The works Aprilia RSV1000 which Troy Corser took to third place in the 2000 World Superbike Championship was the unexpected revelation of the Y2K race season. While eventual World champion Colin Edwards' Honda VTR1000SPW arguably made even more of an impression by winning the world title in its debut year, the new Japanese V-twin was heavily tipped to sweep to success after pre-season testing. Plus, it's a Honda - whereas the unconsidered Aprilia, product of a firm that had yet to prove it could go racing successfully with anything other than a ring-ding rotary-valve two-stroke GP racer, was billed back at the start of the year as a sort of consolation ride for Corser, who won the World Superbike crown for Ducati in 1996, but was controversially ejected from the Italian factory's SBK squad at the end of last season.

Anyone who ever thought for a moment that Troy was no longer a contender, or who doubted Aprilia's ability to make four-stroke V-twins that can street-sweep the World Superbike class, has had to revise their opinions after the quiet 28-year old Aussie's five race wins and four pole positions on the 'other' Italian Job this season. Yet after Corser scored what many were ready to write off as a fortunate debut success in changeable track conditions at Phillip Island in April, then cruised to victory in both races at Misano to establish double-up dominance on Ducati's home track, there were still those prepared to insist that Aprilia were lucky to get it right on the day. They had to eat their words after watching Troy make it three wins in three races at Valencia, though - then add another victory at Laguna Seca, after cruising through from sixth place on the first lap to overhaul first race winner Noriyuki Haga's R7 Yamaha with what looked like embarassing ease. Third place in the final points table aboard the Aprilia was twice as good as the best Ducati rider could manage - the other Aussie Troy, Bayliss by name, in sixth. Revenge is sweet....

Ironically, the long-awaited chance to try out Corser's works Aprilia RSV1000 came at a sunny Valencia post-season test session in November, on the very same day I'd already just ridden the Bayliss Ducati. That meant comparisons were inevitable between the two Latin V-twin Superbikes - and very different from one another they indeed are. The Aprilia is one of those deceptive bikes which is completely different to ride than you think it will be from looking at it beforehand, and even my first impressions after riding it for a couple of slow warmup laps to heat the tyres and dial myself in, turned out to be flawed. At that point the session was redflagged after new Ducati SBK recruit Reuben Xaus obligingly binned his 996R desmoquattro (rider fortunately OK), giving me the chance to return to base and relay my initial reactions to the team.

Which were - ? Well, the Aprilia Superbike actually seems lower and more compact that the streetbike SP Mille it's derived from, and most importantly isn't nearly as wide to sit on as it appears from looking at it. The rather bulbous-looking fuel tank is actually quite well-shaped and relatively slim, providing a tucked-in but fairly spacious riding position behind the tall screen, which delivers much more aerodynamic protection in a straight line than the only fractionally narrower Ducati's more abbreviated bodywork, and you sit a lot lower aboard the Aprilia than on the desmoquattro with its taller 90-degree L-twin motor. But the 60-degree Aprilia V-twin engine seemed to want to be revved harder than its Italian mechanical compatriot, I said - it felt buzzier and not so torquey. The polite but blank looks this comment induced in the faces of team manager Fabrizio Guidotti and his pit crew should have given me a clue I was talking tosh - but then the recovery truck trundled past down pit lane carrying the remains of the Xaus Ducati scraped up off the tarmac, and it was time to head out on the track once again, to discover the error of my judgement. First impressions are not always the right ones.....

