Aprilia’s all-new Shiver 750cc V-Twin roadster is the first bike of a new line of machines meant to essentially relaunch the Italian brand on the world’s motorcycling stage. Lucky for us, the bike is coming to the U.S. and is expected to be in dealerships early this year, says Aprilia’s stateside distributor, Piaggio USA.
We’ve had a couple of chances to ride the Shiver. European Correspondent Bruno dePrato liked the smooth motor and good handling, but dissed the brakes, which are actually Taiwanese-made clones of more-expensive Brembo calipers. Associate Editor Mark Cernicky attended the North American press launch a few months ago, and was less impressed: While he liked the styling, he was underwhelmed by the moderate power and budget-oriented suspension.
There is no doubt the Shiver will face a tough market. Strikes against it are that it is heavier and more expensive (MSRP is $8999) than its standard-styled competition—the Suzuki SV650, Triumph Street Triple and Kawasaki 650 Ninja. And when compared to harder-edged sportbikes that cost a couple hundred bucks more–like the sizzling 600cc middleweights from the Big Four–it’s lacking the outright performance and fully-faired looks that American sportbike buyers desire. On the other hand, what appears at first to be just another standard-style Twin is actually a bike packed with innovative features like ride-by-wire dual-throttle-body EFI, a composite trellis-steel and cast-aluminum frame and radial-mount front brake calipers, even if they are Made in Taiwan.
Of course, this bike isn’t really aimed at pure sportbike buyers, and Aprilia isn’t looking to put the Japanese factories out of business, either. As the Italian bike-maker’s stateside sales numbers for its entire line hover around 1000 units per annum, it wouldn’t seem to be much of a problem to sell all the Shivers Aprilia decides to import. And if the goal is to incrementally grow market share here, the Shiver seems like a good product to help get that done, especially in conjunction with innovative products like the Mana that uses a similar powerplant but is equipped with a “shiftless” CVT transmission. No matter what, the Shiver represents a big new step for the Italian manufacturer.
