The first time we saw the Aprilia Tuareg 660, it was in a glass box at EICMA, surrounded and covered by plants that obscured our view.
But, with the dirt-focused adventure bike getting closer to reality, we were bound to get a better glimpse before its debut. That brings us to today.
Caught for the first time on the open road, this photo posted to the Aprilia RS660 Facebook group (and then removed) shows the mid-sized adventure bike in its pre-production form.
If we made a list of motorcycles available in other markets that we don’t get here in the United States, surely the Honda CBR250RR would be a bike near the top of the list.
The plucky twin-cylinder sport bike is nothing like the Honda CBR250R or Honda CBR300R, in that it is a proper sport bike, not just some budget machine in wolf’s clothing.
In an exclusive interview with Asphalt & Rubber, MV Agusta CEO Timur Sardarov has revealed that the Italian motorcycle marque will release a lineup of 350cc twin-cylinder motorcycles.
The bikes will continue MV Agusta’s position as a premium motorcycle brand, but offer more opportunities for riders, not only in the Western markets, but in countries where smaller displacement motorcycles prevail.
“MV Agusta is entering the biggest relevant market in the world, which is 350c to 500cc,” Timur Sardarov revealed to Asphalt & Rubber.
One of the most anticipated motorcycles for the 2019 EICMA show, we have been waiting for the 2020 Aprilia RS 660 to set the middleweight twins category on its head, and now that we have the spec sheet, we know that it will.
Try this on for size: 100hp from the 660cc parallel-twin engine, in a package that weighs 372 lbs (dry). Even with the fuzzy math the comes from dry to wet weight conversions, it is clear that the Aprilia RS 660 is going to lead its class on power-to-weight ratios.
But the Italian aren’t stopping there with their twin-cylinder assault. The 2020 Aprilia RS 660 also comes with the brand’s robust APRC electronics suite, which means IMU-powered traction control, wheelie control, and cornering ABS, along with an up/down quickshifter, cruise control, and switchable power modes.
I wasn’t going to double-dip on stories for the Aprilia RS 660 concept this week, but well…these photos were too good not to share ASAP. If you haven’t read our report that the Aprilia RS 660 will be showing up for the 2020 model year, well then…started getting excited party-people.
Ahead of our ride time on the new Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory, the folks from Noale invited us to their “Aprilia All Stars” event at the Mugello circuit last week, which is where we spotted the RS 660 on display.
The bike hasn’t changed from its debut in Milan late last year, which is fine by us, as it looks like it could roll right onto the showroom floor already…and apparently from yesterday’s news, that is the point.
Still, spending some time up-close with the Aprilia RS 660 concept provides us with some interesting insights to this machine.
KTM CEO Stefan Pierer has already publicly tipped that the Austrian brand is hard at work on a new middleweight engine, one that will exist alongside the current 790 platform.
From those comments, the notion is that KTM is working on a 500cc platform for a range of models, which is likely to debut in a few years’ time. We also expect to see a KTM 790 SMT supermoto-styled bike debut later this year at EICMA, which should round out the 790 platform.
But, could another engine platform be in the works? That’s what our Bothan spies are telling us.
KTM’s 790 platform is a marvelous thing. It brought us the potent KTM 790 Duke sport bike, and this year sees the arrival of the hotly anticipated KTM 790 Adventure R dual-sport.
Compact, powerful, and affordable – those are the three words that best describe what the Austrian motorcycle house has created, and we knew from the get-go that the 790 platform was destined to bring us several motorcycle models.
Now, the time has come to ask where is our KTM RC790?
As we predicted in our EICMA round-up on the Noale brand, it looks like we won’t have to wait long to see the production version of the Aprilia RS 660 sport bike, as photos on Facebook show that the Italians have been caught testing the machine at the track.
With two bikes spotted, one in street trim and one in race trim, the Aprilia RS 660 looks surprisingly production-ready, which tips a debut at next year’s EICMA show, and the bike being a 2020 model year machine.
Last week, we showed you two new motorcycles from Norton, the Atlas Ranger and the Atlas Nomad. Today, we bring you a third bike from this 650cc parallel-twin platform from the British brand, the Norton Superlight.
Based off the same road-going platform as the Atlas, the Superlight is really a race bike in disguise.
This is because the Norton Superlight takes the mild-mannered engine from the Atlas bikes, which makes 84hp and 47 lbs•ft of torque, and cranks them up to “11” for an engine that produces 105hp (78 kW) of peak power and 55 lbs•ft (75 Nm) of torque.
We have been waiting for quite a while to see Norton’s Atlas street bike project in the flesh, and now it is here…in two varieties.
The two machines are called the Norton Atlas Ranger and the Norton Atlas Nomad, and they are both scrambler models. The Nomad is geared more towards road use however, with its 18″ front wheel; while the Ranger has taller suspension for better off-road capabilities, along with a 19″ front hoop.
Both bikes share the same 650cc parallel-twin engine with a 270° firing order, which makes 84hp and 47 lbs•ft of torque. The motor was co-developed with Norton’s V4 project, and it is essentially the four-cylinder engine with its rear cylinder bank lopped off.
We first broke the news about the Aprilia RS 660 a few months ago, tipping that the 600cc class parallel-twin would debut soon, but even we didn’t know what we were in for until the Noale brand took the covers off this amazing machine at EICMA today.
True to rumor, the bike is basically powered by half of an Tuono 1100 / RSV4 1100 engine, with the forward bank of cylinders making the engine platform. Building from there, Aprilia has begun to play with an active aerodynamic system as well, taking the current trend in the two-wheeled space to the next level.
Called Aprilia Active Aerodynamics (A3), the name pretty much tells the story. As such, the Aprilia RS 660 concept explores using aerodynamic forces in new ways, which sees the machine capable of changing its front aerodynamic profile, as well as how much downforce it creates.