Indeed not. My next, longer session revealed that the Aprilia is in fact arguably even more flexible a racetrack friend than the Ducati, with an even flatter torque curve and almost as wide a spread of power, that invite you to cut down on gearchanging and keep up turn speed, using a higher gear everywhere than you might otherwise have chosen - something the capable chassis is happy to help you to do. Nevertheless, it's also less muscular in terms of lowdown pickup than the Ducati, so that it pays to keep the Aprilia revving above 8000 rpm in any of Valencia's tighter turns, else you do feel the bike lag coming out of the corner as the engine struggles to get back on the pipe again. The answer is to use the reassuring handling of the twin-spar alloy frame to max out turn speed, and keep the engine revving as you do so. Do that, and you only need use bottom gear at Valencia once per lap, in order to get a good drive out of the Turn 2 left-hand hairpin: everywhere else, I could hold second gear to squirt it between turns, where even on the Ducati I (and Troy Bayliss, so it wasn't just a play-racer problem!) had to keep switching back and forth between first and second. When you do that, the way the Aprilia's geared you sometimes end up using a lot of engine braking from high rpm stopping for the next turn - in which case the slipper clutch does its job really well, with no chatter from the back wheel as you slow for the next bend. The trademark click you feel through the lever from the Ducati's slipper clutch is absent on the Aprilia, though accelerating from a standstill down pit lane in what passed for a practice start, it does graunch a fair bit on take off, though not as bad as a Ducati, and take up is smoother and more controllable as you slip it off the line - it's not so all-or-nothing. So that's how Troy Corser makes those great starts from that lead position on the grid hard earnt with one of his trademark Superpole flying laps....

It's not as if the Aprilia gearchange is so awful you need to cut back on using it, though - quite the contrary, for the slightly harsh but not overly sensitive wide-open powershifter action of the race-pattern gearbox allows crisp upward changes as soon as the red light on the dash flashes on at 11,800 rpm. The soft-action revlimiter only flutters the engine when it cuts in at 12,200 rpm, but you shouldn't really encounter it unless you're trying to save yourself a couple of gearshifts, because you can feel that by then the engine has stopped pulling and power has started to flatten off. By this time, the noticeably greater engine vibration at lower revs compared to the Ducati has begun to smooth out: the 60-degree engine with one balance shaft removed does tingle more low down, and it's this which probably made me think at first the bike was a revver - it has a higher-pitched engine note thanks to the narrower cylinder angle, there's more vibration, and it's not as meaty in terms of midrange torque as the Ducati, all of which combines to make you think at first you must use the gearbox to rev it up high all the time. Only you don't have to.

Instead, you need to convince yourself to use that one gear higher, rolling back and forth on the throttle as you hold the same gear between turns. The Aprilia engine definitely picks up revs faster than the meatier-feeling Ducati, perhaps indicating a reduced flywheel mass and less internal friction - but it still pulls a second-gear wheelie quite happily when you gas it up hard in the fat part of the power band, and there's ample horsepower and torque to hold the front wheel in the air as you accelerate along the short back straight at Valencia, tapping through the gears up to fourth as the 'bars wave lazily in your hands. Nice. The Nippondenso EFI's throttle response is extremely precise and predictable, even if Troy Corser says it took a long time to dial out the jerky pickup that gave him 700-800 unwanted revs just as soon as he thought about cracking open the gas even a fraction. No trace of that, now - the Aprilia has a completely linear twistgrip response, with the famous direct throttle connection to the rear tyre that every racer dreams of enjoying, and which is surely one reason Troy always looks so smooth out on the track as the Crocodile Corser road show cruises to another Superpole or chequered flag.

However, arguably THE crucial ingredient in the Aprilia's success is the peerless handling of its GP-style race-bred twin-spar chassis. This allows you to carry lots of corner speed through almost any kind of turn - more than I can ever recall using even at my humble level on another Superbike. A key ingredient in this is the trademark Corser setup, which from racing in a class like Supermono on underpowered bikes where momentum is everything, I've already come to appreciate from riding his Ducatis in the past, with a lower rear ride height coupled with a slightly wider fork angle and more trail on the steering geometry. This delivers a bike that's super-stable in faster turns, at the cost of a little more effort needed to make it steer OK in slower ones - you need to muscle it around to change direction quickly, like in the fast Valencia chicane leading into the infield hairpin. This balanced geometry may not be to the taste of barely reformed flat-trackers like Ben Bostrom, but it does allow you to carry a high turn speed and use lots of angle - crucial elements in getting a fast lap time on anything other than a point-and-squirt motorcycle, which the Aprilia most definitely is not.

