THREE ON THE TRACK

THREE MATES GO into a pub…no, no I’ll cut the jokes ‘cause I’m crap at them. I recently had the opportunity, courtesy of Aprilia to ride three of their very potent weapons out at Sydney Motorsport Park – the Tuono 1100 RF, RSV4 RF (imitation W) and the bike I had been riding for the couple of weeks previously on the road, the base model RSV4 RR.

The Tuono RF is the upspec version with Ohlins suspension; otherwise it is basically (other from a few other tuning differences) the same as the RSV4 sports bike, justout of turn 5 up the back hill and especially over the rise onto the front straight with the front wheel heading skyward. I did adjust the suspension slightly for somewhat sharper turn in by adjusting the rear preload and rebound and only adjusting the rebound on the front. This is easily done with the fully adjustable Ohlins front and rear. The others who rode the same bike on the day loved the differences I’d made.