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Aprilia is making a tradition out of track-only specials for a discerning few (take a loo at the Tuono X and RSV4 X, and the latest iteration of that thought is certainly a stunner. Say hello to the Aprilia RSV4 XTrenta.

Only 100 units of this track weapon will be made, and in order to put one in your garage, you will need to shell out €50,000 (excluding VAT) from your pocketbook.

For that exclusivity and that chunk of change though, you get quite the potent superbike.

The WithU RNF team is to switch from Yamaha to Aprilia for the coming seasons. An agreement was reached with Aprilia between the Le Mans and Mugello rounds for the team to become a satellite team for the Noale factory, and field two more Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP machines from 2023 and beyond.

The deal came about after talks with Yamaha failed to yield satisfactory results for RNF. The Malaysian team had long been hoping to play a role as a junior team to the factory, in the mold of Pramac at Ducati and Tech3 at KTM. But RNF never felt they got the support from Yamaha which they had wanted.

A switch from Yamaha to Aprilia allows them to make that step forward. Though details are sparse in the press release, it is clear that RNF will get much stronger support from Aprilia than they did from Yamaha, with the team to serve as a conduit for talent into the factory team.

The deal was announced just before MotoGP FP1, a surprising moment to choose. But that was a result of factory rider Aleix Espargaro prematurely tweeting and then deleting a welcome to RNF to Aprilia. But by then, it was too late to retract.

The original plan had been for an announcement to be made in the afternoon, but Espargaro’s over-eager thumbs forced Aprilia and RNF to announce earlier.

The move by RNF leaves Yamaha with just two bikes on the grid for 2023. The Japanese factory had been in talks with the VR46 Mooney team to race Yamahas next season, but the team is currently still set to race Ducatis.

RNF’s departure is the second time a satellite team have left for greener pastures. Tech3 dropped Yamaha and switched to KTM at the end of 2018.

Source: RNF; Photo: Aprilia

The dark horse in the 2022 MotoGP Championship has to be the Aprilia RS-GP race bike. With a budget that is a fraction of the other factories, Aprilia has been able to evolve the RS-GP each season into a sharper weapon – albeit, slowly.

The Italian squad made big steps in the 2021 season, however, and Aprilia is keen to keep that momentum moving forward and see Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales on the top rankings of the score sheets.

Taking one look at the 2022-spec bike, which was on hand for the team’s season unveiling and photography, and we can already see the evolutions in place for the coming season, and motions are under way for a breakout year.

How do you make a bike like the Aprilia Tuono 660 better? It seems like a tough task to undertake, considering the potency of this “naked” sport bike.

Well, the folks in Noale found a simple way to do it – they made an Aprilia Tuono 660 Factory.

For its “factory” badge, the 2022 Aprilia Tuono 660 Factory gets fully adjustable suspension (41mm KYB forks, and a Sacha rear shock), a lightweight lithium-ion battery (curb weight is now 399 lbs / 181 kg), and in the European market the bike gets a power boost to 100hp.

Episode 79 of the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast is out with another “weekly” episode, for your two-wheeled listening pleasure.

In this episode, our recording schedule got a little out whack, so Jensen is flying solo on this one without Shahin. So, we switched things up a bit, and have a special interview straight from the Aprilia Tuareg 660 launch.

When I first met the Aprilia Tuareg 660, it didn’t make much of an impression. It was the 2019 EICMA show, and the bike was quietly on display in a glass box, covered with plants and vines.

The display was so nondescript, that thousands of attendees and hundreds of journalists passed by the Tuareg 660 without even noticing that it was there.

Nothing is subtle about the Tuareg 660 now though, as the middleweight adventure bike is riding the wave of success that has come with Aprilia’s previous two models from its 660cc platform.

Add into that notion how popular the middleweight ADV space has become recently, and we can begin to see why the Aprilia Tuareg 660 is one of the most anticipated motorcycles for the 2022 model year.

So to test its mettle, Aprilia brought us to the Italian island of Sardinia, where the winding mountain roads make for challenging and technical riding on the street.

And to get our feet dirty too, we tackled some rough gravel roads/trails, as well as an off-road circuit that Aprilia created with a good mix of sandy, rocky, wet, and bumpy conditions.

Is the Aprilia Tuareg 660 any good? Ask 31 riders and you will get a Baskin Robins of answers back in this highly personal two-wheeled space.

But, the Aprilia Tuareg 660 does seem to inhabit the Goldilocks zone of the middleweight ADV space that should impress many, and leave quite a few riders reaching for their wallets. Let me explain.

I’m sitting in the airline lounge at JFK right now, waiting to hop across the pond to ride the new Aprilia Tuareg 660 in Italy, and I was thinking to myself how weird it is at this stage that we don’t have any proper photos of the Aprilia Tuareg 660.

Well, the minds in Noale must have been picking up what I was putting down, because there was a dump of high-resolution photos of the Tuareg 660 put on their press site today.

For $12,000, the 2022 Aprilia Tuareg 660 puts out 80hp from its parallel-twin engine, and tips the scales at 449 lbs at the curb.

Aprilia’s 660 platform is making quite a splash, with the RS 660 dominating the MotoAmerica twins cup field, and the Tuono 660 offering an affordable, yet potent, offering for street riders.

Now, the next installment of the 660cc parallel-twin platform is ready for two-wheeled enthusiasts, as the Aprilia Tuareg 660 is set for its international unveiling (we’ll be riding the middleweight dual-sport in Italy in a week’s time).

With that debut imminent, details about the bike are coming in, most notably its price tag, which for the US market will be a cool $11,999 MSRP (add $600 if you want the Indaco Tagelmust color option).

Maverick Viñales has completed the first two days of his Aprilia career, riding the RS-GP for the first time at the Misano circuit. The Spaniard was very happy afterwards, in no small part because he was also fast.

He ended the day with a fastest lap of 1’32.4, he told Catalan journalist Damià Aguilar. Earlier, Lucio Lopez of MotoRaceNation, present at the track, reported that Viñales had set a lap of 1’32.8 on a soft tire with 8 laps on.