its expanding product range. The company sold 66.4 % more bikes and scooters to customers in the U.S. market, spurred by the addition of four all-new motorcycles, three fresh scooter models and continued strengthening of its dealer network. Along with plenty of new product arriving from the Noale, Italy based factory, Aprilia USA also continued to add racing successes to its long list of championships, such as the U.S. company’s second consecutive MOTO-ST road race championship and first place in the 2008 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 750cc category.

For 2009, company executives see more opportunity. “Our 2008 sales results are remarkable, especially in light of overall declining motorcycle industry sales,” says Gary Pietruszewski, Vice President Sales and Marketing, Piaggio Group Americas. “Much of our success can be attributed to a broader product range in dealer showrooms. For 2009 we expect to continue sales growth, thanks to new product like the much-anticipated RSV4 superbike and continued expansion of the dealer network. Add our new Aprilia Adventure demo program, new race teams competing in the AMA Daytona SportBike series and Aprilia’s return to World Superbike racing, and you have all the ingredients for a very exciting year.”

Aprilia’s U.S. motorcycle sales rose over 19 percent, fueled by new introductions like the company’s first-ever mid-size V-Twin, the SL 750 Shiver. Industry accolades for the Shiver include its superior rideability, all-day comfort and signature technical innovations, such as its unique tri-map ride-by-wire system.

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Chaz Davies 7th on the KWS RSVR at Daytona

Debuting under the lights at Daytona International Speedway, the new Daytona SportBike series kicked off the season with a first-ever night-time running of the Daytona 200 on March 6. No less than 9 different motorcycle brands lined up in the 84 bike field giving a very different and very welcomed new tone to two wheeled racing in the US.

Chaz Davies scored a very admirable 7th place on his KWS Aprilia RSVR in the Daytona 200 last weekend. He also scored the fastest lap of the race. His teammate Ben Thompson finished 22nd.

Full results

Biaggi fights for podium to the end

The Aprilia WSBK team got off to a pretty good start of the season. While Race 1 was not so succesful because of tire problems(Biaggi finished 11th and Nakano 15th), race 2 was a lot better with Biaggi taking the lead in the beginning of the race and battling for podium positions. After that he dropped back a bit to 4th place where he was battling with Fabrizio and Haslam. Unfortunately he ended up in the gravel in the last lap because he had to go wide not to hit the riders in front of him who took a strange line into the corner. But a 4th or 5th place was definately possible, unfortunately the gravel incident caused Biaggi to finish in 15th place. Nakano finished in 12th place but was battling for place 6 the whole race untill he dropped back with tyre problems.

It looks like the Aprilia RSV4 certainly has some great potential but they need to put some more development time into it to unleash its full potential.

Detailed report with interviews

Biaggi gets 2nd place in WSBK Superpole!

Texan WSBK rookie Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) powered to the first Superpole win of the season in an exciting opening round session at Phillip Island in Australia. The 24 year-old took the top slot on his YZF R1 machine with a time of 1 minute 31.069 seconds. In the new ‘knock-out' formula, Italian Max Biaggi scored a second place grid slot, his best ever performance in Superpole, on the brand new Aprilia, the Italian manufacturer returning to Superbike after a seven-year break. The front row of the grid is completed by Britain's Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Jakub Smrz of the Czech Republic, top Ducati rider on a private Guandalini machine. Shinya Nakano finished at a respectable 9th place.

Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) commented: "It's a big sensation for me to come back after so many years to Aprilia with this new project, the bike is good already. We still have to see which is the best way to go but for now qualifying was very good and exciting. I don't know about race pace for tomorrow but this is an encouraging start. When I saw everyone going 31s, I thought 'wow, that is fast'. I had some trouble in the free practice before qualifying, we swapped bikes and it was not my favourite one but we made a great job."

Full results

Highlight video of the Superpole