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The 2022 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP Race Bike Is Ready for Duty

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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.

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MotoGP

The 2021 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP Race Bike, In All Its Weird Glory

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For a variety of reasons, the MotoGP team unveilings have become a dreadful boring affair in the recent years.

It used to be, that these events would be our first chance to see the new bikes from the coming season, but now these new bike revisions have become too secret to show before the racing started.

Instead, the events have become a release of new livery designs, plastered on last year’s bikes. The liveries rarely change though, and with the current rules package, the same could be said about the machinery.

That is not the case with the factory Aprilia Racing squad, however. Developing the Aprilia RS-GP at a rapid pace, we are witnessing a constantly evolving motorcycle.

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MotoGP

Major Redesigns Coming for the Aprilia RS-GP in 2020

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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.

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MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro Talks About Frustration at a Lack of Progress, & Fears of Foul Play

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Six races into the season gives everyone a chance to size up where the riders, and more importantly, the manufacturers all stand.

Teams have had a few races to analyze and optimize the setup of the 2019 bikes, plus a test at Jerez to find upgrades and solutions to problems which only emerge during race.

Mugello is the third European race, meaning the paddock is back at tracks that they know like the back of their hand. There may still be a long way to go until the title is settled, but the shape of the championship is starting to shake out.

That leads to frustration for the riders who feel their manufacturers are not making progress. At Mugello, the frustration felt by factory Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro boiled over into outright criticism of the Italian factory over the lack of progress being made.

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Bikes

Voila! Here Is the 2018 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP Race Bike

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The 2018 MotoGP season is almost upon us, but thankfully there is just enough time left for Aprilia Racing to debut its racing platform for this season – and unlike some other brands, the bike shown is actually the genuine article for 2018.

In the preseason, the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini squad has honed in a new aluminum frame made by Aprilia Racing, along with a new carbon fiber swingarm. The airbox and exhaust are also new, helping the narrow-angle V4 engine to breathe better on the race track.

This helps Aprilia to claim over 270hp from the four-cylinder motor, which has a counter-rotating crankshaft and pneumatic valves.

Other changes include a new aerodynamics package, which is hard to miss, but more subtlety the front suspension has also been modified, and uses Öhlins TSB46 forks (the rear shock is an Öhlins TRSP44 unit).

All of this is likely to evolve over the coming season, of course, but it is important to note that Aprilia is working with a fraction of the budget as some of the other factory teams.

As such, the Noale brand has made strong strides in recent seasons with the RS-GP, and when the stars align, we expect them to make some surprising results this year and continue their progression.

Of course, returning to ride the Aprilia RS-GP this season is Aleix Espagaro, and he will be joined in the squad by Scott Redding.

If you think we cherry-picked only the most awkward of their press photos, then you would be correct. Enjoy!

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Bikes

The 2017 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP Race Bike Debuts

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The final factory MotoGP to debut its 2017 MotoGP Championship race bike, Aprilia has finally debuted the 2017 Aprilia RS-GP that Aleix Espargaro and Sam Lowes will campaign this year.

The Italian outfit continues to make quiet strides in its development with the RS-GP, though the efforts from Suzuki and KTM tend to dominate the headlines. For the 2017 season, Aprilia looks ready to take another step forward, especially with Aleix Espargaro at the helm.

The biggest task for the 2017 will be to bring more horsepower to the Aprilia RS-GP. The machine reportedly handles quite well, though that is often an item of praise that changes as the power increases.

Still, the elder Espargaro brother has shown an impressive pace on the Aprilia RS-GP during the pre-season tests, while his teammate Sam Lowes continues to simply learn and adapt his riding style to suit the more powerful machinery found in the MotoGP Championship.

Noticeably absent from the team’s livery launch photos are the new aerodynamic fairings that the Noale factory was testing in Phillip Island.

This might be due to Aprilia not wanting high-resolution photos of its aero work circulating on the internet, or it is simply nod to the fact that the aerodynamics for the 2017 season are still under development.

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MotoGP

Aprilia RS-GP Dresses in (RED) for the Valencia GP

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When you watch the Valencia GP this weekend, keep an eye out for a pair of strikingly red motorcycles on the track, piloted by Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl.

This is because their Aprilia RS-GP race bikes will be sporting a special (RED) livery, supporting the charity that fights acquired immune deficiency syndrome – better known as AIDS.