A vital factor in obtaining this of course is front tyre grip, and here not only the fat, forgiving contact patch of the Aprilia's 16.5-inch front Dunlop plays a key role, but also the way the more concentrated mass of the compact 60-degree V-twin motor delivers extra weight to the front wheel, in turn enhancing grip. The Aprilia's 54/46% frontal weight bias is much more pronounced than any L-twin Ducati could ever be, thanks to the way its crank is located 100mm closer to the front wheel than on the desmoquattro - and this pays off in the way you can crank the Mille hard over to maximise turn speed, without worrying too much about pushing the front end exiting any of what on the Aprilia are the many second gear corners at Valencia. The compliant response of the Ohlins forks helps make this possible, effectively ironing out the bumps in the second infield right-hander which upset the factory Kawasaki I was also riding that day: the Aprilia just shrugged them off, same as at the last turn before the main Pit Straight, where you sweep into the dip in the apex and the front suspension compresses just as you want to get on the gas, even after you've let off the brakes. With the same latest-spec radial-mount 320mm Brembos as most of the rest of the Superbike grid, the Aprilia has no special edge in this area - except that it's extremely stable under heavy braking, like at the end of the main straight as you back off three gears while squeezing for all you're worth for the third-gear sweeper that follows after it. The fact that the Mille doesn't move around at all when stopping hard from high speed makes it easier for someone who really needs to convince himself he hasn't gone in too deep, to choose the right line and get round OK. Phew! This could get addictive.....

No problemo for the Ohlins front end, and none either for the rear shock, once the team had fitted me a stiffer spring to stop me having to move my weight backwards down the main straight to prevent the Aprilia wobbling under power. Traction out of turns after you've dialled up wide-open power is really good: you can feel the rear tyre dig in and drive, as the Aprilia chassis makes the most of what the engine delivers, thanks also to the Ohlins' progressive rear link, and the extra grip delivered by the 70mm longer swingarm which the 60-degree motor's more compact architecture delivers, compared to the 90-degree L-twin Ducati. Side grip from the rear 16.5 Dunlop is excellent, again a key factor in getting the drive out of the turn while still cranked over which repays the momentum you've obtained by doing so, though you do have to be ready to - ooops! - pick it up hard on the exit to avoid running off the track occasionally, if you go for the high, wide and handsome Corser cornering technique, and don't quite judge your exit line correctly! But the balanced handling of the Aprilia frame is really forgiving - it makes an average rider feel good, and more importantly, lap fast. Too bad Aprilia has decided to defer by one more year the introduction of the small series of hand-built RSV1000 Superbike replicas they plan to make for sale to privateers - but when it comes in 2002, the Corser Corsa is going to provide serious competition for the equivalent Ducati in packing Superbike grids around the world, just as their reigning world champion rotary-valve 125 does for the RS125 Honda in GP racing, and their RSV250 is the machine of choice for GP privateers. And the proper power-up replica of the Edwards world champion Honda RC51/SP-1? Dream on....

To mark their first year as full-on contenders for Superbike success, Aprilia restructured their SBK operation for Y2K, giving Troy Corser the backup support every rider dreams of. "They're so professional in all they do," says Troy. "Compared to some other teams in the Superbike paddock, they work in a much more calm and ordered way. But they still have the Latin passion for racing and thirst for success, and they're really supportive of my efforts. It's a great combination, the best of both worlds." Aprilia Superbike boss Giuseppe Bernicchia agrees: "We're pushing every day in the race team and at the Aprilia factory towards championship success, because Troy Corser is absolutely a real champion, and we owe it to him to support his challenge. He is the dream rider for any team - able to win races through brave and skilful riding, but very clear and precise in his demands for improvement of the bike, which we've worked hard to modify according to his needs. He's very sensitive to setup, and capable of delivering excellent feedback - so that the successful development of the Aprilia V-twin into a championship contender is not only due to our engineers and race mechanics, but also to Troy himself, as an integral part of our R&D team. He's been the right man at the right time for Aprilia, and I hope we can deliver the world title with the Mille Superbike that he undoubtedly deserves ."

