Aprilia recently launched the RS 457 in India and now, a retro naked bike using the same engine and similiar componentry has been spotted testing overseas.
- Engine appears to be carried over unchanged
- Chassis is different
- Gets a single-piece seat, retro styling
While the engine appears to be borrowed, largely unchanged, from the RS 457, this bike’s styling is entirely different from the aforementioned Aprilia. For starters, it has a round halogen headlight and the seat is a single-piece unit, unlike the stepped seat on the RS.
The tail-lamp seems to be borrowed from the Moto Guzzi parts bin and appears to be the same as the V100 Mandello sport tourer. The rather long offset monoshock is positioned rather unusually – almost vertically – and it links right to the end of the swingarm. The frame as well as the subframe appear to be different.
However, the brakes, front fork, wheels and TVS Eurogrip Protorq Extreme tyres are exactly the same as the Aprilia RS 457.
This particular test mule still appears to be in the early stages of development and has lots of stray wires, rough surface finishes and panel gaps visible, so what we see here might not necessarily make its way to the production-spec bike.
Regarding what this bike will be called or even what brand’s umbrella it may fall under is quite uncertain as the Piaggio Group owns both the Aprilia and Moto Guzzi brands, and this bike uses components from both companies.
If the production-spec model does continue to carry this retro styling, it would be more true to form for a Guzzi, although the parallel-twin engine will be a Moto Guzzi first; the company currently only has longitudinally-mounted V-twin powered bikes in its line-up.
When we spoke to Piaggio’s head of design, Marco Lambri, earlier this year, he hinted at the future possibility of a Tuono 457, and perhaps this bike could be a rough early prototype of the same. Only time will answer all these questions.