+ Click to Enlarge BAD IN BLACK: Aprilia's canyon carver lives up to its looks. Pictures: DAVE ABRAHAMS

October 30, 2002
By Dave Abrahams

Aprilia's Falco is the second model from the Noale concern to feature the 997cc, liquid-cooled, 60-degree, V-twin motor first seen in he ultra-quick Mille. In this application the trademark motor, built for Aprilia by Austrian engine specialist Rotax, has been detuned a little for a wider spread of power and more real-world rideability -but don't kid yourself, this is a serious sports machine.

The Falco is closely based on the original 97x67.5mm motor rather than the short-stroke 100mm-bore version developed for Noriyuki Haga's Sunday bike. It has been slightly remapped to reflect its new role, with its compression ratio lowered from 11.4 to 10.8:1 and a different stainless-steel exhaust system.

It has the same 51mm Nippon Denso throttle bodies but with remapped electronics to produce 87kW at 9250rpm (down from the Mille's 95) and 96Nm of grunt at a lower 7000rpm. The power goes through the same six-speed gearbox as the Mille but it has slightly shorter final gearing at 16/41. The sportster has 17/42.

Despite the two balancing shafts (there's one in the crankcase and a second in the rear cylinder head) the motor develops an appreciable amount of harsh, thrumming vibration, which can be felt through the entire fabric of the bike since the engine is a rigidly mounted stressed member.

It doesn't feel or sound like a classic 90º V-twin at all, with its very uneven idle and flat, rather atonal roar when revving hard.

But the revs rise and fall like a cobra striking and the motor produces strong power from 4000 to the rev-limiter at 10 600. There's no red line on the functional rev-counter but a red LED comes on at 10 500 (which is really high for any big V-twin) and a moment later the motor begins to misfire as a serious inducement to the rider to engage the next ratio.

While there's no well-defined power band, things definitely happen a lot quicker above 7000 rpm. In the top third of the rev range the bike pulls hard enough that you need a lot of elbow room – don't try revving this bike out on the city streets, you'll run out of space a lot quicker than you expect.

The Aprilia's response is altogether more hard-edged than that of its rivals the Honda VTR1000 and Suzuki TL1000S and its mid-range is a lot better than that of the Ducati 916.

And yet the Falco will rumble through traffic at 2500rpm with just a hint of power-thudding and will accelerate away almost from idle in the lower gears, making it a competent if uncomfortable commuter. Despite its rather appealing rough-and-ready persona, this is a very accomplished motorcycle motor.

The drive goes through Aprilia's unique vacuum-assisted clutch to the gearbox; the boosted clutch has very little feel but the system appreciably lightens lever pull. If you doubt that, hold the clutch in and switch off the motor with your right hand. The lever instantly kicks against your hand as the weight of pull almost doubles.

The gearbox, on the other hand, is a honey – light, slick and as crisp as fresh lettuce. It would do justice to a lightweight sport bike (in fact it's a whole lot better than the Suzuki boxes fitted to the RS250 race replicas) and on this big banger it's a revelation of what's possible with a heavy-duty gearbox.

The only better shifts I've encountered were the hand-lapped and polished cog sets on the higher-specced Ducatis. There's absolutely no lash in the transmission and only the barest minimum of snatch in the final drive, mostly attributable to the cush rubbers in the rear hub.

Top speed

For the record, the Falco thundered up to a genuine 255km/h, spinning at just over 9300rpm, and might have pulled even harder in fifth were it not for the larger than usual gap between the two top ratios. Aprilia, it seems, sees sixth as a long-legged cruising gear, with third, fourth and fifth as the performance cogs.

The frame is built around a painstakingly sand-cast steering head and engine plates joined by twin triangular extruded beams on each side. It looks light and high-tech, it's put together with welds that are works of art and it's undeniably as sturdy as a bridge.

It also places the handsome motor on display in a way that the fully faired Mille doesn't so Aprilia has refinished the motor in a classy heatproof charcoal for a distinctively different look.

The 43mm Showa upside-down front suspension has been transplanted unchanged from the Mille. The rear rides on a Boge-Sachs remote reservoir monoshock, adjustable for everything including ride height, connected to a rectangular section swing-arm by a progressive linkage.

The factory's median settings are a little on the harsh side of firm but on smooth roads the forks are superb, providing instant response and accurate feedback. On bumpy surfaces, however, the suspension becomes distinctly nervous with a marked tendency to patter, especially on the rear wheel.

