Like Ducati, MotoGuzzi and Triumph, Aprilia believe that if you have a good engine why spend more time, effort and research money on a new one when you can re-tune the one you've got and place it in a different chassis. Then you have a brand new bike for a different kind of customer. Enter stage left, the Falco, Aprilia's first toe in the water of the sports touring market.

A lot of thought has gone into the Falco and it's a good example as to why the Italian factory is being hailed as the 'Honda' of Europe. Attention to detail and an urge to compete with the Japanese, whilst still having Italian flair, is the key to Aprilia's current and future success.

Aprilia Falco

The RSV is the sports bike flagship of the company but the Falco, or SL1000 to give it it's proper designation, is designed to be a whole new 1000cc's of fun, comfort and sports focus in one package. It's going to be hard for the company to convince the FireStorm and TL1000 owners that they should move away from the Japanese marques, but take one for a test ride. You will be looking for a part exchange within the first few miles, regardless of those miles being straight or twisty.

The simple fact of the matter is that the SL is less focused than the RSV, and all the better for it as it can just about match the RSV in terms of spirited road riding, but has so much more to offer too. The riding position is a little more upright, the footpegs a little more forward, the screen a little taller and the seat a little softer. All this means you can stay in the saddle for longer, but still remain in touch with exactly what the bike is getting up to.

The chassis is not that far off the mark and the easier riding position means that you can get just as much out of the bike on the road as your personal limits will allow. If you ride really hard then you will discover the limits of the tyres, Metzler MeZ3s, long before you reach the limits of the suspension. It's possible to spin the rear of the German-made rubber if you really do get it on hard and early in the corner. Not something you would want to do very often, but it just goes to show that while the opposition would be tying themselves in knots the Aprilia merely demands more from the tyres.

It may feel a little soft to you compared to a typical Italian sports bike, but the damping from the Sachs unit at the rear and the Showa forks are set up so well that the bike can cope with just about any bump and surface change, yet still remain stable even at the most spirited pace (officer!).

Getting the Falco to turn into the first part of any corner is easy. This particular Italian bird is very easy to get to change direction, despite the 190kgs it will show on a set of scales. That is all thanks to the designers making the mass of the bike as low as possible. It certainly doesn't feel anywhere near as heavy as the spec sheet shows. By now, some three miles into your test ride, you will feel comfortable enough with the handling to make a little more of the lazy, torquey, powerful V twin engine sitting snugly between the doubled up twin spar beams of the frame.

Very little has been modified internally to the engine, and in essence, it is the same lump as the RSV's, but the addition of an extra silencer and a tweak of the fuel injection map has given the twin thumper a broader spread of power. This has been at the cost of sheer, outright top end, but to be honest, the mid-range is where it's all at and over revving a V means you've missed the point anyway.

Make sure that if you are going to give your throttle hand a big twist that you are hanging on tight. Once that needle swings past 6,000rpm the front end will simply be overwhelmed by the forces of the Vee hitting it's torque band and the front wheel will no longer be in touch with terra-firma.

It's very controllable and goes to show just how much you have on hand should you need it.

The front-end antics are also due to the slightly shorter gearing the Falco has over the RSV. Again, there is a small price to pay and in this case it's top end speed, a paltry 155mph, more than enough for any Judge to throw the book at you.

Thanks to the pair of balancer shafts there is little vibration from the 60 degree Vee and there are certainly a couple of Jap Vees that are a lot, lot worse.

With good handling and a top engine, the only other area that could let the bike down would be the brakes. Aprilia have covered this area well too. The first time you have to hit them hard you will be rewarded with your eyes popping out of your skull, through the forces generated, rather than sheer terror.

Needless to say that the stoppers you will find on the Falco are every bit as good as those on more sport-oriented machines. It's just another area of the bike that makes it so user friendly.

One thing that isn't user friendly is the multi purpose digital clock. Even after reading the owners handbook it isn't exactly clear which buttons you need to push and what order to push them in to get some of the functions working, the lap timer being the most 'useful' of the lot.

Finally, if you insist on having a pillion or you have no choice in the matter, then the Aprilia is well thought out at the rear too.

The footpegs, grabrails and seat height are well positioned and you would have to be carrying someone who is in excess of 6 ft tall before you got any complaints about windblast, or any form of discomfort.

Mind you, if they were this tall you probably would be doing something else on a Sunday morning other that riding - like playing basketball…