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Big things are moving in the Norton Motorcycle company. After the company’s purchase by TVS, the Norton V4SV superbike program has been rebooted, with some pretty substantial changes and updates to the platform.

The British brand is set to bring a naked version of its superbike as well, showing a prototype of what is being called the Norton V4CR café racer.

True to the ethos of the café racer genre, the Norton V4CR is very much a superbike without fairings, including clip-ons rather than an upright handlebar.

What is old is new again might as well be the theme for this week, after the Crighton CR700W reemerged and the Husqvarna Norden 901 finally debut, and that theme continues now with the relaunch of the Norton V4 superbike, which has changed names to the Norton V4SV.

With the company now in the hands of India’s TVS Motor Company, the British firm is starting to make good on some of its previous owner’s promises, and one of those is making the Norton V4 work properly and land into the hands of happy customers.

What do you say about the Aprilia RSV4? The past 13 years have seen a number of changes come to the RSV4 (and seen a number of letters come and go, as well), as Aprilia has been consistent in its effort to keep the RSV4 at the pointy end of the liter-bike spectrum.

The 65° V4 engine has grown from 999cc from its debut in 2009, now to 1,099cc in 2021. Similarly, the electronics package has gotten smarter and faster. And of course, the design has (debatably) improved with the latest trend of aerodynamic aids.

This constant unyielding iteration is unseen elsewhere in the motorcycle industry, which instead prefers to succumb to the ebbs and flows of more clearly defined model generations.

This unique approach has allowed Aprilia to constantly keep the RSV4 at the pointy end of the liter-bike segment, but has it paid off for the 2021 model year RSV4 and RSV4 Factory machines, though? That is the topic of today’s story.

To find the answer to whether the Aprilia RSV4 has gotten better with age, and remains at the top of the superbike pile, we took this motorcycle to one of the most iconic tracks in the United States: Laguna Seca. 

We were not disappointed in the result. Let me explain.

When you are at the top of the superbike pile, it can be hard to justify change, and yet Aprilia has been constantly updating the RSV4 ever since it debuted in 2009.

For the 2021 model year, the Aprilia RSV4 and Aprilia RSV4 Factory models get another update, which is again more of an evolution of the existing machine, rather than a totally new design.

That being said, the changes that come to the 2021 Aprilia RSV4 are pretty big this time around, as you can see from the photo above.

After a bit of teasing, we finally get to know the details of Ducati’s newest engine, the V4 Granturismo. This is the four-cylinder motor that will power the new and upcoming Ducati Multistrada V4 motorcycle.

The engine is based off the Desmosedici Stradale motor that is found in the Panigale V4 and Streetfighter V4 motorcycles, but with some obvious and core changes to suit it for touring and ADV riding uses.

In two days, Ducati will officially unveil the V4 engine that will power its new Multistrada V4, which means that the Italian brand is currently in the midst of an extensive media campaign on the new motorcycle.

Today, we learned the name of this new motor; the Ducati V4 Granturismo engine, which is interesting in its own right, as it shows a departure from the “Desmosedici Stradale” nomenclature that powers the Panigale V4 and Streetfighter V4 motorcycles.

Ducati has begun officially teasing a new V4 engine platform on its website and social media channels – a move that is almost certainly the beginning of an unveiling for the Ducati Multistrada V4 adventure-touring motorcycle (the two off-road / on-road panels are a bit of a giveaway, shown above).

That a V4 version of the Multistrada was coming has been known for quite some time, with even Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali acknowledging that we would see the new model by the end of this year.

So that news, coupled to a bevy of spy photos that have caught the machine testing in its pre-production form, give us a good idea what to expect about this new model.

Still, there are some details we do not know about the Multistrada V4, and Ducati seems intent on teasing out those details in the coming weeks, via various “theorems” it is postulating. 

With only 500 being made worldwide (and maybe 100 or so of them coming to the USA), the chances of getting to swing a leg over the Ducati Superleggera V4 are pretty slim. Riding one around Laguna Seca in anger? Even slimmer.

So naturally when Ducati North America called and asked if we wanted to do exactly that, the answer was an obvious yes.

That brings us to this moment, where on Thursday Asphalt & Rubber will get a chance to ride a $100,000 carbon-fiber-everything superbike around one of the most iconic race tracks in America. Sometimes, this job is really, really tough.

Funny enough, this is a rare case of the coronavirus actually causing some positive changes in the motorcycle industry, as normally the US would only get to send one publication to the press launch for a bike like this.

But instead, Ducati North America has the ability to host its own event, while the European magazines were forced to slum it at Mugello for a day. Hence, here we are.

The Ducati MH900e is a special bike in the brand’s history. It is a model that this author lusts over often, with its unique modern take of the old classic aesthetic.

The bike was ahead of its time, in many ways, and we can see now brands imitating in 2020 what Ducati made two decades ago.

The Ducati MH900e might be the best thing that Pierre Terblanche ever penned, and if you can find one in good shape these days, be prepared to spend some coin if you want it in your garage.

The 2020 MotoGP season has already had an interesting start for the Aprilia Racing squad, with the off-season headlines dominated by the doping results of the Italian team’s Italian rider, Andrea Iannone.

While we could learn as soon as next week whether Iannone’s “B” sample tests positive or negative for anabolic steroids, this week the rumors center around the changes coming to the Aprilia RS-GP for next season.

This is because news from Italy pegs some major movements are underway in Noale, and that an all-new design and technical basis for the Aprilia RS-GP is set to debut at the Sepang test next month.

That Ducati would make a “Superleggera” version of its popular Panigale V4 superbike is a clear given, as the Italian brand has made a run of these “super light” machines for each of its previous two superbikes.

While there was chatter that we would see the Ducati Superleggera V4 at EICMA this year, that rumor was clearly misguided, as the folks at Borgo Panigale prefer to use its Superleggera models as a sort of farewell, before its makes a model update.

This leaves next year though as a likely candidate as to when we will see the Ducati Superleggera V4, and documents found in the United Kingdom by the esteemed BikeSocial are giving us our first glimpse into what we can expect.