Like the singleton bike raced in '99 on a prototype basis by Peter Goddard, Troy Corser's 2000 Aprilia Superbike is based on the limited-run RSV Mille SP, of which a single batch of just 150 examples - the minimum quantity needed to homologate the model for World Superbike racing - were manufactured in 1999: no more have been built since. Compared to the volume-production RSV1000, the Mille SP is in many ways a quite different motorcycle, with a more sophisticated chassis design housing a special short-stroke version of the Aprilia 60-degree V-twin engine, which is only used on this model.

So whereas the volume-production RSV1000's Rotax-built 998cc 'otto valvole' engine with chain-driven dohc measures 97 x 67.5 mm - its torquey long-stroke architecture, compared to its 98 x 66 mm Ducati/Suzuki/Honda 90-degree V-twin rivals, tailored more towards real-world road riding - for its race-orientated Mille SP Superbike sister Aprilia has gone to the other extreme and produced a short-stroke 100 x 63.4 mm 996cc engine developed in conjunction with Cosworth in Britain, with a potential appetite for higher revs to deliver the power that wins Superbike races. Together with the bigger bore comes an increase in valve sizes, operated by the pair of chain-driven dohc race camshafts per cylinder - inlets are up from 36mm on the stock RSV1000 to 40.7mm on the SP, and exhausts from 32mm to 36.5mm, set at a flatter included valve angle of 30 degrees, compared to 32 degrees. Corser's factory Superbike always runs titanium valves fitted with single valve springs compared to the double ones used on the streetbike - all for the reduced inertia that permits higher revs. Similarly, to reduce friction the forged 12.5:1 Wiseco pistons are of a two-ring design, which Aprilia race chief Giuseppe Bernicchia says don't experience any oil blow-by problems, fear of which prevented them being adopted on the street SP. These are fitted via titanium rods to a nitrided crank, whose design can be varied from track to track to offer different engine response via an altered mass, while the lower crank-driven counterbalancer fitted to iron out the vibes of the narrow-angle V-twin engine on the street Mille is still retained on the works Superbike, although the road bike's secondary balance shaft mounted on the rear cylinder head has been jettisoned, in pursuit of a little extra power at the expense of some increased vibration.

Revised engine internals are fitted on an ongoing basis, with factory tester Alessandro Antonello the first to employ them before passing them on to his Aussie teammate, though at this stage the red and matt-black Aprilia is still a little down on power to its main rivals, making Troy's feat in turning it into a consistent race-winner all the more creditable. While Aprilia claims the street SP delivers 145 bhp at the crank at 10,700 rpm, and Goddard's prototype didn't have a lot more than that at the rear wheel last season, in the guise that Troy raced it to five race victories this season (and we tested it in at Valencia) the Aprilia produces around 165 bhp at the gearbox at 11,300 rpm, with the engine limited to 12,200 rpm - an improvement partially brought about by the twin-pipe Akrapovic exhaust system adopted for this season, and worth 5 bhp more at the top end than the '99 single pipe system. This comprises a mixture of titanium and stainless steel sections fitted with carbon cans, with the front cylinder's exhaust header intruding through the centre of the not particularly large but quite deep water radiator - the Aprilia engine must be thermodynamically quite efficient in order to produce so much power with such a relatively small single rad, though the oil cooler beneath it is quite big. But it still gives away anything up to 10 bhp to its Honda or Ducati V-twin rivals, though the exact output varies slightly from track to track, depending on the fuel injection mapping via which the team tailors the power delivery to suit each circuit. However, for the final race of the season at Brands Hatch in October, Corser raced with an Evoluzione version of the 60-degree V-twin engine revving to 12,700 rpm - heady going for a big-bore motor still employing valve springs, whose greater revs and extra top end power should be the basis for improved acceleration next season.

