Pikes Peak-Winning Aprilia Tuono 1100 RSV Factory

Cruiser dashing is inalienably unsafe yet there is not any more absolute risky race on the planet than the yearly Pikes Peak Hill Climb held in Colorado since 1916, the second most established motorsports occasion in the USA after the Indy 500, and the most seasoned including bikes, up to this point.

Above 12 miles long, on grades averaging 7.2 percent in steepness, the 156-turn course wraps up the side of the monumental 14,115-feet-high pinnacle that is the tallest in the Rocky Mountains' southern range and wasn't completely asphalted until 2011. 

The race begins at a 9,000-foot rise, so it's run totally at the sort of height that has individuals gasping for breath and bikes the equivalent.

In any event, riding up the moderately tight street prompting the top on a road bicycle is an overwhelming encounter, which made me all the prouder-just as even more calmed!- to hear on June 30 this year that 36-year old Rennie Scaysbrook had, at last, accomplished his four-year desire of turning into the King of the Mountain.

He did as such by winning the current year's Pikes Peak occasion through and through on an Aprilia Tuono 1100 Factory, following three years of riding a KTM there to complete second twice, and fourth once.

Lamentably his nearest opponent for through and through triumph Carlin Dunne and a four-time past champ of the occasion was killed after mysteriously slamming at the absolute last turn onboard the Ducati manufacturing plant's model V4 Streetfighter running in the Exhibition class.

Presently do you see why I was eased to such an extent that Rennie had endured the race flawlessly? That is because the youthful Aussie has been a semi-disengaged individual from the Cathcart family as far back as he came to remain with us in England at 11 years old.

My companionship with his father, Jim, the main Aussie to race in the AMA 500cc MX Championship, just as Mike Hailwood's partner on the Great Man's arrival to street dashing in 1977/'78, prompted Rennie and I additionally turning into the best of companions, and now associates on the Cycle News masthead. In 2018, Rennie endured the sorrow of ending up second on board a KTM 1290 Super Duke R to industrial facility Ducati rider Dunne by an insignificant 0.692 seconds, breaking the 10-minute boundary for the second time in the nearest ever finish at Pikes Peak.

"That one truly stung," says Rennie, "So there wasn't any question about returning 2019 to attempt to reverse the situation. However, doing so implied exchanging brands, so I was going to begin glancing around to see who may assist when Shane Pacillo from Aprilia took me to lunch and inquired as to whether I'd be keen on doing it on a Tuono 1100 Factory!" California-based Pacillo is PR and Event Manager for Piaggio Americas, covering Latin America just as the USA and Canada, and he'd viewed the strong attention result both Ducati and KTM had acquired from progress at Pikes Peak with some jealousy.

"Aprilia's image ethos is tied in with dashing," he says, "And the American market needs as a lot of portrayal in huge occasions here in our Western side of the equator, how about we call it, as it does in Europe. So I pitched the thought of supporting Rennie to my managers here and in Italy, and they preferred the thought. He preferred it stunningly better, so now we needed to convey!" Rennie had an unmistakable thought of what he required, and that included contracting Jeremy Toye as Crew Chief.

Toye, 48, is generally viewed as one of America's best-ever open streets racers and won Pikes Peak in 2014 on his self-constructed Kawasaki.

"I needed Jeremy on board since I realized that he recognized what's required to win there," says Rennie.

"I particularly needed his contribution to the skeleton side of things, since I thought we had the KTM excessively firmly set up in 2018. So this year we went the contrary way and made the Aprilia a considerably more consistent bicycle, I figured with the smidgen less torque it has as a V4 against the V-twins, to get the thing around the corners quicker it is smarter to have more of a street bicycle feel to it." So a fresh out of the plastic new 2019-model Tuono 1100 Factory was dispatched to Toye's shop in San Diego, to be developed as a PP racer with a few sections ripped apart off an RSV4 1100 Factory.

Aprilia decided not to run its road legitimate Superbike in the race because the Heavyweight Division at Pikes Peak cooks only for creation bikes initially conveyed with a one-piece handlebar.

Else, they're just permitted to run in the Exhibition Prototype class an Open classification providing food for everything from production line models and home-fabricated specials to Superbike racers.

The Tuono's 1078cc 65-degree V4 motor was left stock, yet with the expansion of a reseller's exchange Akrapovič titanium exhaust.

After much experimentation, the group at long last chose ultra-low by and large outfitting of 15/54, contrasted with 15/42 as stock! That is the kind of designing trick riders settle on, however, Rennie had a valid justification for fitting it.

