EastBayDave
Needs a job
Posts: 2245
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posted July 06, 2003 06:59 PM
Aprilia Demo Day at "The Junction" 7/6 ride report
(wrote this up for the ZRX group; thought you guys might like to see...?)
Aprilia Demo Day at "The Junction" 7/6 ride report
Big Rich pulled into my pad in San Lorenzo on his formally totaled & now resurrected ZRX1200 (badged 1100...sneaky Rich!) ~8am & off we go for the 30 mile drone up the slab to the meeting spot. As we leave it's foggy & cold, but as we go up & over the Dublin Grade, upon crossing the top of the mountain pass, the go ole' San Francisco Fog faded away into nothingness but bright sunshine...
Down the grade, then through Dublin, Pleasanton, & Livermore, we turn off the superslab 20 minutes later to find Alan awaiting us. A quick fill up o'gas; & another CS rider friend "Mike" (I forgot your name already? Sorry...) shows up on his SV650. Off we go out of town into the mountains just Southeast of San Francisco Bay, an area known as "San Antonio Valley." It's miles of lovely twisties to "The Junction," where the local Aprilia dealer was to have "free test rides available," our excuse for going. Good reason to hit some fun twisties right?
The pace begins rather leisurely as I have not ridden w/Mike or Alan before, & a quick stop 10 miles into the twisties I check to make sure everyone's happy with the pace. I get affirmative answers from everyone, so off we go. Alan's right behind me, & I notice I can hear that Muzzy "megaphone" loud & clear even over the 103db Tsukigi, & he's behind me! Gawd-dammit man, that's one loud (sweet?) sounding mutha!
Left, right, left, right, I'm gleefully enjoying the twisties tossing the ZRX back & forth through the 238 turns (someone told me that #) it takes to get to the Junction. The temps come up a bit into the 70's & very comfortable now, the bikes happily bombing along with me, I'm one with the machine. We are a nice little formation of 4 freight-training the twisties. Ah is this what summer weekends are for or what?
The rest of the ride in is un-eventual, Toward the end of this stretch I notice Alan's a bit closer now, so I wick it up a tad, & notice a Aprilia Mille right on Rich's butt. He passes Rich, Alan, & I wave him by to not delay the faster rider. But I chase him the last couple miles into The Junction. He didn't pull away; ah I saved what, about 10 grand for the same speed bike? The Mille's a good poseur bike I guess...pretty anyways...
We pull into The Junction, & park our bikes in formation in front of the Junction. I notice a big "racer-type" semi-truck w/rear elevator & everything brightly painted Aprilia SpeedSports. A nice shining group of brand new Aprilia motorcycles are lined up & ready to go, with a small line of riders signing up. We did too, & we had to wait about an hour for the folks that got there before us before our ride, so we did an early lunch...
I choose the new Aprilia "Tuono," Rich chooses the Mille, & Alan pics the Falco. Mike (?) decided not to ride. As we finish lunch they call our names. A quick pep-talk about blah blah this & blah blah that, & don't fall down, etc. & off we go with a leader & a sweeper, with instructions not to pass the leader.
I take off on this new 1000cc V-Twin, & it's a new experience for me. Now, I've never ridden a V-Twin anything before, HD, Duc, or anything. Several twins (RD's/RZ's), but never a "big" Twin. So I'm kinda being careful at first, mainly cuz I'm on a strange bike with strange riders fore & aft. I find I'm behind some dweeb in a HD t-shirt, & he's all over the place, almost falling immediately in the first set of curves. Oh brother...squids.
After meandering through the fast section of this road (where one can go 170+, long straights connected by a few chicanes), I'm able to find I kinda like the Tuono, it seems to have good grunt (but not quite as much as the Rex), it accelerates quickly, & I even drop back a bit to get a couple gears worth of straightaway several times. It even hops the front on a hard shift 2nd to 3rd. Nice! Oops, approaching the group too fast....ahhhhh...shew.....thos brakes dey a good too!
