SECOND OPINION DAN THE RSV MAN – DAN!

Longtime readers may remember Dan Blake. He won our Ducati longtermer competition a few years back, and has since owned a slew of them. He did recently choose to buy an Aprilia RSV4 RF rather than the V4, and having only done a few miles on the RSV, I wanted to see if he thought he’d made the wrong choice.

“The Ducati is far comfier, the ergonomics are friendlier and it still has that nice skinny tank and the switchgear is much better quality thanmy old Panigale. It doesn’t feel as quick as the RSV, even though it’s actually much faster, but the brakes are less snatchy than the Aprilia’s. Slow cornering on the Ducati is a bit odd, almost like you have to counter-steer a touch extra to get it to tip in on roundabouts and similar, a strange front end. On smooth roads the RSV’s chassis feels far better, but on our mostly bumpy roads it’s much easier to ride the Panigale faster than the RSV at higher speeds, although the Aprilia is as easy around town. The RSV’s shifter/blipper I think is much sharper, too. Did I buy the wrong bike? I still don’t know!

“Right now I’d have bits fromboth if it were possible, but what it boils down to for me was money – I bought this 2017 RSV for £16k new, eight grand less than the Ducati, and it’s not £8k worse! I’d need to spend more time on the V4 S, even if it does seem to be serious next generation stuff. That being said, and given the riding I mostly do, with that electronic suspension I’d likely choose the Ducati were all things equal. With both at full retail prices (RSV – £19.859), I may lean towards the Ducati.”