I'm sure the forks and shock could be tuned better to cope with bumpy back roads but almost certainly at the expense of the bike's rocklike stability in long, fast, smooth sweeps that is such a feature of the Aprilia's performance envelope.

Superb brakes

The Falco also inherits the Mille's class-leading four-pot Brembo brakes, a good thing for real-world riding. Aprilia's choice of master cylinder ratios is close to perfect, with instant, easily modulated stopping power available at the pull of a single finger, but with superb feedback to let you know exactly what's going on twixt tyre and tar.

These extraordinarily well set-up brakes gave me the confidence to really use the bike's power on some of my favourite twisties, knowing that I could scrub off velocity quickly and safely if necessary.

The Falco is far less radical than its elder brother in terms of human engineering but the seating position still throws too much weight on to one's wrists for comfort around town. Once I got out onto the back roads, however, I could lean up against the back of the fuel tank, let my sternum take most of my upper body weight and place very little weight on the bars.

This made the steering lighter and more stable, enabling me to push much harder on long corners than I'm used to while providing a modicum of self-correction on bumpy surfaces.

The rider's seat is 20mm lower than that of the Mille, even with the rear ride height at maximum, and is considerably better padded. The pillion accommodation is wide enough to take a girl-sized girl. It also has sensibly placed and very solidly grab handles to ensure she stays there.

Slim body panels

Compared to the all-out race replica, the three-quarter fairing has been markedly slimmed down, as have the body panels and seat unit. The result is a bike that not only looks a lot slimmer but also feels more compact to sit on.

At first glance the fairing is more akin to Ducati's style-icon 916 than the Mille (that's actually a compliment, Cyril) but it has Aprilia's trademark triple headlights behind clear polycarbonate lenses, with the dipped beam in the lower reflector and high beam shining forth from the two above, directly above the Darth Vader-ish intakes for the ram air system.

The computerised instrument panel is a copy of that of the Mille and the RS250 (sensible, that) complete with clock, trip meters, coolant temperature readout in Celsius or Fahrenheit, velocity in English or metric, self-adjusting redline and even a 40-lap computerised stopwatch - just in case you need to know how much your time over Franschhoek Pass has improved.

The Falco may be less narrowly focused than the Mille but it's not an all-rounder. In Aprilia's range that role is played by the altogether more urbane (and absurdly beautiful) Futura sports tourer. It's intended to be as competent on the street as the Mille is on the track - and very nearly succeeds.

The best sports bikes talk to you constantly, telling you exactly what they're doing – this one shouts at you in teenage exuberance, vibrates throughout its rev range and hauls ass like an express train, which is how it justifies the headline for this road review: Shake, Rattle and Roll.

All of which sounds like an unpleasantly bad-mannered hooligan tool but it's actually as user-friendly as a Labrador puppy and its in-your-face persona soon grows on you. I liked the Falco for its eagerness to rev, the way it seemed to revel in its own strength and, not least, its willingness to burst into raucous life at the first stab on the button, hot or cold – I could live with a bike like that.

Price: R119 999.

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Test bike from Jackie at Eurobike, Cape Town.


Specifications

Motor: Liquid-cooled 60-degree four-stroke twin.
Capacity: 997.62cc.
Bore x stroke: 97.0 x 67.5mm.
Valvegear: DOHC with four overhead valves per cylinder.
Compression ratio: 10.8:1.
Power: 86.7kW @ 9250rpm.
Torque: 95.6Nm @ 7000rpm.
Induction: Indirect multipoint fuel injection with two 51mm throttle bodies.
Ignition: Electronic digital with two spark plugs per cylinder.
Starting: Electric.
Clutch: Hydraulically actuated wet multi-plate clutch.
Transmission: Six-speed with final drive by chain.
Suspension: 43mm Showa upside-down cartridge forks adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping at front, Boge-Sachs monoshock adjustable for preload, compression & rebound damping and ride height at rear.
Brakes: Twin 320mm floating discs with Brembo four-pot opposed piston callipers at front, 220mm disc with Brembo twin-pot opposed-piston calliper at rear.
Tyres: Front: 120/70 -ZR17 tubeless. Rear: 180/55 - ZR17 tubeless.
Wheelbase: 1415mm.
Seat height: 815mm.
Dry weight: 190kg.
Fuel capacity: 21 litres.
Price: R119 999.

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