| | | | Road Test : Aprilia SL750 Shiver - Shiver in the morning! |  Written: 30/05/2007 : 16:19. Read 13342 times (39/day). | | The integrality of this filed article is for Premium Members. | At a 2000 year old Castle in Italy the sound of horse’s hooves is replaced by a throaty rumble from a V-twin. The old horse wagons stand ready for a different type of transport. Knights in armour are replaced by men in leather and it makes the peasants shiver. We’re ready to ride, Shiver in the morning!
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The front wheel lifts slightly as I descend from the mountain where Castle Brando sits. The new SL750 makes all the right noises that escape through a beautifully designed underseat exhaust. Should even make old Count Brandolini’s haunted ghost’s timbers shiver!
The Aprilia test rider that I am following knows these mountains like the back of his pocket and the pace is urgent straight away. We ride through some fast sweeping corners, through a couple of villages and then up one of the many mountains North of Venice. This is where we will test the Shiver for a day and a half.
Aprilia have long wanted to fill the big gap in the model line-up between their 125’s and 1000cc motorcycles. Aprilia have been one of very few manufacturers without a real alternative for beginners. This is the reason why the SL750 was designed. The SL750 Shiver enters one of the most competitive parts of the motorcycle market. The competition includes Honda’s Hornet, Yamaha FZ6, Suzuki GSR600, Kawasaki Z750, Ducati S2R Monster and BMW F800S. All very competitive on price, but Aprilia have just upped the ante with some high tech features previously not seen in this segment. An all new Ride-by-wire controlled 95bhp twin engine, USD fork and radial callipers usually belongs to far more expensive motorcycles. Aprilia themselves admit that none of these features are needed on an entry level naked, but they are there anyway at the same price as most of the competition-So more value for money from Aprilia.
The SL750 Shiver is all new from top to toe. The V90 750 is Aprilia’s first big displacement engine built in house. The last big engine project was the 4.5 and 5.5 twins built for offroad and supermotard racing. The new SL750 has not been built for racing though; it is a pure street project with a big emphasis on torque. The RBW system completely controls the delivery of torque down to the air mixture. Traditionally the ECU would only control injection and ignition. When opening the throttle fully the system will provide all torque available at the given engine speed without delay. The Aprilia engineers told us that the double engine mapping syst ...
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