Ape ran about 1:35.3 with Nakano onboard... 136.3 with Simoncelli

 

nice action pics....is that fast?

 

Rossi qualified with a 1.31.0 there in '06 with the yami

*Edit: The 800cc bikes were runnin 1.33-1.34 laps this year

 

Roughly a second slower than a MotoGP bike on a street based WSB... not a bad start

 

i will own this bike in the future, as ive always wanted a light bike with great suspension and a powerful v4. i was reading the article that schu posted the other day and was wondering what the start-up procedure is on this bike? i hear aprilias have to be started a certain way to warm them up properly?

 

The Rotax needed to be started with battery at full charge, anything short will result in a no start... and if one keeps turning over/cranking the bike, the stator will fry. A simple fix is always make sure your big twins are fully charged with a trickle charge. this V4 will be different, of that I am sure

 

Good stuff, Schu. It's interesting to see the difference in their body positioning. Simoncelli is a pretty tall guy and forcebly sits more upright whereas the smaller Nakano lies flatter across the tank. In my efforts to improve my own body positioning, I'm finding my 6'1 frame a little tricky to fit. Anyways...back to the pics.

 

For sure different styles... one thing was probably true... I dont think Simoncelli
was as comfortable on the bike as Nakano was, Nakano was saying that they really needed a lot of work to get even close to a base line, but he has really high hopes for what is going to come out of this thing come season time. They expect at least 215bhp

 

Shinya Nakano looks great on that blike. I wonder how Honda feels about him riding Italian though. Doesn't he have a factory test rider position at Big Red next to Tadayuki Okada?