First pic of the 2008 SXV

The first picture of the 2008 SXV production model has appeared. No details yet on the 2008, keep tuned to Aprilia News for more info about 2008 model.

Racing news

AMA Supermoto: Atkins wins first national, while Carlson still leads championship

While Team Aprilia Rip it energy fuel racing has pretty much owned the top spot of the AMA PPG Supermoto Unlimited podium this season thanks to the signing of reigning class champion Ben Carlson away from rival manufacturer KTM, team boss Darryl Atkins finally got in on the fun himself at the Deshutes County Expo Center in Redmond, OR. This being the second season riding the Italian manufacturer’s twin-cylinder SXV550, the gritty New Zealander broke through to claim his first-career AMA triumph on Saturday night.

Atkins took maximum advantage of a hectic first lap, taking control of the race when other riders got caught up in an opening corner pile up.
Atkins led every lap and pulled away to get the win with a 5.9 -second margin of victory. The excited New Zealander remarked, “This track was great, I just did what I needed to keep increasing the gap over the rest of the field. Today went really well for me, 1^st in our Qualifying group, 1^st in the heat and 1^st in the final.

Carlson went down on the first lap and rode from 12^th to 5^th in the 10 lap race. “ I just lost the front end going into a right hand turn, the track temperature changed a lot from the heats to the final as the sun started to set. I was happy to be able to come back and get some good points to keep my championship lead healthy”

Immediately after the Unlimited final Carlson jumped on his 450 and rode from 12^th to 7^th in the 15 lap final event. Both riders were quick to Thank the rest of the Team (Amauri Nunes, John Weiss & Todd Carlson), knowing all their hard work is making these results possible. Carlson will look to bounce back to his winning ways while Atkins will hope to add a second career win when the series picks back up in a little over a month in Galveston, TX on November 3-4.

Finally good results for the Aprilia MX team

It was a new formation for Team Aprilia Off Road on the track at San Severino Marche (MC) in the 5th round of the Italian International Motocross, the penultimate race of the season. At Chicco Chiodi's side was Luigi Seguy who, after a season as an Enduro rider, is once again an official Aprilia captain, collaborating closely with technicians and engineers who are developing the cross, enduro, and supermotard twins. Seguy thus returned to dispute a motocross race (where he spent over ten years of his glorious career) atop Cedric Melotte's official MXV 4.5 as the rider recovers from reconstructive surgery of the ligaments in his right knee.

Saturday's qualifying rounds showed Chiodi to be in good shape with the 4th-best time in the MX1 while Seguy, distracted by a setting problem, clocked the 12th-best time. In the first manche, Seguy took off hard. The Frenchman reared the engine and hit the gear shift against the wicked gate, irreversibly damaging the MXV 4.5's gear shift. It was instead a normal race, for Chiodi who closed out in 7th place.

The start of Race 2 was great as an excited Seguy took off hot on David Philippaerts' trail (Ktm), racing three laps in his wake before losing strength and falling back to 5th place. Taking advantage were Alex Salvini (Yamaha) and Choidi, who closed out the fraction in 3rd place in a manche that saw two Aprilia twins in the top five places.

Supermoto news

Iddon takes double British Championships

Christian only needed a single 10^th position in any of the 3 races held at the final round of the British SuperMoto Championship to take the crown and he did that in superb style by taking the race 2 victory but that wasn’t before a bit of drama in the first race to add a little tension to the days proceedings.

The weekend started out superbly for Christian by taking the fastest laps in both free practice sessions and then following it up by taking the pole position in qualifying by a relatively massive 1.5 seconds. Even that wasn’t without drama though as Christian high-sided his Aprilia 550 SXV while trying to better his already fantastic time.

“It’s fantastic to win the British Championship again. It’s a double Championship too as I took the Open class and the Overall British Honours. I’m so pleased to have taken the titles while riding so well too. Apart from the first race mishap the weekend has gone so smoothly in terms of riding. The bike has been amazing as always and to be so far ahead of the competition is just unreal. I’d like to thank all my sponsors for all the work and support they give me. These titles are as much theirs as they are mine.”

Success for Aprilia in the Supermoto of Nations

With just one trial left until the conclusion of the FIM Supermoto World Championships, the best riders of the international scene found themselves at Franciacorta’s “Daniel Bonara” Autodrome on September 29-30th to give life to the 5th edition of the "Supermoto delle Nazioni".
The competition included 20 teams that represented their respective nations. Team Aprilia Off Road was called up to support two of their official riders: Thierry Van Den Bosch for France and Christian Iddon for Great Britain. Both riders participated in the Open class atop Aprilia SXV 5.5s, finding themselves in direct competition during the race.
During Saturday’s qualifications for the Open round, Iddon took off in command but was tailed by Van Den Bosch who immediately attacked the Englishman. Both were victims of a collision that was worse for VDB (who ended up on the ground). As a result, he fractured the 4th metacarpus of his left hand.
The doctors of the Mobile Clinic treated Van Den Bosch for pain on Sunday morning, allowing him to race and become the splendid protagonist of Race 2 (S2 and Open) in which he beat the Italian Davide Gozzini (Tm) and the Belgian Gerald Delepine (Husqvarna). In Race 3 (S1 and Open), he was called upon by the French team at the halfway point of the grid and carried out a great comeback that saw him finish 4th and lead France to success in the Supermoto delle Nazioni.
Also atop the podium was Christian Iddon’s Aprilia SXV 5.5 as he and Great Britain finished in 3rd place overall.

