Aprilia Tuono V4 Factory

On paper, this should stand no chance against all these newer, fancier rivals. But no one appears to have told the Tuono…

2024-06-01 -

We’re scorching down the A623 between Sparrowpit and Stoney Middleton, and yet again the Tuono Factory is oozing class and making life easy. Up ahead, road tester Carl Stevens is tucked in on the Streetfighter looking like Pecco Bagnaia with a tatty rucksack, closely followed by James ‘Toprak’ Doherty on the howling M1000R. They’re both faster riders than me and by rights should be pulling away, but thanks to Tuono magic, they’re not.

The road surface is pretty good, but you can never be sure the local council won’t have left a little present halfway round the next third‑gear sweeper – maybe a poorly filled pothole or perhaps a few stutter bumps they couldn’t be bothered to iron out. Either way, the firmly‑suspended Ducati and BMW can’t be doing with that level of real life, so Carl and James wisely adjust their entry speeds to suit. The Tuono, on the other hand, is supple enough not to care. Peel in, momentarily appreciate the V4’s off‑throttle howl (think Joey, RC45, Creg‑ny‑baa), notice the merest judder as the Tuono floats over a bump, engage warp drive as planned. That only needs to happen a few times before you feel invincible, smoothly carving the Tuono from corner to corner as the others brake more and then battle to deploy their extra power.

Fundamentally, the Tuono’s secret is that it’s a road bike rather than a racer with flat ’bars (ie, Streetfighter and M1000R) or a supermoto powered by a nuclear explosion (KTM). So, you get a beautifully fuelled V4 that feels almost as grunty as the KTM, yet has a similar top end to the Ducati and is far easier to access than the BMW. Couple that with the best semi‑active suspension set‑up here and you get a motorcycle that is blisteringly quick over any road surface, can turn almost as fast as the RSV superbike it’s derived from, and has a front end that inspires industrial quantities of confidence. It’s a heady mix.

Interestingly, it pulls the same trick when we speed test the bikes. Despite having a mere 159bhp at the back wheel compared to the BMW’S almighty 196bhp, the Tuono accelerates faster to 100mph, does a quicker standing quarter and clocks an almost identical top speed (165mph – which it reaches three seconds faster than the Beemer). If ever a bike defied its stats, the Tuono is it. It also manages to defy its age – mostly. The 1077cc V4 engine hasn’t changed much since its launch in 2015, the Öhlins suspension is unchanged since 2019 and only a few electronic and styling twiddles arrived with the most recent revamp in 2021. Sure, the TFT dash doesn’t have a slick, modern design like the others (though at least it doesn’t utilise microscopic symbols like the KTM) and the switchgear is olde worlde, but everything else is remarkably cutting edge – the electronics, for example, work just as unobtrusively as those on the brand‑spankers Super Duke. ‘The others do beat it in some ways,’ says fourth tester Michael Neeves (on secondment from MCN) as we settle down for lunch in Chapel‑en‑le‑frith. ‘But as an overall package, I still think it’s the best. The engine is characterful at road speeds and sounds beautiful. It’s got loads of grunt, but plenty of power if you want to go mad. Probably the best thing about it is the chassis – the ride quality from the Öhlins makes it feel like you’re gliding over velvet and it always feels like the limit is so far away.’

The only niggles are practicalities. The pillion accommodation, for example, is bizarre – pillion ’pegs are present and correct, but the well‑padded pillion seat is 10cm wide with a protruding fin on each side. It’s impossible to strap things to, never mind sit on. Unless you’re a squirrel. Weird. Then there are the service intervals – oil and filter every 6200 miles and a valve clearance check biggie every 12,400. The KTM, by comparison, needs its valves checked every 37,500 miles (though, to be fair, the Ducati and BMW aren’t much better than the Aprilia with big services at 15,000 and 18,000 miles, respectively). But, despite its diddy screen that makes all‑day motorway work just about tolerable, you don’t buy a Tuono Factory with your head. This is not a Honda NC750X. You buy the Aprilia because it will deliver stratospheric highs and zero lows on every ride. And there aren’t many bikes that can do that.

‘Stratospheric highs and zero lows on every ride – not many bikes do that’