2 years Ownership Review of 2018 Aprilia RSV4 1000. Costs, maintenance, reliability, parts supply

If you are thinking of getting an RSV4 because everyone goes nuts about this bike from winning most of the 1000cc track battles on youtube and the reviews from the press, to its intoxicating noise and just stunning good looks. Here is my perspective from my experience of owning one. Do consider this is more of a race bike than a street machine. It's extremely compromised and focused to tare up a track, from its lack of low-end engine tractability, tall gearing internal gearbox, tall external final drive, extremely tall seat height, and it's stiff chassis. Aprilia has a horrible dealer network and requires special tools and experience working on them to avoid costly damage. Luckily the Aprilia Community has www.af1racing.com here in the US to support the passionate owners. In my opinion this the closest experience off the showroom floor of owning and riding a race bike on the street. Being a race bike you have to deal with its corks including the cost of entry. Also oddly when I park at bike meets most people have no clue what it is or have not seen one they don't know where it's from. The question I get a lot is how many CCs is it. People are always surprised when I tell them it's a V4. For the sake of being transparent, I get more compliments from mature older gentlemen then from the ladies. The bottom line I have has 0 issues with this bike aside from consumable parts like tires and pads that you will deal with every motorcycle. Try to get a test ride, before you buy one, you need to use a lot of core strength to hang on to the bike, the seat is very high and that puts a lot of pressure on your arms also having a 34 inseam is required to almost flat foot the bike. Please feel free to leave a comment I reply to all of them. Thanks for checking out my channel, open to hearing ideas for videos to produce, I'm having a lot of fun engaging with the youtube community!

[@GoatfatherGit]

Glad you've enjoyed owning one. I enjoy hearing about peoples ownership experiences, I'm an Aprilia owning nut myself. I definitely want to echo what you said, these are amazing machines, albeit more than any street based rider will ever need in the power department. Mindset is everything with owning an Aprilia (or any bike for that matter). I hope it keeps treating you well!

[@lc500yyc]

What a great review. I've been all over KZbin and this is exactly what I needed. I'm debating getting my first Italian liter bike

[@allinrc3338]

I appreciate this type of review! I am interested in Touno and this helped me!

[@pnoyryder68]

Great video and thanks for sharing your ownership experience. I wanted to pull the trigger on a 2018 on EBay but couldn't justify getting it crashed on the track as I definitely plan to take it there (you're really wasting the experience if you don't) so I bought a track ready R6 instead. I have test driven a 2017 RR model and fell in love with it so I will own one down the road. But I've always loved the V4 engine hence my other ride is a VFR. Btw me and a buddy of mine are going to the Aprilia Trackday this year at VIR so I'm stoked for that! They'll let you ride any of their models for one session and I plan to ride their new 2021 RSV4!!

[@samuelcurran714]

Looking at getting one to compliment my VFR. Glad to hear they're solid bikes. I know they had chocolate camshaft issues on earlier years

[@Decepticon313]

You said it best, you covered the highlights of rsv4 ownership well. (Im going on 2 years/ 14k miles)

[@1100220033]

Thank you 🙏🏽 … great vid … I’m going to test ride a 2017 Aprilia Tuono tomorrow but I currently own an 06 Suzuki.

[@ulisesbernardotti1339]

Spot on man!

[@adaptiveagile]

Many thanks. I’ve been kicking around the idea of getting one, and this vid put things into perspective. Especially the jerky low-speed behavior which sounds like my RC-51. Worst bike I’ve ever ridden for slow riding, city commutes, etc. I guess it’s just a V thing….

[@harrypersaud9422]

This is the first time anyone has given an honest real world commitment and experience on this bike. I have always wanted on and finally purchase it today and so far love it. Great video sir

[@leonardjones3486]

Thanks for this video

[@Navieri]

About to pick up a new 2021 rsv4 1100 factory so this was interesting

[@windyrun7979]

Appreciate your posting this real world experience. I've been wanting one for a while but there is no strong dealer/tech support within 3 hours so I chose to wait. I have test ridden one (I think it was an '18 but might have been a '19). The thing I noticed, just my 2 hour experience, was it had excellent fueling (low speed as well) and was very easy to ride-high gearing yes. Its fueling was way better than the tuono's I have ridden of the same generation so I'm surprised yours is on/off throttle. I wonder if its the OFT flash side effect. I bring this up since maybe its a bike to bike thing and if anyone is considering one go ahead and test ride one near you and see how it works for you. For my point of reference i ride an s1000r in dynamic mode all the time.

[@alexg160]

Bravo, many thanks for all the real life advice. If one is looking to get one of these (as I am), it's very easy to get caught up in the emotion of just getting it. Thankfully, your video has put it all in real life context for me. For me, I need a commuter bike so my options seem to be either a BMW S100R or Tuono V4 1100.

[@maiccuzzu125]

Nice review, I have exactly the same bike, I want to ask you, did you suggest to get the kit 520 sprocket?? What difference did you notice driving your bike ? Thanks 🙏

[@utkarshjangid3374]

I am also going to get one next month.

[@g4holla]

Can vouch for everything you just said, although my 2019 has had an ass load of electrical issues ever since I flashed it. Might be correlation, not causation, but I've spent thousands chasing down the issue, only to come to removing the battery every night so it doesn't kill it. That being said, the thrill factor of the V4 at WOT can't be understated. Worth every problem I've had so far ... 🤤🤤🤤

[@Seanype]

Thinking of trading my mt10 and getting this bike, I wanna start doing track days and ride it to work during the summer

[@edgarsoto7546]

Thank you for the information

[@FaithisKey792]

I had a Gxsr750R 2015 for like 7 years which I loved, only got rid of it once my wife came on a ride with me and she was not really comfortable on the Gxsr750R. So I sold it and got an M109R. Only had it for a year but now I’m looking to trade for a tuono factory. What do you think, they have this one with 900kml on it. But I don’t really know. Any guidance will be appreciated.