I deliberately bang the bars w/leaned over in a 90mph kink to see if it will wobble, to check stability. Bonk, twitch. Try again, Bonk twitch. Cool...stable. I try flicking it into the next couple curves, & it steers quickly with the flat bars...nice. It feels faster steering than either of my bikes, especially the big Ninja. I find I hate the tach, it's way down low where I can't see it, there's NO red-line marked (?), & the digi-speedo is a nice touch, but it's black letters on a grey background & low to the left, again hard to see in sunlight. The odo & temp gauge ditto. Mirrors are useless unless someone's very close. Man this engine sure sounds busy, lots of mechanical noises, much louder than the big 4's I'm so used to.
We start the climb up the back side of Mt. Hamilton. The organizers are smart, & stop us before we get up into the tight switchbacks, gravel/grease/tar snakes & danger. But they pull off into a small freshly graveled turnout, on a somewhat blind fast sweeping curve/that doesn't have 50 yards vision. Hmmm....hope no one is flying by at the ton right now! I think I would have found someplace w/a little more visibility, & not a sloped hill w/fresh gravel. HD shirt guy almost falls over, & I even have to dab a few times as I'm not used to the clip-ons (as I swap rides w/Alan, switching to the Falco.) I immediately find I hate the clip-ons, they are way too low for me, & the rearsets have my heels up my ass.
Ok, we take off back the other way, this time I make sure I'm ahead of "Hardly a Motorcycle" T-shirt, & I'm in the middle of the pack. Ok, I really want to wring this thing, & my fall back strategy of last time didn't really work (I was too close to others)-so this time I'll REALLY drop back from the front group. I slow, but the guys in front take off, the guys behind are going REALLY slow (HD T-shirt), so I suddenly find a quarter-mile gap front/rear just as we reach the fast stuff. Cool!
I wring out the little Falco, noting immediately it's not as fast as the Tuono (20+hp diff. I'm told.) But it's enough to hop the tire exiting the same downhill fast kink onto a long straightaway. Enough so it hops the front tire at the ton, & does a quick BIG twitch (as if to say - "I don't like this, stop it!") I hammer it anyway wringing up near what I guess is redline in third & find myself at 123mph before I have to shut down cuz I'm catching the front group too quick. Oops...brakes again..... Grins.
I decide right there I shouldn't have swapped bikes with Alan, & I like the Tuono better cuz of its stability, flick-a-bility, & HP alone. Even if the gauges suck wind. I notice a little price sticker on the handle bar, $11,999. Geezus...I could buy 2 used Rex'es for that...I donno about these bikes.
I wanted to ride the Mille & the Futura as well, but the line is getting longer, & the wait is up to couple hours, so I decide to shoot the breeze w/Rich & Alan & split. We find there are several more Rex's have shown up, two of which I talked to. Turns out it's "Mike D" whom I've ridded with before on his CBR. I meet "Scott" (sorry man I forget your screen name) on a red Rex (slower), with some tasty mods. I see two other Rex'ers on green bikes at the other side of the lot, & they take off before I get to say hello...oh well.
At this point I'm in a hurry to get back cuz I must do a BBQ w/the kids in the afternoon, so I say bye bye to Alan & Rich, & head home. I have another nice spin thru the twisties, me & the Rex having a ball. All alone, no cars or bikes nearby, & it's a rather lonely ride out of the twisties, but we enjoy ourselves as usual.
Right as I get out of the mountains, I see someone on a Rex getting a ticket from the CHP. Bastids. The chippie hands him the ticket just as I pass, & runs for his door. Chippie cops a U-turn, & I find a long line of cars at the next intersection so lane-split up to the front...so long chippie.
I get back on the superslab & meander the 30 miles home, splitting lanes at least half of that due to returning holiday traffic. No biggie tho after a fun day; another great ride under my belt. All in all an excellent ride, & got to try some new bikes too! They do this about every 6 months; hope to see some of you next time...
if you wanna see the bikes:
http://www.aprilia.com
Dave
____________
Enjoy the ride!
02' ZRX1200
00' ZX12R sold
  
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