Every couple of years or so a bike manufacturer will come up with a machine that rattles opponent's cages and gets sportbike fans in a buying – or dreaming of buying – frenzy.
Remember the excitement over the first generation Yamaha R6 and R1? And just this year Yamaha got mouths salivating again with an all-new R1 and its MotoGP-derived cross-plane crank.
With icons such as the 916, the Monster line, and more recently the 1098 and 1198 superbikes, Ducati has a history of generating bike envy amongst enthusiast friends, while at the same time confounding competitors.
BMW has been in the moto media spotlight since announcing the S1000RR way back in April 2008. Kevin "Frequent Flyer Miles" Duke recently rode the new Beemer in Portimao, Portugal, and came away highly impressed with the German literbike. With its Formula 1 technology-inspired valve train, advanced TC, ABS and claimed 193 hp output at the crank, the screamer Beemer certainly must have Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki burning the midnight oil these days.
But BMW and Yamaha aren't the only two brands causing big ripples in the current literbike pond.
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2010 Aprilia RSV4 Factory Review on Motorcycle.com
2010 Aprilia RSV4 Factory Review