"My greatest concern was the Aprilia not having enough ground leeway," says Rennie, "Particularly with the paunch dish that we run on it. At the point when you're hungover, particularly in Boulder Park, various large undulations crunch the base of the bicycle when you go over them, so you truly need to stand it upstanding and lean off it as much as you can, to limit harm." RSV4 RF produced aluminum wheels were introduced, with the 6.00-inch back lodging a 200/60-17-inch Pirelli Diablo Superbike tire.

The more drawn out suspension settled the ground leeway issue, basically got from the way that Rennie had picked to run such delicate suspension settings on the Aprilia.

I found this for myself several months after his triumphant endeavors, when he and Shane Pacillo brought the successful Aprilia to Buttonwillow Raceway for me to test.

From riding the Tuono in Italy I could effectively well envision that Scaysbrook and Co. didn't have to stress over adjusting the engine, just on putting its wide spread of torque and hunger for fires up to the best bit of leeway.

This had at first demonstrated troublesome at Pikes Peak, as Rennie clarifies: "Even on Race mode, the throttle valves fundamentally weren't opening up as quick as I needed them to," he says.

"I'd jump on the throttle, and it just wouldn't quicken at anything as quick as I was asking it to, and it was killing us, particularly in the waist, because there, it's simply racing, and you need moment go." Aprilia attempted to help by messaging different new maps over from Italy, however for day three, the Italian manufacturing plant flew over adjustment engineer Nicola Marcato, who additionally street races in his extra time, to attempt to fix the issue.

Which he did! The suspension side was the place Toye invested most energy, initially changing Aprilia's Naked dragster into a racer by fitting Attack Performance back sets, and a SharkSkinz imitation RSV4 seat and fairing, which was then painted and enveloped by a getting Italian Tricolore shading plan by Syndicate Racing in Denver, Colorado.

"Nicola accompanied a stunt Marelli ECU!" pillars Rennie.

"He connected that on the third day of training, and it just totally changed the bicycle, inside 100 meters I resembled, 'alright, how about we go!' It gave me precisely what I was searching for. Nicola tweaked it for us straight up to the race, at that point introduced a similar guide in the stock ECU for us, since he needed to take the stunt Marelli ECU home with him. So it should be currently simply equivalent to what I hustled with." Rennie affirmed this during a bunch of investigation laps, during which he additionally mercifully scoured in the new arrangement of super-delicate Pirelli Diablo Superbike tires outfitted for my test.

Jumping on board for my first of three 20-minute sessions on the bicycle uncovered a marginally higher and more extensive riding position than the stock Tuono I'd recently been riding to re-become familiar with the circuit on, mirroring Rennie's somewhat taller stature.

Combined with the level stock handlebar that is somewhat tilted down to let you fold better behind the screen on straights, it enables you to switch the bicycle around effectively, particularly through tough maneuvers.

You don't have to hang off it to get it to direct, so wasn't as physical a ride as I was anticipating.

That is because braking hard while hungover will make the Aprilia attempt to sit up and understeer, which you should then counter with a decent pull on the handlebar while moving your body in the seat.

Only a solitary finger on the switchbacks the Aprilia off from hard-on in 6th apparatus to third, driving into Buttonwillow's first visually impaired peak turn, where the Tuono's certainty motivating taking care of let me pick the exact line nearly inch-immaculate each lap after I'd learned it by following the nearby track day specialists.

Much obliged, folks! There, regardless of the shoe grasp I'd increased greeting included motor braking in moving down to third just before climbing the short slope on a similar Race mode Rennie says he utilized for the race.

That is the place the exceptional motor braking map which Nicola Marcato dialed in truly went to the fore.

Fundamentally, from the 12,500 rpm fire up a limiter, which, on account of the short PP equipping, I was hitting twice per lap at Buttonwillow, down to 9,000 fires up the Tuono freewheels, yet from that point on down to around 4,000 rpm, there's continually expanding motor braking.

There's little hint of shakiness in any event when inclining toward the brakes, which does to be sure cause some front end plunge because of those delicate yet agreeable suspension settings, however not to the detriment of directional control.

That radiant motor is as quite a bit of a pearl in the PP-winning bicycle as I've become accustomed to it being on my different rides with it in Italy.

The V4 engine turns over conveying genuine execution as the tacho needle hits the 5,000 rpm imprint, and motor speeding up begins to get quicker.