The Mille SP engine employs sandcast aluminium crankcases rather than the RSV1000's diecast ones, aimed at increasing strength and rigidity at the cost of a slight hike in weight which is partially offset by the magnesium side covers - while the cylinder design is a stiffer closed deck format, compared to the RSV's open deck design. However, the dry-sump engine's bottom end design is the same as on the stock Mille, with a lightweight external stainless steel oil tank low down on the left just forward of the engine, but an uprated lubrication system with a second return pump. Aprilia completely redesigned the transmission for 2000, to deliver the slipper clutch that was absent from the bike all last season when Goddard rode it. This is adjustable for the degree of slip and incorporates a conventional rear-wheel cush-drive, so is quite different from Aprilia's patented PPC pneumatic system employed on the street Mille, and is now proven to be reliable, says Bernicchia. "The slipper clutch is absolutely compulsory for a V-twin," he admits, "but though we had it under development in '99, it needed a lot of work to find the right setup and to make it reliable. I think Troy is very happy with it now - it was the improvement he wanted most to see on the bike when he signed for us." However, there's no provision for an extractable 6-speed gearbox as was first envisaged, for fear of reducing crankcase rigidity with the vertically-split engine: the race team has to open the engine to change internal ratios, a three-hour job. "I think the chance to change the gearbox like on a GP bike is an important option we must study for the future," admits Bernicchia. "For sure, because we have a problem with acceleration at the moment, we feel the absence of this more than if we had a very torquey bike - we can't close up the gearbox to get maximum drive out of important turns, and this compromises our top speed, because it takes longer to get there. Even on a V-twin, it's absolutely desirable to have this option, so although it will require the bike to be re-homologated, because it will entail a modified engine casting, this is something we must strongly consider in future." Ducati teams have been saying the same thing for years.....

The SP Superbike's Cosworth-developed cylinder heads are quite different from the stock RSV1000 design, with the larger valves necessitating a single central sparkplug instead of two, plus revised porting and a smaller combustion chamber, which incorporates Cosworth's trademark five-axis machining process to optimise turbulence and cylinder filling, aided by inlet ports which for this purpose are quite straight. However, there's a longer intake length compared to the road bike, aimed at improving torque on this shorter-stroke motor. Compared to the single injector/51mm throttle bodies used on the RSV1000 and Mille SP streetbike's Nippondenso EFI, the Aprilia Superbike runs a fuelling package homologated in accordance with SBK regulations via a 50-off customer racekit, featuring bigger 60mm throttle bodies now with twin injectors per cylinder - one in a Formula 1-type external location directly above the intake trumpet, the other positioned just after the throttle butterfly.

Chassis-wise, the Mille SP follows in the short-stroke engine's path of being tailored for racing, but in doing so breaks new ground both on the street, and for any Superbike racer. Basically, what Aprilia chassis guru Gaetano Cocco has done here is to bring the multi-adjustable chassis geometry of his World Championship-winning GP bikes to the Superbike grid: none of Aprilia's four-stroke rivals offers the opportunity to dial in such a wide choice of alternative chassis geometry. To achieve this, Cocco has produced a heavily-revised version of the RSV1000's aluminium twin-spar frame, with the V-twin engine located 5mm higher than in the stock Mille, to further compact the mass and reduce the polar moment, for more stable yet still responsive steering. But just as on Aprilia's GP two-strokes, the position of the engine within the chassis can be altered to optimise weight distribution and handling - 5mm up or down, 2mm forward or back. This for example avoids the problem that Honda had to grapple with throughout the life of the four-cylinder RC45, in having the engine essentially in the wrong place for ideal handling, but unable to alter it without building another batch of streetbikes to re-homologate the altered geometry. In addition, while 20% stiffer than the stock Mille frame for the same weight, the SP Superbike chassis has an adjustable pivot at the rear for the heavily braced twin-sided swingarm. This uses an Ohlins shock, while up front the reinforced steering head allows the fork angle to be altered one degree either side of the stock 24.2 degree rake. The adjustable triple clamps housing the 42mm Ohlins racing forks also allow trail to be varied 6mm either side of the stock 95mm setting, while at 1405 mm the stock wheelbase is quite contained for a big V-twin - though Corser's preference for different chassis geometry compared to Goddard, meant the team had to basically throw away all the settings they'd acquired in '99, and start again. "To begin with, we made constant changes in testing," says Bernicchia, "especially the swingarm pivot position and rear link. But now we alter it very little from one track to another - Troy likes a more balanced setup, with a longer swingarm, slightly wider head angle, less offset and lower rear ride height. But after we got the right setting for him in testing before Misano, we only fine-tune it for each new track."

