2002 Aprilia Etv 1000 Caponord Touring on 2040-motos

Aprilia Other tech info

Type:Touring Phone:8886896050

Moto blog

Death of a sailsman

Former Apple head honcho Steve Jobs liked his bikes, so when he fancied a great big yacht, it's probably not too surprising he asked French design guru Philippe Starck to pen it. You may recall that Starck, who has designed everything from juicers to hotels, also drew up the Aprilia 6.5 Moto (pictured, right) back in the 90s - a motorcycle whose main achievement has been polarising opinion ever since. (You say minimalist icon, I say F650 wearing a blanket. An orange blanket.) Anyway, when Jobs met Starck, minimal, yacht-shaped sparks evidently flew and the result - after six years of hard work at Dutch builders Feadship and Mr Jobs' passing into the Great Docking Port in the Sky - is this sleek, 80-metre superyacht named Venus. The interiors that are all flat teak decks and walls of glass, with a bridge sporting an array of iMacs.

Bahrain track days

A few months ago, expat (and ex racer) John Beddall made contact to ask if I fancied doing some track day instruction out in Bahrain.  After thinking about it for two seconds, flights were booked and a plan was put in place to look after around forty riders for a day at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).  Young Taylor Mac was also recruited to look after any tasty riders that I couldn’t deal with   The Brits out there love their bikes, however, quite a few locals also turned up plus a few others from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.  Most were on high end Superbikes, like S1000s, Panigales and RSV4s but there was also a healthy number R6s and new 675Rs.   Although this fabulous Hermann Tilke designed circuit is around ten years old incredibly it has never hosted a bike race.  The highlight of the year there is F1 but being owned by the Bahrainian Royal family, there is no desperate need for the circuit to operate as a profitable business.  The track reminded me of Qatar but much more interesting as some great undulations have been built into its desert location. We shared the track with Supercars on the day (20mins on/20mins off) and as you might imagine it was betty swollocks for seven hours in the 30 plus temperatures.  As usual there was a few offs with poor old RS1000 Aprilia mounted Andy breaking his femur early in the day.  Two other buddies appeared to swap bikes mid air in another incident but fortunately escaped unhurt.In the evening everyone stayed for an al fresco dinner in the paddock with the craic going on for hours as the Fosters kept flowing.   All in all it was a brilliant trip and it has left me thinking there could be cost effective ways of getting Brits out there for track days next winter.  I'll keep you posted.Cape Town next to make my racing comeback at the Killarney 8 hour on a CBR150 Honda.  Hopefully I can manage the beast, I'll post a full report next week.

Piaggio Reports Q1 2013 Results

The Piaggio Group reported an 11.6% drop in net sales for the first quarter of 2013, the result of a struggling economy and unseasonably cold weather in Europe and a flatlining two-wheeler market in Vietnam. There was however some good news in North America, Vespa sales in India and a 27.8% increase in Moto Guzzi sales. According to the company’s first quarter report, Piaggio reported net sales of 303.4 million euros (US$396.8 million), down from net sales of 343.1 million euros reported the same quarter of 2012.