CarBrandLogos archive · Aprilia · 1992

ApriliaRS125

For a generation of European riders, the first bike worth having.

Photo: Thomas Duchnicki :: Berlin :: Location Scout · CC BY-SA 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Aprilia history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Aprilia RS125, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Licence law shaped this motorcycle more than any engineer did. Across much of Europe new riders were restricted to 125 cc, and most manufacturers responded with detuned commuters. Aprilia responded with a scaled-down race bike.

Aprilia Tuono 125 · James Willock · CC BY-SA 2.0

Design and engineering

The RS125 used a 124.8 cc liquid-cooled two-stroke single built by Rotax, with a power valve, a six-speed gearbox and an expansion chamber, hung in an aluminium twin-spar frame with upside-down forks. The chassis was substantially better than the engine required, which meant the bike carried corner speed like something far larger and taught its riders to use momentum rather than power. Replica liveries followed Aprilia's grand prix entries, and the bikes were bought by teenagers who could recite the results.

Rs125alitalia · Golfianer · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

The unavoidable characteristic was the powerband. Below roughly eight thousand rpm very little happens; above it the bike surges, and learning to keep it in that window is a skill riders remember decades later. Restricted versions were sold wherever the law demanded them, and derestricting was close to a rite of passage.

Aprilia RS 125 2001 · Spieltrieb2 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

It was produced from 1992 to 2010, when tightening European emissions rules made a road-legal two-stroke impossible to certify. The four-stroke RS4 125 replaced it and was slower. Good examples now sell for more than they cost new, which for a learner bike is unusual.

At a glance