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Aprilia Tuono’s naked beauty
23 July 2026
Aprilia Tuono’s naked beauty
Whilst his street fighting days are long over, if they ever started, Paul Browne is not averse to a bit of hyper naked excitement.
Aprilia’s Tuono with its V4 and all the tech toys, gives him the tingles!
There always seems to be something ‘also ran’ about the street versions of iconic superbikes.
They come from a culture where riders rebuilt crashed superbikes, without their fairings and frequently with a set of more conventional handlebars.
Because they were usually fixed in a shed and wore some scars they became known as Streetfighters. They usually had an air of lawlessness /drama /stupidity about them.
The industry saw a gap in the market and started to produce their own. Without crashing them first!
They usually came with a little less power than their siblings and never with a full fairing. Think of Ducati’s V4 Streetfighter or Yamahas MT 10 and you get the picture.
The seating position and handlebars create ergonomics that make for a more comfortable and, some would say, easier to control, motorcycle.
Naked beauty
Now there’s a new class of bike, the Hyper Naked.
For reasons too complicated to explain here, I’m riding an Aprilia Tuono 1100 Factory.
Derived from one of the best in the class, the RSV, it has a whole lot of its siblings’ styling involved, with the front profile being defined by the downforce wings.
Large wings would appear to be a European thing and even more so an Italian thing.
The engine is a thing of beauty, a 1,099cc V4 that puts out 180bhp and it’s a joy to ride.
All the toys
The Tuono is equipped with all the toys: semiactive suspension compliments of Öhlins and a PRC electronics package manages all of the electrics from the suspension to the traction control, the fuelling modes and even the steering damper.
These can all be set up manually. as well as allowing the bike to do it all for you.
As standard it has the usual riding modes – Tour, Sport and Customisable -as well as cornering ABS.
The traction control is adjustable to eight different levels.
Learner rider
The fantastic thing is that the bike ‘learns’ the roads and applies predictive and adaptive logic to the rider aids. Get off a smooth motorway and onto a well-worn R road and it’ll adjust its suite of rider aids to suit.
Then there’s the optional ‘Track Pack’.
This one has launch control and slide control as well as a race display on the TFT.
As per the stupidity referenced above our ‘spiritual state’ may not have changed, but the computer now has our back!
Pit kit
The real reason to buy the track option is the pit lane limiter. This allows the rider to hold the throttle wide open while a retarder prevents the bike from going above 60 kmph. The noise that this makes is like an angel kissing your ears.
Engine braking intervention is also adjustable to three levels, and there’s an as-standard quick shifter and even launch control on the Track Pack offering.
All of this stuff can be customised via an app and set up via a Bluetooth connection from your phone to the bike. A crash repaired 1990s Fireblade this is not!
Best of all the bike rides and feels like none of this stuff is on it.
It’s involving, it’s easy to ride fast and it looks beautiful.
Ross at Megabikes has a demo machine and I have one in my shed. You’re not getting near mine, but if you fancy a spin on his, give him a call on 01 478 4200 and make an appointment.