Thanks to copious use of carbon fibre, the Aprilia presently weighs in at 166 kg. half-dry, 4kg. over the SBK minimum weight limit - "But we're getting there!" insists Bernicchia, "although we'd like to have the benefit of fitting an electric starter, like Honda - they must have worked very hard to make their bike light enough to afford this luxury! In fact, I think this is the future of Superbike racing - it should be compulsory to carry one." Thanks to the compact mass of the 60-degree motor, weight distribution is excellent by V-twin standards, with a 54/46% frontal bias which helps glue the front 16.5 inch Dunlop tyre to the track. 320mm Brembo twin discs are fitted up front, gripped by the Italian firm's latest radially-mounted four-piston calipers.

The Aprilia looks quite the most voluptuous - OK, bulbous - machine on the Superbike grid, a fact reflected in the bike's aerodynamic qualities, for the stock Mille SP is the first production streetbike to break the benchmark 0.30 Cx barrier in wind tunnel testing. "People say it looks porky, but it doesn't feel that way when you ride it, and in fact we've got it steering a little better than the narrower Ducati," says Troy Corser. "I reckon it's a visual deception caused by the colour scheme, which makes it look wider than it really is, especially at the front. And for sure you can tuck away better behind the screen than on the Duke, which probably explains why our top speed isn't so bad when you eventually get there. It's top end acceleration that's our problem, even on the Evo-bike - midrange is fine, which is why it works so good on tighter tracks. But I hope the new Evo motor will do the trick - it's got every promise of doing so."

Corser and Aprilia to put a third kind of V-twin at the head of the Superbike World Championship standings at the end of the coming season? Don't bet against it.

Troy Corser isn't a man to dwell on the past - especially when he has a bright future in front of him aboard the factory Aprilia RSV1000. After being fired from the rival Ducati factory team he'd raced for ever since he came to World Superbike in 1995, and for whom he won the world title in 1996, Corser has turned the 60-degree V-twin into a serious contender to regain the World Superbike Championship in only the Italian company's second season in four-stroke racing. Year 2000 saw Troy and the Aprilia finish third in the final points table, after stunning the SBK paddock by taking Superpole in their first-ever race together in South Africa, then scoring the first of five wins (and eight visits in total to the podium) at the next round on home ground in Australia. Some might say it was a pretty amazing own goal by Ducati to ever let him go....

Troy's also not one to bear grudges - but you can't help but get the impression when talking to the quiet, affable but so-determined 28-year old Aussie that, behind that calm exterior, he's looking for revenge on the racetrack. Make no mistake - Ducati have made an implacable opponent out of the man who won one of their eight World Superbike Championships for them in '96, came within an ace of doing so again in '98 when he led into the final round at Sugo, only to be seriously injured in a still unexplained slow-speed crash in practice, and finished third in the '99 title chase behind teammate Carl Fogarty, equal on points with Honda's Aaron Slight but knocked back one place on race wins.

The American-owned Italian firm appear to have angered Corser as much by the way in which they fired him at the end of the 1999 season in favour of Ben Bostrom, as by the sheer fact of doing so. "We'd made a verbal agreement for 2000, and they were supposed to bring the contract to the last race at Sugo for me to sign," says Troy. "But they didn't show up with it - there were the usual excuses about lawyers and so on, so then they were going to send it to me back home in Australia. But we'd shaken hands on a deal - so I'd already said no to the various approaches I'd had from other teams. Then, three weeks later, they tell me out of the blue they're hiring Bostrom instead of me - thank you, and goodbye."

