Win the trackday
Standing out at trackdays is tough, what with the likes of Ducati’s V4 SP2 to deal with. But Aprilia have decided to have a go…
Having a wing the size of a scaffold board attached to your nose fairing is no longer enough to stand out at an upmarket trackday. What you need is this new Aprilia RSV4 Xtrenta which is the first production bike to wear rear wings and an underwing – a foil contraption under the rear suspension. We’re not sure exactly what it does, but it’s something to do with downforce and every Motogp bike has one. The Xtrenta is a track-only machine. 100 are being built to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aprilia’s first world title, when Alex Gramigni won the 125 GP championship (Trenta is 30 in Italian). Aprilia started with the loopy RSV4 Factory as the base bike, then increased the compression ratio, changed the air filter and added an SC Project exhaust to boost power from 217bhp to 230bhp. To manage the extra heat, the water and oil radiators are Wsb-spec jobs from Taleo Tecnoracing.
The suspension and braking are equally high-end. Aprilia’s Motogp technicians tuned the Öhlins suspension, the Brembo brakes are race-spec GP4-MS items and the Marchesini wheels are made from magnesium – 2kg lighter than the Factory’s. In fact, the overall weight drops from 177kg to 166kg dry. Obviously the Pirelli Diablo SBK tyres are slicks.
To finish off the race-bred look, the electronics are controlled via a Jetprime racing button panel and you get Cnc-made levers and footrests, handlebar levers and CNC by Spider fuel cap.
With the price estimated to be around £52,000, dealers aren’t expecting to shift many Xtrenta’s, but Rob Church from Fowlers isn’t surprised that Aprilia have gone down the track-only route. ‘We don’t sell a massive number of RSV4S, so I don’t imagine we’ll shift many Xtrentas. The sportsbike market is minimal now, which is why a lot of manufacturers are going down the track-only route – it’s just
not worth the money it takes to get a bike through emissions without a significant drop in power. The sales just don’t warrant it.’ The precedent was set by the Yamaha R6 which became track-only in 2021, and Rob expects more to follow. ‘I’ve heard the R1 will follow the R6 and go track-only in 2023. The sportsbike situation is not helped by the fact you don’t have to compromise with adventure bikes now – their suspension and electronics are just as good, which wasn’t the case 15-20 years ago. It’s why KTM don’t make a superbike.’ A problem peculiar to Aprilia is the perception that the bikes can be unreliable. ‘The Tuono V4 is an interesting case,’ says Rob, ‘because it generally comes top of group tests but doesn’t sell well. I think it’s down to the Italian reliability thing, but since Piaggio took over they’ve become a lot better. Also, the spares situation is far better than it was ten years ago. Saying that we still can’t get parts in less than four weeks due to the way the UK systems are set up.’
‘A track-only machine… to celebrate Aprilia’s first world title’