From 7,000 rpm upwards speeding up becomes unstable it's the main word to use for it-in the Sport mode Rennie utilized for the race and with top torque conveyed at 9,000 rpm, I found that was the place the front wheel will begin to spring up sluggishly off the landing area leaving a turn in the second apparatus, making me happy I had the Öhlins controlling damper well injury up.

Rennie is more likely than not turned off the AWC/hostile to wheelie program, other than dialing the eight-arrange TC down to Level 1.

At that point hold the apparatus and at 10,000 rpm there's another portion of top-end control that will send you soaring forward as the motor heads for the fire up limiter in a manner that is genuinely fulfilling, and unquestionably sensational.

You can't resist the urge to welcome the smoothness of the splendidly dialed-in two-manner power shifter, complete with an auto-blipper for clutchless downshifts punctuated by a melodic blip from the unmistakable note of the V4 engine as you snare a lower gear.

Fourth rigging on the PP outfitting was particularly valuable at Buttonwillow, which on account of the across the board of torque I could hold for a decent piece of the infield without yielding drive.

From the start, I truly expected to compel myself to use in any event one apparatus higher than I may have done typically because of the low generally outfitting, however, the Tuono's adaptability and widespread of torque, which tops at 9,000 rpm with 89.9 lb-ft on tap, makes it considerably less significant which gear you toss at it.

It pays to fire up it directly out to the limiter because there's very more catalyst high which it pays off to get to.

The delicate suspension was just extremely recognizable under hard braking when the weight move was something to recall, however, ride quality over Buttonwillow's few knocks underlined why Rennie favored such an arrangement at Pikes Peak.

I attempted to utilize his thumb brake as proposed, and left away very intrigued best of all was utilizing it first before pressing the front brake switch.

This preloaded the back suspension before moving the weight move advances using the front brake, bringing about a progressively adjusted way to deal with turns, and eventually making it simpler to keep up turn speed.

Before the finish of my third and last session, I was beginning to get its hang.

To have proceeded! That is unfortunately not anyway the tale of the Pikes Peak-winning Aprilia, for after Carlin Dunne's lamentable passing, it's been affirmed there'll be no bike race there in 2020.

This makes it very likely that Rennie Scaysbrook might be the untouched record holder on two wheels for the course, and Aprilia an extremely noteworthy cruiser.

Piaggio flew the bicycle to Europe for the EICMA Show a month ago, since it's been a seriously long time since they won anything to gloat about! Be that as it may, it's astonishing they haven't devised a 50-off constrained release road reproduction of the Pikes Peak-winning Tuono, similarly as Ducati has reliably done after its successes there.

Many accept the road Tuono 1100 Factory is the best certifiable street bicycle that cash can by and by purchase.

Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 RSV4 Factory Pikes Peak Racer Specifications:

Engine:Water-cooled, DOHC, 65-degree, V4, 4-stroke, 4 valves per cylinder, modular gear/chain camshaft drive

Bore x Stroke:81 x 52.3mm

Capacity:1078cc

Output:175 bhp/129 kW at 11,000 rpm (at sea level, at the rear wheel)

Compression ratio:15:1

Fuel/ignition system:Electronic fuel injection and engine management system, with Aprilia Racing/Magneti Marelli APX2 ECU, 4 x 48mm Weber-Marelli throttle bodies, single injector ea., plus Power Commander

Transmission:6-speed extractable cassette-type with straight-cut primary gears

Clutch:Multiplate oil-bath ramp-type slipper clutch, cable operation

Chassis:Twin-spar aluminum frame with vertically adjustable engine location

Front Suspension:Fully adjustable 43mm Öhlins NIX30 inverted telescopic fork

Rear Suspension:Twin-sided aluminum swingarm with fully adjustable Öhlins TTX36 monoshock and progressive rate link

Front Brake:2 x 330mm Brembo floating stainless steel discs with radially-mounted 4-piston Brembo M50 Monoblock calipers, radial master cylinder and metal braided brake lines (Bosch ABS disconnected)

Rear Brake:1 x 220mm Brembo steel disc with floating Brembo 2-piston caliper, thumb operation

Front Wheel:120/75R420 Pirelli Diablo Superbike, 3.50 in. Aprilia RSV4 RF forged aluminum wheel

Rear Rear:200/60-17 Pirelli Diablo Superbike, 6.00 in. Aprilia RSV4 RF forged aluminum wheel

Seat height:33.0 in.

Rake/trail:24.7 degrees/3.92 in.

Wheelbase:57.0 in.

Weigh (no fuel):374 lbs.