Aprilia RSV4 Factory versus 2009 Honda Fireblade
After glimpses of brilliance on the bike's wet launch at Misano, Visordown has finally tested the new V4 Aprilia back-to-back with the best 1000cc sportsbike out there, Honda's CBR1000RR Fireblade
Aprilia's RSV4 ... makes the 'Blade feel soft
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First, a confession; the RSV4 Factory does it for me in a massive way and, for that reason, the following words aren’t the most objective you’ll read today. It’s simple maths. In my shed sit a V4 Honda NC30, 1991 vintage, and a 2002 Aprilia RSV-R. Were they to mate, the inspired offspring would be the RSV4.
A couple of months ago, James Whitham and Niall Mackenzie were kept from the RSV4 Factory’s world launch at Misano by hectic diaries and I got the gig. Italy’s notoriously slippery Misano circuit may have been rain-lashed but the Aprilia’s class shone through: unbelievable agility; easy, usable power; and the kind of charisma that has your brain thinking £15,000’s actually very reasonable for a plaything. I was smitten.
And now, on dry, sun-baked UK roads, the Aprilia is equally bewitching. Having turned up on the Fireblade, I was all set to praise its effortless handling, silky power and mighty brakes – “What more could you possibly want?” and all that. Then I rode the Aprilia. By contrast the Honda felt soft, a little remote and just a little ordinary. The big-money Italian superbike was the easier of the two machines to go fast on immediately. Told you this thing’s got me in a big way.
The RSV4 Factory is too small and far too firm, both of suspension and of seat, to be road-practical in any rational sense, but when you actually get to the bits of road we ride for, those dry, well-sighted corner-complexes miles from anywhere, the Aprilia experience is pixel-perfect High Definition next to the Blade’s slighty fuzzy cathode-ray alternative. The Italian bike is completely locked down, with no lost movement from either its suspension or its Pirelli Supercorsa tyres.
It reacts to your every input with a shocking immediacy and accuracy, babbling away with priceless feedback that encourages you to attack every corner like Ben Spies’ R1 is on your tail. The brakes are similarly honest – there’s no initial comfort travel, no fuzz, just the kind of stopping power that swells confidence. And then there’s the engine: powerful, drivable, usable and as beautiful to listen to as it is to use. The little things are right, too. The engine may be hugely powerful but the on/off fuelling’s perfect and the few degrees of dead travel in the throttle perfectly judged, the power’s there only when you want it. The gearbox is good too, with a shift action that’s been improved noticeably since the launch bikes.
So yes, if you really do spend hours at a time in the saddle, crossing the Channel to playground Europe every couple of weeks in summer to junk a pair of tyres, go Fireblade – the Aprilia will batter your backside into surrendering long before you reach Dover.
But if you live for those snatched moments of dynamic bliss that elevate riding a motorcycle to something with angels singing and stuff, you worship race bikes as some people do that God chap and you hear race engines in your dreams, whether they belong to Doohan’s Suzuka 8 Hour RVF or Andrea Dovizioso’s RCV on the overrun, the RSV4 is every bit as awesome as you dared dream it would be. That it’s also beautifully built, with detailing you could lose months taking in, is just the cherry on a cake the size of Rome’s Coliseum.
For a full evaluation of the Aprilia RSV4 Factory against both the Fireblade and its exotica rivals – KTM's RC8R, the Ducati 1198S and the MV Agusta F4 312RR – check out the August issue of Two Wheels Only, on sale on June 26
Discuss this story
if you spent £5k on a 2009 Blade it's wipe the floor with that aprilla! FACT! lightweight wheels, full system/ new ecu, carbon subframe and bodywork, renthal sprockets/ chain, etc aprilla is not as good per £ as a mille
Posted: 09/06/2009 at 13:36
Please tell me where you get a 2009 Blade for 5k? My local Honda dealer is selling them for 9K.
