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2000 Aprilia SL1000 Falco |
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Posted by Peter Jones
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Monday, 07 August 2000 |
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Page 2 of 2
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The Showa upside-down forks are fully adjustable but the rear Sachs shock only has adjustment for preload and rebound and does not have a remote reservoir. The swingarm is also much smaller in section than that of the Milles and is straight from pivot to axle instead of banana-shaped. Adding to the Falco's different look are twin pipes rather than the single giant canister of the Milles, and the system and canisters are stainless. And, all of the pipe connections feature spring fasteners, again, a feature derived from racing.
The front brakes are dual four-piston gold Brembos mated to 320 mm rotors and they work just fine. Part of the trick could be the four different diameters of the pistons and, of course, the Freudenberg brake lines. (We're guessing Freudenberg is Tyrolean for rubber.)
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| The clip-ons and upper triple clamp appear to be the same as the Milles and the seating position is full-sport, as hinted at earlier. A really neat feature is that the clip-ons can be adjusted and so can the steering stops, so if a rider pulls the clip-ons back, his fingers and the gas tank won't become the steering stops. The dash on the Falco also looks to be the same as that of the Milles and RS250, with all sorts of buttons and a digital display for everything except the rpms, which are analog. |
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Riding Impression
The Falco comes sans a steering damper and that is quite okay because none of us ever found ourselves in a desperate moment with the blood drained from our head, wishing for a damper. At all speeds, in all sorts of turns and road conditions, the Falco always tracked with certainty and confidence. The wheelbase and the rake are the same as Mille bikes, but the trail of the Falco is five mm more at 100 mm, which could explain the bike's stability. But it could also explain why the bike is a tad heavy steering in tight turns and in the city. |
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On mountain roads, the Falco has an initial turn-in that takes a few miles to adjust to but, once planted into a cornering attitude, the bike tracks through on any line of choice. And although it has a nice locked-in feeling in a corner, it is nothing to adjust the bike to a new line or speed, and it has very little tendency to stand up under mid-corner braking. |
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The brakes have a constant feel and take no guessing to adjust to. They maintain their touch from initial grab to hard pull and over extended and increased heat, never getting wooden, soft, or hard. It's the uniquely Brembo feel, and although it can be improved a bit with the addition of braided lines, it is a feel that should not be traded away.
The Falco's detuning from the Mille is not just for horsepower but also for torque, and so it doesn't really like to be lugged at low rpms, and maybe even less so than the Mille. At engine speeds below 3,000 rpms, the engine firings become rapping sounds like King-Kong-sized castanets, but as the spinning nears 4,000 rpms, the pops turn into the comforting powerful bellow of a big twin. And at that rpm, the bike starts to go.
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The power is mostly from six grand on up to redline, and throughout those revs, the power curve is nice and flat. The Falco's revs are more of a feature of time at a specific power than a spinning through mounting power. The rpms rise but life never gets frantic. Maybe that sort of thing isn't racy but it sure is easy on the rider.
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| Notable about the Falco, and all Aprilia's that share its engine, is the ease of shifting. Gears are always where they should be and, light or heavy footed, they tend to always come easily. Except, of course, for neutral when the bike is at a stop. |
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From the seat of the pants, the Falco does not feel slow. It might not feel exceptionally fast either, but it certainly doesn't feel slow. And, from the seat of the pants, there is very little that feels different between the Falco and the Mille. The Falco is just as certain in the turns as the Mille, and it is easy to ride the bike hard when discretion permits. Simply put, for an Italian V-twin sportbike, there is nothing lacking from the Falco and any disadvantage it has in power from the standard Mille can easily be made up |
| for with a few of your basic aftermarket parts. If I rode the Falco with my eyes closed, I could easily convince myself that I was riding a Mille while running off the road. "Light-sport" or not, the Falco is a true sportbike through and through, and it delivers all that a sportbike should. It is not a semi-naked street fighter by any stretch, but Aprilia didn't intend that to be its nature anyway. The Falco is supposed to be more in the class of the Ducati 900 Supersport and be to the Mille as the 900SS is to the 996, not as the Monster is to the 996. But in the Falco's case, you get all of the valves and all of the other cool high-tech engine parts found in the Mille, which is now out there winning poles and World Superbike races and so is increasingly cool to have in your garage. |
| For some of us, the Falco just isn't different enough from the Mille models to stand, as a bike, unique. Don't misunderstand-it is a very competent bike and it is every inch, or mille meter, qualified to call itself a sportbike, and that is exactly the problem. Aprilia already has a whole line of Mille sportbikes, so where does this thing fit in? Who knows? If a rider is looking for a Mille to ride on the street, he would be better off in many ways to go for the Falco. It's Italian, it's an Aprilia, it's a sportbike, and it costs less. The only thing damning about the Falco is that it is so damn good. "Light" or whatever, it's a sportbike and it's an Italian sportbike and it's a very good performing Italian sportbike. Unless your riding buddy is Troy Corser, no one on your block will notice that the |
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bike lacks anything from the best of all sportbikes out there. You're going to have to tell everyone yourself.
Peter Jones
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