The year 2009 will go down as the year that saw the demise of 250cc Grand Prix, one of motorcycle Grand Prix racing's core categories. For reasons that are as much political as anything else, the '09 Valencia GP hosted the last running of the quarter-liter two-strokes. The 250s consistently proved to be the most thrilling and hotly contested class in Grand Prix, where privateer teams actually stand a chance of beating the works riders-just look at Mattia Pasini's improbable victory in the '09 Italian GP, for example. As such, it's been a fruitful proving ground for successive generations of new talent since its inception in 1949.
Even though the company failed to overcome Honda in the chase for the last-ever 250GP World Championship, Aprilia has dominated the category in the past decade, winning 10 of the 15 championships ever since a certain Max Biaggi won the first of his four titles back in '94. That includes the title won in '08 by Marco Simoncelli for Gilera-Aprilia's partner marque in the Piaggio Group-on the eve of its 100th birthday. The lean, lanky 21-year-old Italian rode the RSA250 that's basically identical to the other factory Aprilias on the grid, apart from the name on the tank and the tricolore bodywork of main sponsor Metis, one of Italy's leading employment agencies.
The chance to join Simoncelli and the Aprilia factory race team at Mugello not only gave me an opportunity to test the Aprilia RSV4 superbike elsewhere in this issue (Simoncelli was gearing up for his wildcard World Superbike entry at the Imola round) but also to bid a fond farewell to the 250GP class by riding his then-reigning world champion Gilera RSA250. Usually I have to take a deep breath and squeeze myself onto a 250GP bike due to their usual tiny stature. Thankfully Simoncelli's tall build meant his Gilera felt perfectly tailored to my six-foot frame; I could move easily about the bike and tuck myself well away behind the pointy screen and curvaceous fairing to take full advantage of the aerodynamics down the long front straight. The handlebars are quite low, yet there's ample leverage and control, even if your arms are wrapped tightly around the Gilera's fuel tank. The footrests are positioned far back, presumably to give more room for Marco's long legs-and mine, thank you.
The analog tachometer and digital info display follow Aprilia's traditional instrument design, with the LCD indicating just two items of data. One is the coolant temperature, contained down to 130-140 degrees F on a warm 79-degree late summer day by the large carbon-shrouded radiator, and the other indicating the setting for the six-position traction control that Marco later told me he always uses. "With setting six I can spin the rear wheel sometimes, and with anything else it affects acceleration," he said "But this is a good system that really works. It made it easier to adjust to riding the Superbike."
It had been six years since I last rode an Aprilia 250, and the biggest surprise the Gilera had in store for me was its significant extra torque and midrange performance from the twin-crank rotary-valve 90-degree V-twin. The engine is a gem; purposeful yet forgiving in its power delivery, while unbelievably eager-revving. It runs crisply from low rpm, and thanks to the dual-guillotine powervalve, transitions well into the strong powerband. It pulls well from 9000 rpm upwards, coming on strong at 10,000 rpm and holding power all the way to the 13,800-rpm rev-limiter-which thanks to the Gilera's ride-by-wire throttle simply means that the bike stops accelerating. That's lower than the '03 Aprilia's 14,500-rpm rev-limiter; but the extra torque that Aprilia Corse engineers have uncovered in the meantime makes it unnecessary to reduce crankshaft life by over-revving the engine, even to avoid a couple of time-wasting gearshifts between turns.