On with the GSXR 1000, time for a change: Aprilia RSV4

This blog post could have been called so many things. I almost called it: how I decided my next bike would be the Aprilia RSV4. Or how I sold my soul to Italy. Well, in truth, I think it's just time for a change.

A year of owning Japanese Suzuki motorbiking perfection has taught me a lot about the art of motorcycling, and perhaps just as much about my own driving / riding personality. Cheesy, I know, but a motorcycle and its rider really do develop and share a personal connection (maybe something like dogs and dog owners as I've been told, but I suppose one could argue that for weeks).

Funny how motorcycling emotion works, this is now my 3rd winter in a row here in NYC, and my 2nd with my Suzuki GSXR 1000. In fact, I just went out for a ride earlier today to celebrate the new year. What can I say? This Suzuki GSXR 1000 K7 is a rock. Predictable as the seasons. Reliable as a hammer. Sharp as a knife. Every time I go to start it, it just works. After a full day of cold weather riding, with my heated vest on high, it just starts right up 300 miles from home, awaiting my return trip. In 110 degree heat in the middle of Manhattan, with the engine temperature up near 230 degrees, it never overheats, never stalls. It just *works*. If JD Power and whoever gave awards to motorcycles, the Suzuki would get every quality, high initial build, durability, and cost of ownership award they make. The Suzuki is everything I could have wanted in a bike. It's durable, flexible, hardy, and impossible to top out.

But something has been missing. I've been riding for a full year, and now have 15,000 miles on the bike (6,500 from my cross country trip a little more than a year ago). But those 15,000 miles were a different kind of miles than the miles I put on the Buell. Ironically, they were less interesting, less fun than I thought they'd be. In fact, although I'm going to offend a lot of people saying this, I think my Buell was oddly more fun ... on a per-mile basis. That's a funny thing to say about a 98 hp Buell vs. a 160 hp GSXR 1000. The Buell was definitely not fun on the highway, it was miserable in the heat, and it was lonely when it broke down on me in Atlantic city. But the Suzuki is really like riding a cloud... sometimes you forget it's down there, since it's so smooth. Some people want that in a motorcycle, but for me, I could easily get that same emotion from a car. And I don't risk my life riding motorcycles just to have the same emotions as 4 wheelers do.

I'm torn.

On the one hand, there's the trusty, reliable, rock of a Suzuki missile down in the garage. Riding it feels like riding a scalpel. You twist the throttle and it moves instantly. ... But maybe too instantly. I'd prefer if the engineers had built in some wind up time, so I could yank the throttle, and *then* feel the engine pull. The Buell did that, and it was just so satisfying when the engine revved and puuuuuuuulled. I felt like I commanded a temperamental machine. And it was rewarding when it obeyed my command and gave back. It was a little unpredictable, and that made it have "personality."

But now that I know how important horsepower is on the streets of New York City, I don't think I can go back to a weaker bike. I can count dozens of times the GSXR's instant speed has taken me out of the path of a crazy cab driver. Having horsepower has given me another tool in the war against traffic: brakes *and* speed. And my riding style has adapted to take advantage of both of these tools. Going back to a weaker bike would mean changing my safety-oriented riding style. So my next bike needs to be:

-Powerful (more than 130 hp at the crank, since that's about what I've calculated to be the most I would have needed in my worst near-accident this last year... I'm sure I would have gotten hit if I'd been on the Buell)
-Loud with a characteristic growl (with a year of the Suzuki, I now know this is easily 20-40% of the experience)
-Torquey at low RPMs (this is what the Buell and Harley engines offer, and it makes another 30% of the experience)
-Unique (the Buell was, no questions asked, the Suzuki not so much. I now know I prefer the Suzuki)

So really it came down to four bikes that fit the mold:

-Ducati Desmosedici
-Ducati 1198S
-New VMax
-Aprilia RSV4

To summarize my thought process, it went something like this...

Ducati Desmosedici
V4 is exotic, and the reviews are great. Track riders love them, and a few New Yorkers have them and ride them on the streets. But I hate the idea of exhaust blowing straight up my back... that just sounds hot and miserable in traffic. It's a little expensive, for that money I could buy one of each of the other three bikes in my list. I can tell from the pictures that the seat is going to be uncomfortable for rides longer than 30 minutes. And I don't really like the one guy I met who rides one, he's kind of a jerk, and when he drove away, the only image in my mind was, ugh... I'd be associated with *that* guy.

Ducati 1198S
Traction control! Um where's the slipper clutch? Ok, add another $3k to the price to get one of those (I'd consider that mandatory for city riding, especially coming off FDR offramps and avoiding pedestrians on hard corners in the meatpacking district). Another 10hp puts it right in the neighborhood of the Suzuki in terms of hp, and the legendary low end torque of the v-twin would make this a great city bike that could shoot up and down the FDR and 9A at speed. But these bikes overheat and stall in the heat, and hot weather riding in the city is a part of life for me. I can't deal with a bike that stalls at the light, especially not on 3rd avenue of Lexington with the consecutive lights - the mere thought of getting stuck in an open lane by myself with traffic bearing down on me makes me cringe. People seem to feel religious about them when they own them (I bet it's because of the way I felt about the Buell). But there are so many in NYC, and every banker buys one and then resells them. They're too well known for me. I'd surely get the white color when it comes out, but that's only available on the base model - why! I went into the NYC Ducati dealership to talk about one, and the salesmen was extremely pushy, like he was used to dealing with snotty bankers from downtown. The whole USA-Ducati community just rubs me the wrong way, sorry :(

New Vmax
V4 engine, perfect! Low grunt, strong torque. Video clips sound great. But it'd be a cruiser, and I'm not ready for that. As comfortable as I'm sure it is, I can't help thinking that buying one relegates me to the all-black leather wearing crowd of mid-life crisisers. I respect them, but they're not me. Plus, I like wearing bright colored reflective leather and touring suits when I ride, so taxi's don't hit me. Wearing those on a Vmax would just look ridiculous. Probably no one would steal it if they saw it parked outside on the street, but it's heavy! Cruisers get abused by cars on the LIE and I-95, and although truckers seem to respect them, people in general just seem to detest cruisers on the highways around here. I've seen middle aged minivan moms flip out when cruisers drive up next to them, and I'm sure they're thinking, "my kids are safe around this guy... I hope he doesn't take the same exit as I will..."

Aprilia RSV4
I've been the Greece, Ireland, Spain, France, England, Germany..., and Aprilia seems to be a respected brand there for everyday riding and commuting, so they have a much better reputation for quality. Huge downside is the first year issue of the bike and worse, a brand new engine. That's a huge gamble, so I'm going to need to be sold on a respectable dealership and his service department if I go this route. I like the Italian engineering, without the Ducati attitude... I'm more laid back, and Aprilia seems to build laid back, subtly powerful bikes. The V4 engine in a sportbike is very unique, and should in theory give the best of the low-end torque, and the high-end hp. Non-inline should give it more character. Sound clips and videos of the engine make growling sounds just like the Buell, rather than the whining whiiirrrr of the Suzuki.

Ok, I also looked at: B-king (too heavy, bulky, I like fairings for day riding), KTM RC8 (not enough power), new BMW 1300's (too heavy), and a few others, but most were scratched off the list for weight, power, reliability, or price reasons.

Of course by the title of the post, you already know which bike I picked :)

Earlier today, I drove to the closest and friendliest Aprilia dealership I could find (I gave them each quick phone calls, and this one just fit my personality perfectly), and just put my deposit in. Supposedly, the very first Aprilia RSV4 Factory that comes to the New York Tristate area available for customer purchase, will be mine to buy.

And now, the wait!