 | |
|
Hello i'm beside-me brady with overland journal and expedition portal and i am here in beautiful and very rainy sardinia italy we're here to test the new aprilia 660 tour egg now it's been a long time since aprilia had an adventure bike we actually had a capanoid rally for a period of time but this is the first in a long time of an off-road capable adventure bike from this italian brand and that's because this mid-weight adventure motorcycle class is booming and for good reason it's actually some of the best motorcycles that we have on the market today where it pairs the off-road capability of the smaller dirt bikes the 250s the 450s the 650s that we've used in years past with the technology and comfort.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
Long-distance touring capabilities of the larger leader and larger bikes so for example a 1200 bmw so you pair those two things together and you end up with these mid-weight touring bikes now this is not just an adventure travel bike it's also a great bike on the dirt and that's because it has a very soft suspension with 240 millimeters of travel so a great deal of rider comfort and rider confidence when you're on the dirt but what makes this great for overland travel let's start from the front of the bike.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
And go to the back up at the very front we have a 21 inch front wheel which greatly improves dirt performance and allows the fitment of a standard diameter tire which we can find much more easily in the places that we travel around the world we've also got a large upright windscreen that provides a great deal of wind protection.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
It also has a large tft screen for daylight readability and a lot of information quickly at hand when we move a little bit further back we've got great mirrors low vibration very easy to navigate and operate switch gear that includes even cruise control.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
So i can easily move through the rider modes with just a few touches of a button a little bit further back and we move up into nearly five gallons of fuel on board so this is going to give us easily 200 miles of range when we're traveling internationally in fact if we keep our speeds down a little bit we can easily get up into that 250 to 270 miles of range with an easy throttle.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
I also found that this bike is really comfortable to ride long positions on the saddle now it's typical that a more dirt oriented bike it'll be narrow in the front but it'll also stay very narrow all the way to the back they've adjusted that a little bit and made a very wide saddle for the type of bike that it is just a few inches after the standing position so i found it to be comfortable all day riding in the mountains of sardinia.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
And then they also have the capability to fit proper luggage including a luggage rack and aluminum panniers including a top case now let's talk about this bike on the dirt this is where it really surprised me this is a long travel 240 millimeter suspension front and rear it's adjustable for preload both front and rear adjustable for rebound and compression and i found that it needed it because in the factory settings it was fairly light on spring rate for a guy my size i could.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
Also have used a little bit more rebound control when i was moving through the more technical terrain when it comes to the off-road technologies on this bike the traction control is excellent and adjustable when you go into off-road mode you can set the traction control intervention to off one which is the lowest amount of intervention all the way up to three which really limits wheel spin it also disengages the rear abs but it keeps the front abs on but in a more aggressive off-road mode i found both of these systems to be excellent for the terrain that we traveled on in sardinia today.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
I also really like the suspension now at high speeds on the pavement on these twisty roads along the coast I did notice quite a bit of dive particularly under heavy braking but that's common for a long-legged bike like this when it came to the dirt it was extremely comfortable and confidence-inspiring so that soft suspension travel ended up resulting in a lot of traction which is what we're looking for when we're in unknown conditions now let's talk real quick about price so this bike is actually an excellent value it comes in at twelve thousand dollars.
 |
| Expedition Portal |
As you see it is equipped here with a little bit more money for this custom delivery paint job and then it also has a quick shift transmission shifter on it as well but it's a very good value when you're looking for the overall package the fact that it's an Italian motorcycle that looks this great so it's exciting to see all of these developments in the mid-class adventure motorcycle arena and this is one of the best ones on the market overall this new Aprilia tour egg it's a very cool bike in fact I could easily see myself wanting to ride it around the world and I think it'll prove popular for people looking to do just the same you.
source : 1111 & apriliaExpedition Portal