Yahoo Autos Superbike Tech Brought to a Middleweight
These middleweight street bikes get a host of superbike technology, including most of the electronics you'd find on the Aprilia Tuono V4 superbike.
Aprilia Tuono 660 may be the best, highest-tech example in this growing class.
Prices start at $10,499. They're on the boats now.
You may know the Aprilia Tuono V4, an 1100-cc superbike considered one of the most hypersporty in its class. The V4RR 1100 makes 175 hp and the RSV4 makes 217 screaming horsepower. Of course, you pay for that power, $18,999 for a Tuono V4 Factory 1100 and up to $25,499 for an RSV4 Factory 1100. If you have a good place to ride it, one of those would be money well spent.
For half that price, or $10,499, you can get the Aprilia Tuono 660, with just the front two cylinders of the V4 and a still-hearty 100 hp on a bike that weighs just 403 pounds soaking wet. Aprilia calls it “a true thrill-generator.”
“Tuono 660 is the direct descendant of the Tuono V4, from which it has inherited all the qualities that are so popular with the public and critics,” Aprilia says. “For the first time in its illustrious history, the character and values that have made the majestic Tuono V4 famous are now also available in a medium-engine bike, thereby giving a broader audience the chance to ride an extraordinary bike.”
The new Tuono 660 is an excellent step up from any number of 300-cc entry-level street bikes on your way to an RSV4, and not just because it looks very close to its more powerful big brother. The Tuono 660 may have only half the cylinders but it gets almost all of the electronics of the top-of-the-line motorcycle.
You may recall when electronic fuel injection started replacing carburetors and when ABS arrived, first on cars like the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7-Series, and some Cadillacs and Lincolns. The same progression occurred with air bags, traction control, and stability control. Now every car sold in America has ABS and almost every car sold here has almost all those other electronic aids. The same technology trickle-down is happening in motorcycles. It took a while for the actual electronics box that houses all those circuits to get small enough and affordable enough to fit on a bike, but the transition is well on its way and the Aprilia Tuono 660 is the best example of it.
With a Bosch IMU, or Intertial Measuring Unit, acting like a kind of gyroscopic brain to know how close to the edge you are riding, the Tuono 660 offers customizable traction control, engine braking management, wheelie control, and ABS. It’s currently offered as a $200 option on the 660. (You can get the quick-shifter feature on the six-speed transmission for another $200.)