Posted: 09/06/2009 at 14:35
There's certain products you buy because it is what you want, it may not be the most practical, economical, or reliable ect.. but it's what you want. The Aprillia, Ducati, and KTM super sports fall into this catagory. Where the Honda's, Yamaha's, Kawasaki's, and Suzuki's generally fall into another. They are all amazing machines, but there's some things money don't quantify, and it's more than just a name and bling value. I'ts why I ride a Triumph Speedmaster instead on a Harley Soft tail Duce, Yamaha V-Star, or Victory. Although I almost got a Ducati GT1000 instead... (stupid not flexible prosthetic)
Posted: 12/06/2009 at 01:17
if you spent £5k on a 2009 Blade it's wipe the floor with that aprilla! FACT! lightweight wheels, full system/ new ecu, carbon subframe and bodywork, renthal sprockets/ chain, etc aprilla is not as good per £ as a mille
if you spent £5k on a 2009 Blade it's wipe the floor with that aprilla! FACT! lightweight wheels, full system/ new ecu, carbon subframe and bodywork, renthal sprockets/ chain, etc aprilla is not as good per £ as a mille
Please tell me where you get a 2009 Blade for 5k? My local Honda dealer is selling them for 9K.
5k for a 2009 Blade? ....I'll have 3 please.
he means spend 5k on tuning a standard blade you thick fucks 
Posted: 12/06/2009 at 14:38
The Aprilia is the bike I'd rather open the garage door to. It's he one I'd want to polish. It's the one I'd tell my friends about. It's the one I'd get excited about riding. It might not be as good as any of the Jap 1000's. But then neither am I.
Posted: 12/06/2009 at 20:59
The Aprilia is the bike I'd rather open the garage door to. It's he one I'd want to polish. It's the one I'd tell my friends about. It's the one I'd get excited about riding. It might not be as good as any of the Jap 1000's. But then neither am I.
i heard you were a bit of a polisher 
Posted: 12/06/2009 at 22:59
forget the basic price difference as the Ape isn't just 5k better than the Blade, it is better thought about from a blank sheet, and developed firstly for racing, unlike the watered down jap bikes we get. Maybe spend 5k on each to make it fair, and you'll still have a pedigree Aprilia with exclusivity and Fireblade hard to single out at Oulton park on racedays. When the R1 SP came out, was it not about 15k? Oh, it had Ohlins and not much more right? You get an awful lot of bike with Aprilias superbikes and always have. I'd rather have the money tied up in an Ape thanks. And keep my Repsol RR7 still, as I like the fact it is the nicest looking best performing blade so far. Aprilia have retained the quirky but charming looks where the Japanese are all on the wrong thread really.
Posted: 12/07/2009 at 22:04
The Aprilia is the bike I'd rather open the garage door to. It's he one I'd want to polish. It's the one I'd tell my friends about. It's the one I'd get excited about riding. It might not be as good as any of the Jap 1000's. But then neither am I.
i heard you were a bit of a polisher
Only my nether regions with baby oil. And only them if you're coming to town. 
Posted: 12/07/2009 at 23:08
if you spent £5k on a 2009 Blade it's wipe the floor with that aprilla! FACT! lightweight wheels, full system/ new ecu, carbon subframe and bodywork, renthal sprockets/ chain, etc aprilla is not as good per £ as a mille
if you spent £5k on a 2009 Blade it's wipe the floor with that aprilla! FACT! lightweight wheels, full system/ new ecu, carbon subframe and bodywork, renthal sprockets/ chain, etc aprilla is not as good per £ as a mille
Please tell me where you get a 2009 Blade for 5k? My local Honda dealer is selling them for 9K.
5k for a 2009 Blade? ....I'll have 3 please.
he means spend 5k on tuning a standard blade you thick fucks
Duuuuh...yes. I get it.
An obvious attempt at humour has escaped you, you miserable twonk 
Posted: 13/07/2009 at 11:14
NEVR BEEN A FAN OF HONDA'S BUT THE 08 BLADE IS A VERY SPECIAL BIKE WELL DONE HONDA, ME BEST MATE HAS ONE AND IT IS ALWAYS FUN TO RIDE PERFECT IF IT IS YOUR FIRST 1000 ITALIAN BIKES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT LOOKS AND TRACK FOCUS, BUT ARE ALWAYS FLAWED AS ROAD BIKES HAVING SAID THAT THE DUCATI'S HAVE COME ON A LONG WAY
Posted: 13/07/2009 at 13:00
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