APRILIA

Crazy naked gets semi-active suspenders

As one of the world’s most unhinged naked bikes, the Tuono’s centrepiece is its 175bhp engine – a masterstroke of V4 midrange wallop and a top-end so powerful it could have blitzed BSB racers 15 years ago. But for 2019 it’s the suspension we’re talking about – the Factory now comes with Öhlins semi-active forks and rear shock as standard. As usual, you can choose a semiactive mode, where the system will listen to its sensors and decide what damping you need according to the road conditions and how aggressively you’re riding, or a manual mode, where you can fiddle with the damping by pushing buttons. There are three riding modes, giving three distinct suspension set-ups too. The other electronics remain unchanged for 2019, which is a good thing – the 8-level traction control is sublime. Then there’s the wheelie control, launch control, pitlane limiter, cornering ABS and, for riding home from the police station, cruise control.