Aprilia Motorcycles

About aprilia

Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle company, one of the marques owned by Piaggio.

Aprilia was founded after the Second World War by Cavaliere Alberto Beggio, as a bicycle production factory at Noale, Italy in the province of Venice. Alberto’s son, Ivano Beggio, took over the helm of the company in 1968 and constructed a 50 cc "motorcycle" with a dozen or so collaborators. The first production Aprilia mopeds were named Colibrì, Daniela and Packi. Aprilia later produced a motocross bike in 1970 called the Scarabeo. Produced until the end of the 1970s, the Scarabeo came in 50 and 125 cc versions.

In the 1980s Aprilia added enduro, trials and road bikes of between 50 and 600 cc. In 1981 Aprilia introduced the TL320 trials machine. In 1983 Aprilia launched to St 125 road bike. In 1984 Aprilia launched an improved model called STX, and an enduro, called the ET 50.

In 1985, Aprilia started outsourcing engines for some models to the Austrian company Rotax. In 1985 Aprilia launched a 125 STX and 350 STX. In 1986 Aprilia launched the AF1; a small sports model, and the Tuareg; a large tanked bike for African rallies like the Dakar Rally.

Aprilia has 124 times won 125 and 250 cc class Grand Prix, 15 Road Racing World Championship titles, and 16 European speed titles. Many world champions started on Aprilia such as Biaggi, Capirossi, Gramigni, Locatelli, Sakata and Rossi.

Also in the 1990s, Aprilia entered the scooter market starting in 1990 with Italy’s first all-plastic scooter, the Amico. In 1992, Aprilia introduced the Amico LK and the two stroke Pegaso 125, both with catalytic converters. In 1993 Aprilia launched a large diameter wheel scooter reusing the name Scarabeo with a four-stroke, four-valve engine. Later Aprilia launched more scooters such as the Leonardo, the SR and the Gulliver.

In 1995, Aprilia commissioned Philippe Starck to design the Motò which was shown in New York’s Modern Art Museum. Also in 1995 Aprilia launched the two stroke RS 125 and RS 250 sports bikes. In 1998 Aprilia launched what is its current flagship model the RSV Mille, a 1000cc V-Twin Superbike, and the Falco, a 1000cc V-Twin sport tourer with emphasis on sport. Both bikes used a variation of a Rotax 1000cc engine.

During 2000, Aprilia acquired Moto-Guzzi and Laverda, both historic heritage Italian marques. In 2000 Aprilia launched the 50 cc DiTech (Direct Injection Technology) two stroke engine for scooters which provides high mileage and low emissions, and also the RST Futura, a sport tourer, and the ETV 1000 Caponord; an adventure touring motorcycle. Both of these latter two motorcycles used a variation of the Rotax 1000 cc V-Twin.

Most recently, in 2003, Aprilia launched the RSV Mille Tuono which was essentially an RSV Mille with motorcross-style high handlebars and only a small headlight fairing. Most of the major motorcycle magazines picked it for the best bike of the year. In 2004 Aprilia was acquired by Piaggio & C. SpA, to form the world’s fourth largest motorcycle group with 1.5 billion Euro in sales, an annual production capacity of over 600,000 vehicles, and a presence in 50 countries.

Despite being a relatively small company by global motorcycling standards, Aprilia is very active in motorcycle sports. It contests many Road Racing formulae, including the FIM 125 cc World Championship, the FIM 250 cc World Championship, and the now-defunct FIM 500 cc World Championship.

Moto blog

Ask MO Anything: How Important is a Big Motorcycle Dealer Network?

Big deal or not a thing? Dear MOby, Like a lot of your readers, I was intrigued by that new Aprilia Tuareg 660. Also like a lot of them, I’m a little bit scared of my nearest Aprilia dealer being several hundred miles away.

Battle Royale: 7-Way Heavyweight Naked Bike Shootout - Track

You think you know which bike is best on track? Think again. Credit: Photos by Dito Milan/GotBlueMilk, Evans Brasfield | Videos by Sean Matic, Jacob Canepa Twists.