A disease that once generated massive headlines in the United States in the 1980s, now for many in the western world, AIDS is no longer the specter it once was.

Modern antiviral treatments can reduce the presence of AIDS in affected patients to below detectable levels, thus making AIDS a chronic instead of terminal disease, and which allows patients to lead mostly full and normal lives.

However in other countries, AIDS is still very much a death sentence once it is contracted, with access to life-saving medication incredibly more difficult to acquire, and prevention efforts woefully inadequate.

Over 37 million people worldwide are currently infected with AIDS, with 2 million more contracting the disease with each passing year – many of them in Africa. (RED) aims to change that epidemic, and has contributed $360 million to the stop of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in the region.

Hopefully with the help of Aprilia and the MotoGP Championship this weekend, even more support can be channeled to this worthy cause.

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2016 Aprilia RS-GP Gets All Dressed Up for MotoGP

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MotoGP testing is underway in Losail, Qatar right now, as the paddock gets ready for the season-opener in a little over two weeks’ time. As such, we are seeing teams debut their liveries, and none of the unveils are more anticipated than that of Aprilia Racing.

The Noale brand has been hard at work developing a brand new MotoGP race bike, and while the name remains, the 2016 Aprilia RS-GP is a completely new machine for riders Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista to tackle.

Aprilia says it is using a “narrow” V4 engine, which by definition would mean anything less than 90° in the cylinder head angle. Paddock chatter suggests that the new RS-GP does not share the 65° cylinder head angle of the RSV4 superbike though, which should make for good speculation during the season.

Rated at over 250hp, the Aprilia RS-GP uses pneumatic valves, and has a counter-rotating crankshaft. This is mated to a gearbox that handles seamless upshifts and downshifts. The frame is an aluminum twin-spar design, with the swingarm also made of aluminum.

Aprilia isn’t disclosing the weight of the 2016 RS-GP, but we can expect it to be at, or very near, the minimum weight requirement for MotoGP machines – thus roughly 20 lbs lighter than its predecessor.

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2016 Aprilia RS-GP Breaks Cover at Aragon Test

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With Ducati refining the already competitive GP15 into the Desmo16, and Suzuki bringing a seamless gearbox and new, more powerful engine for the GSX-RR, the battle among the manufacturers in MotoGP is getting closer.

The one exception so far has been Aprilia, who soldiered on through 2015 with an uprated version of the ART machine, which was still based on the RSV4 production bike, while they worked on a brand new prototype.

That prototype has at last made its debut at the track. On Wednesday, Aprilia test rider Mike Di Meglio took the 2016 Aprilia RS-GP out for its first official spin (see the unblurred photo on GPone).

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MotoGP: Development of All-New Aprilia RS-GP Delayed

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Aprilia’s MotoGP project has suffered a setback. The 2016 version of their RS-GP MotoGP machine will not be ready in time for the first official IRTA test at Sepang, according to a report by Crash.net’s Neil Morrison.

Instead, the 2016 Aprilia RS-GP will make its debut in a private test at Qatar, ahead of the third preseason test of 2016, with its first public outing coming in that third and final test, two weeks before the start of the 2016 season.

The delay is a sign that the project is at least a couple of weeks behind schedule. At Valencia, Aprilia spokespersons said that the original plan was to hold a shakedown test at a private Italian racetrack, with the bike making its public debut in Sepang.

Designing a radically new bike is taking longer than expected, however: the 2016 machine will be a brand new prototype, designed from the ground up, at least 10kg lighter than the current RS-GP, and is rumored to have a different angle between the cylinders.

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2015 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP Race Bike Gallery

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Aprilia Racing officially debuted its MotoGP team today, giving us our first glimpse of Marco Melandri and Alvaro Bautista in the team’s racing livery. It is also our first glimpse of the Aprilia RS-GP race bike all kitted-out, which should be a treat for the tech-heads in the crowd.

The RS-GP is an evolution of the Aprilia ART project, now with pneumatic valves, an 81mm bore, and evolved electronics. There is a lot of ahead for Aprilia Racing, Gresini Racing, and their riders.

The first check box is developing the chassis, finding one that gives both riders the confidence they need to push the RS-GP to its limits. Aprilia is said to have an all-new bike in the works for the 2016 season, but the development of that machine will take cues from what Aprilia Racing learns this year with the RS-GP.

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