Street Legal

The Aprilia RSV4 RF is a street legal bike that is scarily close to its SBK avatar. We experienced a fraction of what it’s capable of at the Kari Motor Speedway, and it left us grinning from ear-to-ear.

- Arup Das

Ever since the Aprilia RSV4’s debut in 2009, it’s won three rider and four manufacturer titles in the World Superbike championships. After tasting success for six years, the Noale-based company decided to make this mean machine into one of the most advanced track oriented motorcycles on the planet. We got our hands on the RSV4 RF version at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. No pressure right? The catch wasn’t that I would be riding it on track. No, it was that I’d be riding this 1-litre super bike, with 198 ponies raring to take off, on a tight 2.1-kilometre circuit. Well, as the saying goes, ‘Fortune favours the brave.’ So I decided not to think about the track’s limitation, and suit up instead. After all, I couldn’t wait to find out what this new RSV4 RF was actually capable of.