Walked away from a demo a bit confused
I attended an Aprilia Demo day last weekend with the intention of mainly riding the Tuono V4 as a near future replacement for my Street Triple R, and also the Tuono 660 Factory just for shits and giggles. Been riding 19 years and owned 11 bikes. First of all, the Aprilia and Piaggio people were fantastic to deal with. Super cool guys with a crazy amount of racing experience between them.
Not sure if it’s one of those “meeting your hero” scenarios, as I’ve wanted to ride the V4 Tuono for over 10 years. But I stepped off the gorgeous scorpion yellow V4 a bit bewildered and confused. First of all, sure it is unrelentingly fast and exhilarating. And that’s coming from somebody whose daily ride is a fully tuned Connie 1400. The character and the experience is where I struggled a bit. In some ways, it had less character than I was expecting. Sure it had a stock exhaust and an aftermarket would help a lot. The engine characteristics were a lot more polished and weren’t quite as raw as I was expecting. But in contrast was the transmission. It seemed extremely loud, very clunky, and agricultural. The quickshifter hit a half false neutral at WOT before eventually moving itself into second without my intervention and spooking me a bit. Could the transmission be a bit beat on as a demo unit? Potentially. I just stepped off the thing totally confused on what I thought about it. I expected to be a lot more wowed.
I decided to ride the Tuono 660 Factory since I was there but I went into the ride not having high hopes. HOLY CRAP. That thing is a total riot. I had so much fun riding that little bike. Outside of some really vibey handlebars, I was really impressed. The engine was characterful and torquey. The transmission seemed less clunky and loud. The front end feel was wonderful. I’m not sure if it’s a big enough upgrade over my current Street Triple R to spend that kind of money on a new bike, but I could definitely see myself picking one of these up used down the road.
I know this is an Aprilia group so the answer is probably a resounding no, but did anybody else struggle a bit after riding the v4???