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2000 Aprilia SL1000 Falco

Posted by Peter Jones

Monday, 07 August 2000

Page 1 of 2

Aprilia SL 1000 Falco

A Mille Lite?

Parts Impression

"What the hell is an Aprilia Falco?" is what I wondered when I first saw the bike. It isn't enough different from the Aprilia Mille not to be a sportbike, yet it doesn't have bars high enough to be in the same class as, say, the Triumph Speedtriple. According to Aprilia, the Falco is a "light-sports" bike designed for those, "…who identify with the pleasure of a sporty but not extreme ride." I guess that means it's a diet Mille. Same great taste…or something.

The SL 1000 Falco has an absolutely, completely different chassis from the Mille line of Aprilia's superbikes and, where the Milles hide theirs, the Falco makes every effort to show the frame off. The fairing is only a three-quarter unit, and except for shrouding the ram air intake ports, the fairing is carefully cropped to keep from covering any of the frame. But since it has a full upper, ram air intakes, triple headlights, and a low screen, from head-on the bike looks full-sports. But that's just from head on.

Around back, the Falco looks…different from the Mille and different from everything else. Those who, for some reason, don't like what is to me the nicest part of the Mille's design-its tailsection-might be very happy for this stark difference. That, or just as confused. I choose the word confused because that's the only way to describe those whose taste doesn't agree with mine.

Anyway, the tailsection on the Falco is cut sort and the passenger handrails and taillight are each more of a separate unit bolted on behind the tailsection than part of it. Its look is kind of funky for the first few seconds but it grows on you quickly. Also of important note is that the handrails-which are some of the most unobtrusive and nicest looking in the business-are removable with an allen wrench and the result is a cleaner-looking tail.

But the most interesting detail out back is the rear fender, which is just a short thing hanging by two small outer brackets and one center-mounted airfoil-like thing that hides the wiring for the license plate and taillights. The look is airplaneish and definitely sporty, light or not. The bottom side of the tailsection is fully enclosed, again giving it a sportbike or racebike look.

The tailsection also features a rear cowl cover or passenger pad, the second of which we haven't actually seen since we tend to forget to ever take passengers with us. But knowing where the pad goes and seeing where the passenger pegs are it is easy to guess that people will enjoy riding on the back of this bike about 3% more than riding on the back of a Mille. The color of the Falco we tested is unlike that of any other bike on the market and is a sort of burnt-orange-cranberry-metallic that gets everyone to go, "Ooh," when they see it.

The Falco's engine is somewhat in view, which should appeal to the older sportbike guys because it's the way superbikes used to be back when men were men and bikes were ridden by only the menliest of men. Much work had to be done for this to be possible because the Milles have lots of unaesthetic parts hidden under their fairings, like the water reservoir and coils and such. Some of this work is successful and some isn't. The engine, of course, is a dry sump and the external oil sump on the Falco is located on the left forward side of the engine and underneath it. On the left side, the sump looks all normal and incorporated into the bike's design, but from the right side, only a rather funny-looking tin sack can be seen just sort of inexplicably floating under the engine like some kind of disembodied goiter.

The frame also has a race-bike-style rear subframe that is a bolt-on unit rather than welded in place. And too, the swingarm comes equipped with racestand pins to facilitate rear wheel removal.

The Aprilia Falco is powered by a de-tuned version of the Aprilia Mille's 60-degree V-twin engine and the only real hard difference we could determine was the compression ratio, which is lower and thus results in lower horsepower and torque numbers. Different pistons, cams, and cam timing each can alter a compression ratio as can leaking valves and bad rings, but we're really doubtful that the latter was the course Aprilia chose for the lowered compression. Cams of less lift and duration are the usual route for lower compression from what a full-sporting brother might have, because doing so tends to result in the additional benefit of extended engine life; radical performance does eventually get tiring to little pieces.

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