I started riding on a 50cc Aprilia Scarabeo scooter back in 2000. It was a great little machine for popping around town on the cheap. It was my gateway drug into motorcycles. I went through my sportbike phase while still pretty firmly a Triumph guy — I’ve owned the 955 Sprint RS, the 1050cc Speed Triple, the 675cc Street Triple, and I’ve ridden most of the Ducatis that have come out until the last few years. Fast forward — the excellent fellows at Motopia New Mexicorecently picked up the Moto Guzzi and Aprilia lines, as well as MV Augusta. I had to take my V7 in for it’s regular maintenance and was given the new Aprilia Tuono Factory V4 to “go play with it”.

So for the next 24 hours, I got to ride the hell out of it. First off, styling and comfort: it’s Italian, it’s a sportbike. The form mirrors the function: it looks fast and nimble, and boy is it. The wing thingee (the technical term) on the front keeps the nose stable under speed. There’s a single-sided swingarm and single pipe. Chain access is easy. I love the little wings on the back, though I smacked my leg repeatedly when getting on. The mirrors have good visibility and don’t vibrate much when romping on the engine, the windscreen is very effective at pushing the blast off the rider.

I’ve always found the Ducatis, GSX-Rs and most other sport bikes uncomfortable. Your weight is on your wrist and I always feel like I’m perched on top of the things; just waiting to fall off. You sit in the bike with the Tuono, and the bar are comfortably high and wide, and allow for ease of maneuvering. An hour and a half carving up the mountain curves on the Aprilia was comfortable — no fatigue, no hot spots, no pain in the wrists or elbows.

It’s a technological marvel and successfully combines all the things I hate about modern motorcycles in a package that is easy to use. You have wheelie control, traction control, engine break control — the bike practically can ride itself. you can monitor it al on the full color dash, and the togle switch and controls for swapping between the modes and setting up the levels of these electronic aides is easier than I expected.

The suspension is ridiculously smart. It’s got rain, sport and track modes. I didn’t bother with the track mode; it was plenty fast in sport. It’s got an active damping control and wheelie control that I didn’t even notice, except once when getting on the highway. I had to slap the throttle to get past a car and felt the front climbing. Wheelie, for sure…except it just didn’t happen. I found the automatic suspension adjustments of the Öhlins Smart EC 2.0 completely unobtrusive, though a friend who races quite a bit said it messed with his ability to manage the bike in turns. You can, allegedly, turn it off. But for most riders, this would possibly be a life-saver.

The V4 was something Honda created and made well, but Aprilia has perfected it. The 64º 1100cc V4 punches out 180hp and 89 ft-lbs of torque and is managed with a six-speed transmission that wants you to run it long. The motor doesn’t even wake up until 6000rpm. The power delivery is smile-inducingly fast, and the bike never feels like it is straining. On a run out to the backside of the mountain, I got the bike close to the redline in sixth. I though I was doing the ton — I was doing 60mph faster than that. The bike was rock steady. On the mountain twisties at altitudes of 7000 to 10,000 feet, the bike continued to deliver quickly and effortlessly. The quick shift was very useful coming into tight switchbacks — no changing the throttle or hitting the clutch; just shift.

I did notice that bobbling around town the bike got hot and fast, but once you had any speed over about 40mph, the heat washed off quickly. 177F was typical at highway speeds, and it got up to 220F in the hot sun. Pretty standard for a sport bike in traffic. I did also note there’s a flat spot on the fueling about 4000rpm where the motor starts to lag and surge — but my friend at Motopia pointed out I “should be riding it a lot harder than that.”

So is it worth it? It was selling out the door for $26,000 or so. That’s a lotta dough, but this is a top-end race bike…and it is a lot of bike. So, yes — it’s worth every penny (and ticket). I drifted out of my sportbike phase about a decade ago, but this is one of the single best bikes I’ve ever ridden — I’m including the Panigale in this — and it is almost enough to get me back into fast bikes. It’s just simply excellent.