V4 testbike spotted at Mugello

The Italian magazine Specialmag was doing a tyre test on the track of Mugello when they discovered that Aprilia was testing their new V4. A team of technicians,engineers and test pilots where doing test runs on the new V4.

They where asked not to take any pictures of the pitbox but they where able to take some low res pics of the bike on the track. Fabrizio Pellizzon and Marcellino Lucchi where the test pilots riding the bike.

There is not much to say about the looks of the bike because it is still disguised as a RSVR.

More pics at Specialmag

Aprilia 2008 news for the American market

Last week there was the dealer meeting for the American Aprilia dealers with some news about the 2008 model range.

2008 Street-legal SXV/RXV, big gas tanks, new seat, revised suspension settings, new cold start lever, new throttle cam, no selectable mapping (as far as we saw or mentioned). Same engine specs as second batch 07s. Production issues have been addressed since very early 2007. 30 day warranty on de-restricted versions just like current bikes.

SXV4.5 $8799 available Q4 2007
SXV 5.5 $9499 available now
RXV 4.5 $8599 availble now
SXV 5.5 $9299 available Q4 2007
MXV late 2008, around $8499
SXV-VDB replica bikes arrive in December $23,999
New Shiver SL 750 $8999
New Scarabeo 200 $3399
New Scarabeo 100 $2699
Tuonos and RSVR remain the same as current 07.5 versions, same pricing.

Mana 850 auto.....no price given (figure between $9-13K), figure very late 2008 arrival.

WSBK and AMA superbike racing with the v-4 in 2009, and maybe, just maybe MotoGP in 2010-2011.
No v-4 street bikes until 2009.

08 SXV in action at Alpi Del Mare

This weekend’s Grand Prix of Alpi Del Mare had a few surprises to show the 6000 spectators, who saw both Bernd Hiemer and Jerome Giraudo come back to the podium. Offcourse the Aprilia of Road team was present with the SXV in the new 08 colors!

S1 Heat 1

Thierry Van Den Bosch was the winner of the opening moto, where he worked his way up after Adrien Chareyre’s holeshot. VDB moved past Thomas Chareyre and started to chase early leader Adrien, who slowed down at the sky section, but Thomas moved in front of both. Unfortunately the younger of the Chareyre’s had a technical problem and dnf’d; the battle was again between Adrien and VDB, but the latter passed and pulled away with the lead, leaving his rival behind in second place. Jerome Giraudo secured the third place after he got rid of a strong Ivan Lazzarini

S1 Heat 2

Thomas Chareyre was a man out for revenge in this heat, and once he got the lead at lap four, he never looked back at his brother Adrien and rode to a well deserved win. With Adrien finishing second, VDB showed a perfect demonstration of the champion’s attitude, rejoining the race from 12^th place and working his way up to an eventual eighth.

S2

Christian Iddon of Aprilia Off Road came back to victory in the 2nd heat, which was his second of the season after Torino’s maiden triumph. TM Factory’s Davide Gozzini, who won the latest GP in front of Iddon, brought the bike home in second place ahead of CH Azzalin’s Gerald Delepine, who fought his hardest despite a problem with the plastics of his bike in heat one. Attilio Pignotti lost the red plate, which is now Delepine’s, and also ended his four podium row by finishing fourth overall, ahead of Nestor Jorge.

Finally some good results for the Aprilia MX team

On Sunday, September 9th, the 7th trial of the national Belgian Motocross Championships place at Opr Le Grand saw Cedric Melotte and his Aprilia twin as protagonists. Melotte’s season was supposed to end at the Holland Grand Prix, the last engagement of the international calendar, but the push from friends and fans led him to participate in the race just days before he is set to undergo surgery on his right knee (injured at the start of 2007).

Melotte and the official MXV 4.5 presented themselves to the Belgian public by winning the pole position. Cedric marked the best time (1:56.172) that was also the top time in the MX1, finishing ahead of a slew of official riders.
In the first of the three heats, Melotte took off in 8th place and made his way up to 2nd place. Then his front wheel lost traction as he went into a curve and he ended up on the ground. Getting back up, he closed out the heat in 4th place and marked the fast lap.

In Race 2, he took off in 7th place and recuperated position after position before climbing to the 3rd step on the podium. He jumped out of the starting gate in 2nd place and soon commanded the race with more than four seconds of advantage on his closest competition. The ride that seemed a heat victory was rudely interrupted by a stone that caused him to fall. However, Melotte jumped back on the bike and was able to finish in 5th place.