Aprilia Tuareg

[Eric Hall]

 

Interesting new bike from Aprilia coming (soon?). Not sure if it’s just a concept either.

 

 

 

But… 187 kg/412 lbs and 18l/4.75 gallon tank. That’s impressive.

 

Concerns over an Italian brand (durability, parts, service) but as with cars, there’s a lot of cross-pollination with engineers and such so I’m optimistic

 

Edit:  review here now from CycleWorld

Not many better suited to test this pre-production model than Justin Dawes.  He was with KTM before CycleWorld and knows his stuff like few others.  I'm impressed by the design; especially the fuel tanks not being so damn high (T700) but quite a bit down low behind the airbox.  I'd like to know the rake but I can see it's not an issue (like my Tiger 900).  Price is right and will give the T700 and 890 a lot of competition!

 

[Eric Hall]

Some negs too...  and of course tempered with the caveat that online comments tend to skew negative.  The HD Pan America comments at first were like 98% negative and now that's about 50/50.

One commenter said “top heavy” and has a point, but look at the tank as the lower part is under the seat and behind the airbox.  Better than T700.

Another says: “Only to find out Aprilia shipped bikes with known defects, recall parts are backordered, and customer bikes are sitting in purgatory. Spark plugs for the 660 have been on backorder for months, because Aprilia chose to use some proprietary BS unavailable anywhere else. Many customers who purchased an RS660 through Aprilia’s online program still haven’t received a single accessory they ordered with their bike. Even 660 oil filters are on backorder. No way in hell I’d ever own an Aprilia or any other Piaggio product.”

Another: "its crazy to hear all the problems they're having.  Their warranty process is still garbage.  I know of a couple dealers waiting on new motors with no delivery dates.  I worked for a Piaggio dealer.  They really make it hard to do your job and support the customer.  I hope they get their shit together, but I doubt it."