Aprilia SR 160 review, road test

The Aprilia SR 150 has always been lauded for its benchmark performance, and a look at the SR 160’s larger and more powerful motor suggests that the bar may have been pushed higher. However, our tests reveal otherwise.

In the transition to comply with BS6 norms, the cubic capacity of the air-cooled single has gone up slightly, from 154.8cc to 160cc, via an increase in the stroke from 58.6mm to 60.6mm. Meanwhile, the carburettor has been replaced with a fuel-injection system. The result of this is a 0.84hp increase in power and a 0.7Nm increase in torque. 

Crank up the engine and you’ll notice that it sounds similar to the BS4 unit at idle, despite the addition of the secondary catalytic converter. However, once you set off, you’ll find that the scooter feels notably smoother, and it remains that way until you cross the 70- 80kph mark. This smoothness, however, has come at the cost of the initial punch off the line that made the previous scooter a bit more exciting. This reduced feeling of urgency reflects in our performance tests as well. Clocking 7.96sec in the 0-60kph sprint, the SR 160 is 0.49sec slower than the SR 150 we tested last year. Nevertheless, it remains India’s quickest scooter, albeit by a slim margin over the 125cc scooters such as the BS6 Suzuki Access (0-60kph in 8.08sec).

As far as top speed is concerned, the SR160 managed to nudge past 90kph on the speedometer. Corresponding to the Vbox numbers, it is great to see that the speed displayed is now quite accurate and Aprilia has finally fixed the massive speedo error issue that exaggerated the SR 150’s top speed.