"The next phone call I made was to Giuseppe Bernicchia at Aprilia - I didn't pursue any of the other approaches I'd had: Aprilia was the one I knew was going places. I'd been keeping my eye on them all season long as potential rivals, and we'd talked from time to time - not giving any secrets away to each other, just keeping abreast of things. Bernicchia said that if ever I was free he'd like me to ride the Aprilia - well, now I was. But he also said that before I signed anything, he wanted me to test the bike - so we went to Valencia in early November, where it poured with rain and I actually fell off it on the main straight after only eight laps! But that was enough to tell me the bike had a future - so I signed up to race it, and started planning for this season."

"The one thing it badly needed was a slipper clutch - you could see Peter Goddard chattering the back wheel into every turn on the '99 bike, and I told them after Valencia that was a must-do. By the time we went to Phillip Island for the first dry-weather testing they had it all ready, and it made a big difference - though the first time I rode the bike in the dry was on Peter's settings, with a steep head angle, reduced trail and high rear ride height which obviously work OK for him, but not for me. I rode straight back into the garage after just one lap and told them to put everything back to standard, so we could start over from scratch. We've changed a few things, but the bike's pretty close to stock street settings, which shows how good the design is - although I have had to change my riding style a little. I'm tending to go into corners a little harder on the Aprilia than what I used to on the Ducati, braking a bit later and carrying more corner speed, but then getting on the throttle a little earlier, too. Because there's much more weight on the front wheel of the Aprilia owing to the narrow-angle engine, you have to make quite big alterations in the steering geometry before you notice any change in behaviour on the track - it's not as hyper-sensitive to setup as the Ducati is. Also, the fact it doesn't have a single-sided swingarm means changing the gearing or adjusting the chain isn't such a big deal, because you don't have to spend ages compensating for the eccentric wheel adjuster, which throws everything else out of synch. The Aprilia is maybe more difficult to find the initial settings with at first, but once I'm going in the right direction I can establish the right setup quicker, then concentrate on finding a race tyre. But that's because we had to establish new data at every circuit - Peter's stuff from last year was so different, it was no help. That meant we just wheeled it out on Friday exactly as it finished the second race on the Sunday of the round before, and started from there. That's how I could win at Phillip Island, Misano and Valencia - all circuits we'd previously tested at, and established the right setup for. 2001 will be much easier."

"Engine-wise, top speed was the first thing - we could see we were always 10 kph down on the others. But partly that was because they put the speed traps right at the start of the braking sectors, and I wasn't stopping as hard and as late as I do now. That's because I was braking like I still had a Michelin front tyre, whereas the Dunlop has more feel and will let you go deeper into the turn. I ran Dunlops in AMA Superbike when I raced in the USA back in 1994, and although there's obviously been a huge amount of development in the six years since then, I already knew they'd let me carry a lot of corner speed once I got dialled in to using them again, and that's exactly what happened. The 16.5-inch tyres are great - there's excellent feedback from the front, and as far as the rears are concerned, I think they listen to Frankie and me, and design the tyres around our feedback - Haga more or less just goes out and rides whatever they give him! Frankie has this thing where he wants his tyre choices kept secret from other riders, but I can't see the point in that. At Misano I used a completely different rear tyre from everyone else in the first race, so after I won that of course they all put it on for the second one. But I still won that, too...!"

"The Aprilia is definitely more critical on setup than the Ducati, which is more forgiving when the tyre starts to go off. I think that's because the Aprilia's frame is more rigid - but as against that, the handling characteristics don't change depending on the engine, like they do on the Ducati. If the engine on that isn't set up quite right, it'll upset the handling because the motor's part of the chassis, whereas on the Aprilia it's bolted in the frame, which is basically exactly as Peter ran it last season. The only thing we've altered is the swingarm pivot location, which is lower and further back than before - the chain force makes a big difference to the handling, in terms of making the bike grip or slide. The whole feel is more like the 500 Yamaha I raced in GPs, than a Superbike - and that's specially true of its reaction to changes in the swingarm setup, which of course gives you another option in terms of getting the handling right that the Ducati doesn't have, because the swingarm pivots in the engine. It'll be interesting to see if they change that next year on their new bike!"

