The collapse of Italy’s scooter market in 2001 nearly spelled doom for Aprilia, however. The drop in cash flow coupled with the debt incurred by the company’s rapid expansion forced company president Ivano Beggio to sell Aprilia to rival scooter manufacturer Piaggio in 2004. Piaggio management dismissed the idea of having to purchase complete engines from an outside contractor, and immediately put plans in motion for a new V-twin engine that would be designed and built completely in-house.

The Dorsoduro 1200 is the first Aprilia to utilize this latest powerplant, which owes nothing to the Mana 850 (“Mistaken Identity”, April 2009) or Dorsoduro 750 (“Urban Brawlers”, September 2009) V-twin engines designed and built by Piaggio that came before it. Our European correspondent Alan Cathcart gave us his impression of the new Dorsoduro 1200 in the April 2011 issue (“Maxi-Motard”), but this time we had the chance to try out the U.S. version on our own roads.

All-New Engine
Although the 1200 engine looks outwardly very similar to the Dorsoduro 750 mill, the only thing they share is the DOHC 90-degree V-twin basic architecture. The engine was designed by Federico Martini, head of Powertrain Engineering at Piaggio and a man with an illustrious resume that includes stints at Ducati, Bimota, and Gilera. “I was determined to make sure that the 1200 was designed properly, so we started with a clean drawing board to create it,” said Martini.

Motard Madness
The Dorsoduro 1200’s tall 34.3-inch seat height is normal for supermoto-style machines, so it’s a bit of climb into the saddle that’s thankfully narrow in the midsection to offer both ease of getting your feet on the ground at a stop and a small, agile feel to a motorcycle that is actually quite large by supermoto standards. The Aprilia thankfully keeps the standard analog tach/LCD info panel dashboard found on all of the company’s machines for easy and quick recognition of various vital numbers, instead of bowing to styling trends with a barely readable all-LCD instrument panel. The same could be said of the mirrors, which actually show a decent rearward view despite the images getting a little fuzzy at highway cruising rpm.

Overall ergos are standard supermoto fare, with the wide aluminum handlebar setting your torso in an upright position, and the long, flat seat offering plenty of room to scoot back for taller riders. There’s also plenty of legroom, and the serrated footpegs have thick rubber vibration pads that can be removed for those looking to take the Dorsoduro’s styling in a more serious intent.

In fact, that acceleration is partly due to its accessibility from nearly any point in the Dorsoduro’s powerband. The 1197cc V-twin has an impressively wide and flat torque curve, and coupled with its fairly quick-revving nature, provides healthy acceleration at any twist of the throttle. Passing highway traffic is ridiculously easy, with the moderately tall gearing meaning you’re not screaming the engine to run at those speeds. Granted, the 114-horsepower peak is nothing to write home about, and quite frankly we were expecting a little more from such an oversquare engine; but again, outright top-end power was not in the Dorsoduro’s design brief, and the powerplant’s beefy torque curve easily provides more than adequate steam for its intended purpose.

Suspension action from the fully adjustable Sachs components front and rear was more than up to anything the Dorsoduro could dish out on the road, providing good wheel and chassis control despite offering more than six inches of travel on both ends. The 43mm inverted fork utilizes the latest trend of separating the rebound and compression damping circuits into one fork leg, with rebound on the left and compression on the right. We also like the easy accessibility of the rebound and compression damping adjusters (and spring preload) on the rear shock, which is offset to the right to provide clearance for the rear cylinder’s exhaust header.

The Aprilia can generate some serious speed down a canyon road, so the braking system is equipped to handle the task. Standard Brembo four-piston calipers may lack the flash of the increasingly common monobloc items found on other bikes, but combined with the 320mm discs, provide more than enough stopping power, with excellent feel and modulation. The Dorsoduro’s front Brembos tread that elusive fine line between aggressive response and power to provide superb stopping capability, without being overly responsive enough to overpower the front tire or suspension without provocation. Because of its more upright ergos and different weight distribution than a sportbike, the rear brake plays more of a role in stopping, and here the 240mm disc/single-piston caliper also provide excellent feel and modulation.

Practical? No. Fun? Yes!
Supermoto-style machines like the Dorsoduro 1200 have a unique appeal. They’re definitely not for the masses — and especially the masses in the U.S., who usually need their motorcycles to fill multiple roles, including traveling distances longer than 130 miles. While the supermoto craze undoubtedly made its mark in Europe, it’s never really caught on in America, despite the best efforts of the sport’s enthusiasts. But there’s no denying that supermoto bikes are an absolute blast to ride, and the Aprilia provides much more fun than most bikes of this genre. Is it enough fun to justify its limited riding scope and $12K asking price? A lot of that depends on you and your needs. After the smiles it left on our faces, we’d like to hope so. sr

Opinions

Eric Nugent
Note to self: Don’t ride any other supermoto bike after riding the Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200. When Kento told me I would be riding the Dorsoduro, I thought “Great, a twitchy, high-strung supermoto bike on steroids. That sounds fun — not.” Walking up to the bike, it’s clear it’s big. Once you’re riding, that’s not quite as noticeable; what is noticeable is that this is not your typical supermoto. On the highway, the bike was amazingly stable; I wasn’t fighting to keep the thing in my own lane. The gearing is great as I didn’t feel like I was sitting on a screaming grenade ready to blow at any minute; actually, it was smooth and fairly comfortable. One thing the bike definitely doesn’t lack is power! This bike was a blast to ride, canyon roads, highway — it does it all. The ergos are great too. The only real downside I could come up with was its price tag of almost 12K.

Bradley Adams
It’s amazing the array of bikes I have had the opportunity to ride in the past few months. The list includes everything from 170-horsepower superbikes to sub-100-horsepower naked bikes. And finally, I had my first opportunity to throw a leg over a supermoto bike, the Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200. The Aprilia was just about as much fun as I expected it to be, too. In the canyons, the V-twin engine has plenty of power and enough torque that you can get lazy with the shift lever. The seating position was at first hard to get used to, and the bike seems to carry its weight pretty high, but it still handled well, with the bars providing enough leverage to get the thing steered quickly. Match that with the potent Brembo brakes and you have yourself quite a fun motorcycle.

Kent Kunitsugu
There’s no doubt the Dorsoduro 1200 has the power that supermoto bikes have needed from the start to make them anywhere near a viable choice in the U.S. Ducati’s Hypermotard had the right idea, but the air-cooled two-valve engine didn’t quite have the upper-end steam to win me over. The Aprilia has good power on tap everywhere, enough to nearly do a 10-second quarter-mile. What I didn’t like was the Dorsoduro 1200’s size and heft. A 60-inch wheelbase helps with stability, but the steering already has tons of trail for that. And even though you don’t feel it much, 487 pounds is way too heavy for any real sportbike, much less a supermoto machine. Imagine how the Aprilia would fly if it lost at least 40 pounds?