Starting in the cylinder heads, Aprilia has drawn from their success on the racetrack to make the combustion chambers more efficient. Enlarging the squish area between the intake and exhaust valves, allows the new engine to require only a single spark plug. Camshafts are also new, as are the valve springs, although valve sizes remain the same.

Getting fuel into the cylinders, 57mm throttle bodies, up from last year’s 51mm, get new intake ducts and a single injector per cylinder. The pressurized air-box is also said to give an extra 3% increase in power once on the move.

Electronics are managed by a new ECU that takes its information from 15 different sensors, before being passed through a CAN line (Controlled Area Network) to an auto diagnosis terminal located in the instrument panel.

The net result of all these changes is a highly responsive engine with smooth power that unlike previous Mille’s, really kicks on top. On the track with high rpms and lots of full throttle applications it is about as perfect as it could be, but on the road it does have one area of weakness.

Running down hill in a low gear at high rpms the bike feels as if it running lean or low on fuel, and getting back on the throttle the bike seems to hesitate a little. Keeping the bike in a higher gear, hence lower rpms, and using more throttle cures the problem, but is not always practical traveling down steep mountain roads.

Riding up hill with a fuller throttle on the other hand, the power delivery is so rich, sumptuous and smooth, you will think you’ve died and gone to heaven, with 5,000 rpm being the magic number. At this point in the power curve the bike feels totally relaxed, the chassis and brakes as if they are out for Sunday stroll. One word of warning though, in top gear this equates to about 160kph, so keep an eye on the speedometer.