"Aprilia got the top speed sorted out OK at Hockenheim, where Antonello (Troy's factory-tester teammate, aka 'The Marcellino Lucchi of World Superbike'! - AC) passed me going 10 kph faster in a straight line - so that was the engine I raced from Misano onwards, which seemed to work OK! Throttle response was the next thing, which was very touchy when I first tarted riding it, like an off/on light-switch. This made it hard to open the throttle early in the corner, because it'd come on so strong - you'd only to open it up a tiny bit, and it'd jump 700-800 revs before you'd even thought about accelerating, which of course upset the whole bike completely. That was the most important thing they had to change, because with my style of riding where 90% of the time I'm back on the throttle while still on the brakes, it was asking for trouble. Phillip Island was a very hard race because of this, running intermediates on a damp track - but even in the dry at Sugo it was a problem, with a very snatchy pickup cranked over exiting the last chicane, trying to get a strong drive up the long hill. It started to get better at Monza, and now they've worked out what they have to do on the fuel injection mapping to eliminate this - it's fine, now. But taking so long to fix this was what stopped me winning races sooner on the bike."

"Acceleration is still a problem - the motor still lags coming out of corner if you let it drop below 8500 rpm. So if you have a first gear hairpin, like here at Valencia, where you get down to around 6500 rpm, the engine is flat on pickup till you can persuade it to start revving hard again. So you lose four or five lengths coming out of a slow turn, which is one of the reasons we're down on top speed - it just takes longer to get there. At Hockenheim I'd lose three-tenths of a second coming out of each of the chicanes of the first turn, get it back on the brakes for the next one, then lose it all over again. Even revving it right out doesn't compensate for this - but the Evo engine I used at the end of the season at Brands Hatch accelerates better and has an extra 500 rpm on top, which made a big difference."

"I'm a little surprised how stable the bike is right now - it's not moving about anywhere. On the brakes it stays dead straight, then when you get back on the throttle it steers exactly where you want it - very neutral. It's very predictable - and balanced. I think it's because of the 54% front end weight bias, so there isn't as much weight transfer front to rear when you get hard on the gas. I know I use wider lines than anyone else - but I can peel off into the bend earlier and faster than anyone, too, and the Aprilia will hold the line once I've got it in there. Even on the Ducati I did the same - I remember Carl saying to me "I don't know how you do that!" But if I went in deep, I'd end up running off the track - it's just my style, I guess."

OK - crunch time: how do the two Latin V-twins compare to each other, in the eyes of the only man to have raced them both, and to have won so many World Superbike races with each of them? "Well, yes - they're very different from one another. Because the Aprilia frame is more rigid, you've got to be a little more aggressive with it to get it into the turn. To start with, I was riding it like the Ducati, letting it find its own way into the corner, but with the Aprilia you have to hang off it a bit more and actually push it into the turn -- whereas with the Duke if you tried to do that, it won't work. Engine-wise, the Ducati is more muscular at the moment - but the Aprilia is catching up fast. 2001 should be pretty interesting!"

At the end of the day, Troy must derive a lot of satisfaction with his efforts this year in getting his own back on Ducati for the way he was treated a year ago - especially considering this led to his joining Aprilia in the first place? "The best answer to what they did, and the most satisfying way for me to deal with it, was to say nothing at all - and especially nothing bad about the team, because I was happy there, and still have friends among the mechanics. But the best way to make the management reflect if they really did the right thing is to finish in front of them on the race track - and especially to beat them in their own back yard at Misano. Winning one race there on Ducati's home circuit was already extremely satisfying - but to win two really drove the message home! I got more of a buzz out of winning there than even doing so in my own home race at Phillip Island, to give Aprilia their first World Superbike win. But the thing is, the bike's still improving - it's still got a way to go before it achieves its full potential, so things can only get even better next season. I can't wait!"

Text credit: Alan Cathcart - Photo credit: Kel Edge