About 20 or 30 years ago there was a fervor for 1000cc sports bikes, there are hundreds of stories of our fathers or uncles in their “kawas”, “Suzus” and Honda; yes, mostly Japanese, but that interest diminished over time and medium-displacement motorcycles (600cc) gained prominence with the same brands, because these motorcycles were more practical to carry on a daily basis, mainly because of their weight and temperature.
Once again, time and trends began to condemn the medium displacement, so much so that many brands stopped betting on these products and only stayed with the small niche of 1000cc sports shoes. At the beginning of the last decade, brands began to develop again these bikes and the success achieved again has started to bring them to the market.
At the end of 2020, Aprilia presented its RS660 that shares an engine with the Tuono 660 and the Tuareg 660. In particular, the RS is the sports car that arrived in Mexico last year, but until this year-end special of 2022 we were able to handle it as a first contact, pending further testing. Although yes, we had a lot of fun on the track.
The Pegaso Dynamic Center line in which we were “playing” was relatively small, with the Triumph 1200 it was a great experience, but due to the dimensions it was more than made for the Aprilia.
Aprilia RS660: First contact
You may or may not like that yellow color that it boasts, but without a doubt the design in general comes from its older sisters the RSV4 and a compact shape that invites you to curve just by looking at it. Something that caught our attention is the height from the seat of 820 mm, which makes it tall if you are less than 1.70 m tall, I know, once you are on top that is not a problem, it is just a comment. When you get on you realize the weight, 186 kg in running order, and how well it is distributed in the lower-middle part of the bike, making it very light.
There wasn’t much time to move to the menu of the driving modes that you can control from the left handlebar, it is not the easiest, but we have seen some more cumbersome. So it was really a matter of going up and hitting it. From the previous lap I was already half in love with the sound of the engine, a hoarse one that reminds you of the Yamaha R1 and some Ducati. This sound when accelerating makes you invariably smile, otherwise you’re probably dead inside or something.
Already on the track you can see the lightness and the reduced dimensions of the length that make it a very maneuverable motorcycle or as we say in the neighborhood, “good mousetrap”, (so we assume that it will go well in the city). The driving position is not 100% sporty, so your feet don’t go so far back and your arms don’t go so low, making it somewhat comfortable for city or travel use, that will allow you to get off the RS660 in the curves and have a lot of precision , while you are dosing the accelerator to get out of these quickly.
The gearbox felt a bit hard, but we didn’t know if it was because of the use of the demo bike or because it came from the factory that way, something similar happened with the brakes, particularly with the rear, although you stopped perfectly in front and without nervous movements .
On a personal note, I must say that I was surprised by the handling on the track, although I would not expect less from the model, for now we want to repeat the experience with more curves, speed and of course the best test drive, the one that is done on a day-to-day basis and on a trip, where we can see how much the 15 liters of the fuel tank yield.
Soon we will go into more detail with this motorcycle that, in addition to reaching a market in full growth (again) in our country, also has to fight against its greatest sin, and this is the price, since it is at $333,500 pesos, while The Honda CBR600RR starts at $281,500, the Yamaha R7 starts at $269,999, the Kawasaki Ninja 6R starts at $264,999, and the Suzuki GSX R750 starts at $262,990.
