First Ride: 2008 Aprilia Dorsoduro

The Aprilia Dorsoduro shares it’s name with an area of Venice, which once again reminds me why Italian is such a beautiful language. Should a similar machine developed from the world of Supermoto racing ever be built in the UK, I’m not sure calling it ‘The Gorbals’ or ‘The Moss Side’ would work quite the same. And the stylish name certainly befits the motorcycle as I stopped dead in my Nikes after clocking it for the first time in the hotel car park the night before the Rome launch.

And we may well have England’s Supermoto star Christian Iddon partly to thank for this creation as he has been doing the business for the factory over the past eighteen months. Christian has been winning British Championships and running at the front in the World Championship, no doubt feeding back what works and what doesn’t.

In my seven years as a journo I’ve found many bikes are much better to ride than they actually look, which can make them difficult to sell. Customers have to be tempted with test rides, whereas a stunner like the Dorsoduro should practically sell itself. So it looks fantastic and is well finished, but is it the perfect bike in the big supermoto category?

It depends on what you want. It certainly isn’t as hard-core as the Ducati Hypermotard or the new KTM 990 Supermoto. You could argue both these bikes are equally as striking but unless you are either very experienced, or just plain brave you’ll never use them properly and they are also more expensive.

Aprilia claim the Dorsoduro is not for beginners, but it is a manageable package and if you do fancy getting into this type of bike you have three different power options: Rain, Touring or Sport.