All Tests – SRV 850 Test: Aprilia also has its Hyperscooter! – Scooters prefer big ones?

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SRV 850 test: Aprilia also has its Hyperscooter !

All Tests - SRV 850 Test: Aprilia also has its Hyperscooter! - Scooters prefer big ones?

With its 76 hp vario and its RSV4 boil, the Aprilia SRV 850 has no shortage of arguments to appeal to fans of punchy maxi-scooters! Is this Gilera GP800 clone a real Hyperscooter? Site went to test it in Tuscany… Test !

Scooters prefer big ones ?

Would 2012 be the year of maxi-scooters? Yamaha opened hostilities with its new, Honda responded with its new, then BMW unsheathed its very ambitious and !

Piaggio, the leading manufacturer of two-wheelers in Europe, could not miss this trend. Especially since the Italian group is "the" specialist in two and especially three-wheelers urban, with its essential MP3! But rather than working on a brand new model, the Pontedera blazon preferred a more economical approach by declining its famous in the colors of another of its brands: Aprilia.

Baptized SRV850, the Hyperscooter of Noale’s crest is – with a few details – technically identical to its "cousin" from Gilera. Aprilia is equipped with the same engine (a 90 ° v-twin whose injection has been slightly reworked), the same double tubular steel cradle chassis and the same peripherals. Thus, the flattering Brembo calipers clamping 300 mm discs are renewed as is, as is the mono-shock absorber placed horizontally and the transmission by variator coupled to a chain..

Although it adopts a shortened travel of 13 mm (122 mm on the SRV, 135 on the GP800) and settings revised for the benefit "control, braking and stability", assures Aprilia, the fork of 41 mm is identical to that of Gilera. Despite the enthusiastic speeches of the marketing managers of the crest of Noale, this SRV 850 is thus not frankly speaking a real" novelty ". !

In reality, it is added to the list of platform exchanges set up between the brands of the Piaggio group, like the Gilera Nexus 125 and 300 which became SR Max 125 and 300 at Aprilia, or the GPR 125 declined in RS4 last year (read in particular our). Or how to make new with old at a lower cost !

That of the mouth ?

Aesthetically, the SRV 850 already shows its differences more clearly from the GP800, without, however, distinguishing itself from the rest of the Piaggio production on a stylistic level. Obviously, Aprilia designers did not look far for their source of inspiration. !

The very chiseled LED rear light refers directly to the Dorsoduro 1200, while the front face advantageously swaps the wise lines of the Gilera against the billhook-cut features of the RSV4, the sulphurous Superbike of Aprilia (read in particular our).

Admittedly, the result is successful and smells much more of the "racing spirit" than on the Gilera, whose somewhat consensual look does not necessarily honor its status as the most powerful scooter in the world. But nothing says that owners of RSV4 appreciate this link between their super (be) sport and a scooter, just as maxi as it is….

Unfortunately for them, Aprilia seems to take a liking to the maneuver since the lines of the small and the future are also modeled on those of the RSV4. Well, it’s true that the millstone at Biaggi is magnificent, but all the same !

Still, the dual superimposed optics of the GP800 gives way to a row of three headlights identical to those of the RSV4, while the turn signals migrate to mirrors also stolen from the Italian sportswoman. A beneficial graft for the look, but much less happy in practical terms: the dimension of the mirrors of the SRV850 turns out to be a little tight to properly reflect what is happening behind.

Not to mention that in the event of "hanging up" in town – for example, during a re-entry where the lack of warning will be criticized! -, the cost of the breakage will include not only that of the rearview mirror but also of the turn signal … Fortunately, these easily adjustable – and foldable – appendages go above most of the mirrors of the cars.

To reinforce the sportiness of the SRV850, Aprilia decided to dispense with the electric windshield present on the Gilera GP800. Now non-adjustable and smoked, the element retained is insufficiently cut to offer protection worthy of the name: the upper half of the helmet is directly exposed to the elements, as is the end of the shoulders. Suffice to say that it does mean, especially for a maxi-scooter of this size…

"The abandonment of the electrical system allows us to strengthen the sporting identity of the SRV850 and especially to gain about 1.5 kg compared to the Gilera", consoles us Umberto Basso, marketing and product manager for Aprilia motorcycle. A" weight "argument precisely, for this scooter with a (hyper) sporting vocation which accuses the trifle of 249 kg dry !

That is exactly the same weight as the Gilera GP800 …. So where did that famous kilo and a half nibbled on the bubble go? Lost in one of these "gray areas" which sometimes surround the technical data communicated by the Noale coat of arms, like the Dorsoduro 1200 which went from 195 kg dry at the end of 2010 to 211 kg – still at dry! – in 2012 (read our) ?

In reality, no, the Italians did not take us for "six week scooter riders": this lack of difference is explained in particular by the use of a larger tank on the SRV850 (18.5 liters against 16 on the GP800). In addition, some fairing elements are certainly heavier like the triple optics or the more generously sized grab handles..

Easier to grasp with thick gloves, these practical handles are placed on either side of the passenger seat made – like the pilot seat – from new materials "high tech"Says the head of the SRV850 project. A priori good news, even if the exact nature of these famous components has not been communicated to us….

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