Lot details
Registration No: N/A
Frame No: N/A
Engine No: V-990RP974173
cc: 1000
MOT Expiry Date: N/A

Like many motorcycle manufacturers, Aprilia started as a cycle manufacturer. The company was founded in 1956 by Alberto Beggio in Noale, by 1960 the first moped had been added to the range starting a gradual shift in emphasis for the company from cycle manufacturer to motorcycle producer, the last bicycles leaving the works during the early seventies. The seventies and early eighties saw the firm concentrating on dirt-bike and lightweight machines however in 1988 the Tuareg range was introduced featuring 50 and 125cc two-strokes and 350 and 650 four stroke versions using engines built by the Austrian Rotax concern. By the beginning of the 1990s Aprilia were well established around the world, their success both on the race track and in off road competition provided excellent publicity and supported the marketing of their well regarded road bike range, particularly the 650cc Pegaso adventure bike and the "race replica" RS125 and RS250 machines, the company was now ready to enter the superbike market. Development of the RS Mille 1000cc had begun at the start of the decade with a 1000cc 60 degree vee twin being chosen to power the new model. First seen at the by the public at the 1997 Milan Show the new model quickly silenced possible critics who had questioned it's lengthy gestation period, rumours and sightings of the model had been circulating since the middle of the decade. Aprilia had ensured that the model, when released, offered racetrack performance and streetbike usability, their efforts being rewarded by outstanding reviews and healthy sales from the outset. During 2003 a variant of the by then well proven twin was introduced. The "naked" Tuono sort to rival machines such as the higher spec Ducati Monster's, Triumph Speed Triple and the MV Brutale. The new model utilised the RSV engine and was offered in a number of guises from "base" model to the higher spec "Racing" and later, "Factory" models. This example was originally a factory machine used to test new and prototype racing parts. It was raced in the Italian Championship and the European Endurance Championship by the lady rider Samuela De Nardi and finished fifth out of seventeen at the Rijeka Endurance race with Stefano Cardaro on board. The vendor informs us that it was fully serviced and rebuilt prior to him purchasing it. It should be noted that Aprilia factory motorcycles do not carry a frame number.