GARY’S GRIND
As the Mille belongs to Mr H, probably best we let him have his say too! They say you should never ride (or own) the dream bike you had a poster of on your wall, and although the RSV Mille was never on my wall I always wanted to own one. Sometimes I ask myself why, because it’s big, bulbous and looks hideous from certain angles – but from others it looks stunning.
Some paint schemes were terrible but the PlayStation Haga rep’ was a trouser twitch inducer. Roll on to present day and I now own one! I found a low mileage, original 1998 model for good money. I’d already ridden the latest incarnation, the RSV4 APRC, for more miles than any other sportsbike in the legendary Fast Bikes’ SBOTY. So howwould going back 19 years actually feel? I had the chance to find out when the FB boys asked if they could borrowmy 1998 version. “Of course,” I said, “providing I can ride too!”
I didn’t knowwhich way round to do my back to back test, so jumped on the RF first. I was immediately reminded how good this bike is. It stops, it turns, it gives unparalleled levels of feedback. It’s so easy to ride and you instantly feel at ease with it. It really takes little effort to ride it fast, and it doesn’t matter what that pace is – this bike will do what you want it to.
I jumped on my own RSV with a high level of trepidation. After a few warm-up laps I braked where I was braking on the APRC – mistake… It’s a good job we were on an airfield with 75 miles of run off! The way modern bikes stop in comparison is startling. Next, into the chicane, and more effort and counter steering was needed on the Mille, whereas on the APRC all I had to do was drop an eyebrow. Accelerating onto the straight the Mille felt gutless, but there was something enjoyable about having to force the Mille to play.
It was a totally satisfying experience putting proper effort into riding. The RF is an absolutely brilliant piece of motorcycle engineering and is arguably one of the best sports bikes money can buy, but so was the Mille 19 years ago, and it’s still good today. You just have to ride it differently.