Vo Knows

Once again, in the name of staying ahead of the curve and flat-out trying something different, we here at MotoUSA came up with an unorthodox comparison this past Monday at Willow Springs. Three different liter-class bikes, all in various states of tune and at different price points, though at the same track on control tires, to see what one gets for different levels of financial commitment.

The players are a bone-stock Aprilia RSV4 Factory, Stage 1 Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 street/Superbike and a full-fledged Ducati 1098R racebike fitted with just about every Ducati Performance part available. In monetary terms, this boiled down to a $60,000-plus Duc against a $20,000 bone-stock Aprilia and a roughly $23,000 Yoshimura-modded 'Zuki. Price wise the Aprilia and Suzuki come in extremely close, but with two totally different approaches to get to that point, while the Duc is in a totally different league – the if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it league!

Due the extreme differences here, it’s hardly fair to rank them and give an overall points-based winner, but with full data acquisition on all bikes, lap times and extensive subjective opinions from all three of our test riders, we aim to give you an idea of if the motorcycle or modifications you are after is worth the money and what return you will get from that investment. So be sure to stay tuned, as despite the cold track some blistering lap times were laid down in route to finding out how these three totally different machines stacked up.

On a side note: We also had a few close friends out, including David Kennedy of the band Angles and Airwaves, and he told us about their all-new and totally free record! So be sure to stop back here next week to be able to download their new album for no money at all. Yep, that’s right, a totally new AVA album and MotoUSA readers can download the whole thing for nothing! This will be available first thing Monday morning.