Dellorto is known in the automotive B2B world for its products in cars and trucks. Well now they are starting to offer their products for motorcycles, and Aprilia will be one of the first companies to integrate their technology in a product. What does this mean for the consumer? Well for starters, the RSV4 will be the first bike from Italy to have variable length throttle bodies. Read more after the jump.
The Aprilia RSV4 seems to be all the news today, first we leaked you the price, and now we can show you what Max Biaggi’s World Superbike trim will look like. The bike has Max’s classic “3” logo, we imagine the final version will have a couple other stickers as well, unless The Emperor is sponsoring his racing efforts these days.
Source: motoblog.it via MCN
Max, with your new shiny bike, you’ll be the prettiest boy at the track this weekend.
Asphalt & Rubber has just gotten wind from Aprilia on the new RSV4’s MSRP.
Standard version: £12,000
Factory: £14,000 – £15,000 – options depending.
Final power and weight has not been confirmed, but expect the RSV4 to be 50lbs lighter than the CBR1000RR, and produce around 180hp.
Schwing!
The world markets may be down, and stores may dropping out of business like it’s third period French class, but Ducati is finding the economic downturn to have an upside on its balance sheet.
Ducati’s sales revenue for the first three quarters of 2008 grew by 25% compared to last year’s figures. This means to close to $417MM in revenue for the Bologna Bandits, with their bottom line looking 87% better than before, totaling in at $41MM.
Why now brown cow? Well shipments from Desmo-central to dealer floor rooms has been up by 19% for the year so far, with sales up 8% worldwide. In the meantime, worldwide industry sales are down 6%. Evidently, those cars that people aren’t buying, is not equating into motorcycle purchases (you know…for the mileage advantage)
The Bologna Boys say they are still on track to achieve a forecast 20% growth in worldwide sales for full fiscal year, up from a predicted 15% sales growth.
How are the other European manufacturers doing?
KTM has had a 50% drop in operating profit for the full 12 months of its fiscal year, closing the books at $21MM. The House of Orange (not Oranj) is blaming this decline on a bad Dollar to Euro exchange rate, and plans to cut motorcycle production for the 2009 season by 10%.
Piaggio (owner of Aprilia, and most of Europe’s scooters) is also cutting back on production across all its motorcycle and scooter brands after depressing results for the first 3 quarters of 2008. Overall sales were down by almost 6%, falling 10% in Europe, which accounts for about 80% of its bike and scooter sales.
BMW, while slightly more insulated, is feeling the pain too, with global motorcycle sales down by 2.5% in the same period, and profit from bikes falling by nearly 16%.
Source: visordown
In other financial news, the trade-deficit for sportbike hotness in the United States has increased another 300%. Sorry Buell.
Max Biaggi, Ben Spies, and Tom Sykes have graced us with some sounds of the new Yamaha R1 (1000cc cross-plane engine) and Aprilia RSV4 (1000cc V4 engine) taking a few laps at the Portimao circuit in Portugal. Click the jump to see the two videos.
Aprilia has relaunched aprilia.com with a much needed redesign, complete with media richness. For some time now Aprilia has been making beautiful and stylish bikes, without lending the same attention to detail to the rest of their corporate branding. The new site is bold, red, and clearly designed by someone who spends a lot of time in Apple’s iTunes.
Source: Aprilia.com
Looking good Aprilia, now call me when you have your supply chain figured out.
I can imagine how the converstion between Wayno and Stevo went (well they are from Far North Queensland). That is Stephen Rothwell and Wayne Wright from The Two-Stroke Shop. It’s safe to say it ended with “Let’s build the bike that should have been”.
They set about getting a 500cc two-stroke built to slip into Apilia’s RS250 frame. The RS250 is an excellent bike. It’s good looking, has great handling and will stop on a dime. But! There’s always a but. In standard trim it’s powered by a Suzuki RGV250 engine. Not that the engine is all that lacking and can still scare most people, this bike with a 500cc 2-stroker now becomes a capable weapon ready to tackle modern 4-stroke sport bikes.
Next years World Superbike Series should become one of the best seasons yet. With BMW joining the party with their superbike debut, Aprilia returning to the mix with its new RSV4, and Yamaha’s launching their new “cross plane” close firing R1. WSBK has never been short of action packed racing (that is when factories other than Ducati show up), and 2009 is proving to be no different. The season is already shaping up to be a good one, and the races haven’t even started yet.
The 2009 provisional calendar of the FIM Superbike and Supersport World Championships and Superstock 1000cc FIM Cup is posted after the jump.