2022 Aprilia Tuono 660 Factory First Look

Fully-adjustable suspension, a LI-ion battery and six-axis IMU Aprilia unveiled a new Factory version of the Tuono 660, equipping it with improved suspension and a lightweight lithium-ion battery. The 2022 Aprilia Tuono 660 Factory is equipped with a 41mm Kayaba fork and Sachs shock with a remote reservoir that are both now fully adjustable. Aprilia says the new battery weighs roughly 4.4 pounds, resulting in the claimed curb weight decreasing to 399 pounds.

2022 Aprilia RS 660 Limited Edition First Look

Aprilia celebrates MotoAmerica Twins Cup dominance with stars-and-stripes livery To celebrate its successful campaign in the MotoAmerica Twins Cup, Aprilia is releasing a new limited edition RS 660 in stars and stripes livery. Photo by Ryan Adams The RS 660 won 10 out of 13 Twins Cup races, along with nine second-place finishes and seven third-place finishes, not to mention six pole positions. Kaleb De Keyrel won five of those races for the Robem Engineering team to win the Twins Cup, earning him an invitation to the final round of the Aprilia RS 660 Trophy at Italy’s Vallelunga circuit.

Battle Royale: 7-Way Heavyweight Naked Bike Shootout - Street

The big boys in the naked bike category duke it out on the street. Credit: Photos by Evans Brasfield | Videos by Sean Matic, Paisley Kerr, Nico De Prato Welcome to Motorcycle.com’s 2021 Heavyweight Naked bike Shootout. If you haven’t noticed, 2021 has been the year of naked bike shootouts here at MO.

2022 Aprilia Tuareg 660 Review – First Ride

"Imohag" is Tuareg for "free men" Credit: Photos by Milagro The main beauty of Sardinia is the almost complete lack of Sardinians, which makes it hard to explain why the twisty roads that connect the villages on the Mediterranean’s second-biggest island are so perfectly maintained. The new Aprilia Tuareg 660 is up for all of them. There’s a lot of second and third gear work in there, which the optional quickshifter makes quick work of, and even the occasional first-gear corner when the fur is flying – also not a problem.

2021 Heavyweight Naked Bike Spec Shootout

Prelude to battle MO’s string of naked motorcycle shootouts continues, and this time we saved the best for last. We started things off in June with the middleweight class, seeing the Triumph Trident 660 emerge from a six-bike shootout. In August, we moved up a weight class and saw the Yamaha MT-09 come out ahead in another six-motorcycle dog fight.

Aprilia has officially unveiled the Tuareg 660

The main characteristics of the new tourist enduro have become clear. The Tuareg 660 mid-size touring enduro is officially unveiled as a 2022 model. The Aprilia Tuareg 660 is the third model, along with the RS 660 sportbike and Tuono 660 naked bike, built around the new 660cc inline-two with a maximum engine power in the adventure version - 80 hp, torque - 70 Nm.

2021 Aprilia Tuono V4 Review - First Ride

Further refinements to Aprilia's thunderous V4 Coming directly off of a six-bike shootout the previous day of paltry 900cc nekids, I knew I needed to focus on rewiring my brain to handle the beast that is the Aprilia Tuono V4. I’ve been a fan (and owner) of the Aprilia Tuono V4 platform for some time now – and I’m not the only one around here. From earning the editors’ top spot in our 2017 Supernaked Streetfighter Shootout!, to bringing home the people’s choice award in our Writer’s Choice: MO’s WSBK Sport-Touring Showdown in 2019, the Tuono’s list of accolades run deep through the years both at MO and other publications worldwide – and it just keeps getting better.

2021 MO Middleweight Naked Bike Shootout - Six Bikes!

Six motorcycles, one winner Credit: Photos by Evans Brasfield | Videos by Sean Matic We last performed this public service in 2017, when your Yamaha FZ-07 prevailed over the Kawasaki Z650, Suzuki SV650, the new Harley-Davidson Street Rod, and the new and indeterminate Benelli TnT 600, in that order. The FZ-07 has since morphed into the MT-07 amidst a host of well thought-out upgrades in 2018, and then again for 2021. The Z650 got a modern instrument pod in 2020 with a few other tasteful refinements, and the SV650 hasn’t changed a bit (God bless it).