Aprilia middleweight...

[The Wreck]

I was talking to Jesse at Seacoast Sport Cycles (Aprilia dealer in Derry, NH) about whether or not Aprilia is going to enter the market with a middleweight. According to him the Aprilia bosses told him that they will be developing a middleweight displacement bike but not to expect anything until the 2006-2007 model years. It's nice to hear that they're planning on building one but it got me thinking as to what engine configuration it might end up being. I personally would love to see a 600CC triple mini cube motor. Triples sound completely unique and it would be nice and narrow. It might also nicely split the difference between I4 top end HP and twin torque. Whadda y'all think?

[02SuperHawkRdr]

Aprilia's future is uncertain. Ducati bid for the majority share of Aprilia just a few days ago.

Any guess as to whether or not something like this middlweight will happen is pure speculation, although I think it would be neat.

A while back all the talk was of a possible 450cc lightweight. So, who knows what will actually happen.

[odduc]

Yeah, Aprilia is not looking too good right now. Their AMA racing team was supposed to make their debut at the Laguna Seca World/AMA Superbike races, but their funding is "held up". It's really too bad, Aprilia make some really cool bikes and they have good potential with their MotoGP bikes and they always do well in the 125-250cc classes.

Ducati made a bid to buy them out, but that deal has yet to be finalized and remains uncertain.

[Nikon]

Originally posted by lrrs167
Yeah, Aprilia is not looking too good right now. T

[Thrill]

I think I'm going to be very

[gixxer6]

Aprilia is a very old company with deep roots in Europe. They have only been in the states a very short time comparatively. When they came in to the US marketplace, they did no marketing or advertising to really speak of. They make some of the best engineered bikes on the planet...they will most likely NOT sell the majority of the company to Ducati. There is bad blood between the two for obvious reasons(MotoGP). That's pretty much the overall reasoning as to why they are not doing as well as they could be here in the US market. They are stepping their marketing up a bit, and planning a middle weight bike too. hopefully that will help them along in this country. They also just came out with a NASTY motard motor! I believe either May or June's issue of Road Racing World has a feature on it. They are making strides slowly but surely...