Aprilia's Expansion Plans

Aprilia's expansion plans

LETTER FROM Europe

Next to Cagiva, Aprilia is perhaps the most exciting motorcycle company to watch in Italy, if not in the world. But while there is much to rejoice over at the small Italian factory—it now leads the key 350cc category, for example, in overall sales with its single-cylinder, Rotax-powered Tuareg trail bike—there are some problems. The biggest is that the company is uneasy with its reliance solely upon Rotax for engines. Indeed, when you consider that all Aprilia motorcycles are fitted with power units designed and built by Rotax, and that Aprilia produced 28,000 two-wheelers last year, you can understand the concern about the dependence upon Rotax.

That will change, however, as the relationship between the two companies alters dramatically in the next two years. With an in-house design team headed by 33-year-old Dutch engineer Dolf Van der Woude, Aprilia boss Ivano Beggio plans to design and develop his own engines before handing them over to Rotax for mass-production.

Though plans to enter the large-capacity bike market with a 750/1000cc V-Twin have been set aside for the time being, Aprilia is still developing its own four-stroke engine line. The first manifestation will be a 600cc, dohc, four-valve Single, probably liquid-cooled and available later this year.

At the same time, Van der Woude is working on a new 250cc two-stroke V-Twin engine with reedvalve induction to be used in the Aprilia factory GP bikes in 1988. Beggio hopes the V-Twin will bring the ambitious Italian factory the GP success it’s seemed on the brink of achieving for the past two seasons. But more to the point, Beggio intends to sell a consumer version of the 250cc GP racebike, and to offer a street-legal version of the machine, available in both 250cc and 350cc. “Then,” says the cautious but successful Aprilia boss, “it’ll be time to think about that large-capacity V-Twin.”

In the meantime, Aprilia has already taken on and beaten the Japanese at becoming the first company to offer a production street model with single-sided swingarm and centrally-located rear disc brake. Yes, Honda did launch its soequipped VFR400 model earlier this year; but by the time it did so, Aprilia had supplies of its 125cc Project 108 two-stroke roadster with ELF-type rear end in the shops for almost a month.

Alan Cathcart