The Mille's aggressive and quick-turning characteristics won Mitchell over. Subsequently he chose it as the winner on his score sheet.
On the track, a good set of binders is imperative, especially when slowing down the big Twins at the entrance to any of the 15 turns at Thunderhill. The Aprilia's front brakes were praised heavily during both our street and track test, which is a good thing considering we were still virtually without a rear brake.
Our testers loved the pair of 320mm discs with radial-mount 4-piston Brembo calipers. The final straight before turns 14 and 15 at Thunderhill puts any set of brakes to the test, and this is where we managed to get the most feedback about the Mille Factory. Most gave it high marks for its impressively strong binders, but Hutchison found them to be a bit more difficult to modulate than the other two machines.
"The front brakes are extremely powerful," Hutchison says. "But I think they are a bit grabby especially when you really clamp down. Compared to the Duc, I just don't think they offer the same combination of power and smoothness."
The Ducati scored the highest points in the braking department from all of our testers. The excellent combination of 320mm rotors with 4-piston, 4-pad Brembo calipers up front and a single 240mm disc and 2-piston Brembo caliper out back were tops on everyone's score sheet, even without the radial-type mounting up front.
The RC51 offers up a decent set of brakes and it performed well throughout. There is ample power available in the set of Nissin 320mm discs with four-piston calipers up front and from the 220mm disc with a single piston caliper out back. While fade was at a minimum, Roberti experienced a phenomenon that made him think twice about braking hard into tight corners on the RC51.
"Every once in a while the front wheel would oscillate and move back and forth under hard braking," Roberti discerns. "It gave me a few moments and it didn't happen under normal braking, but when you really got on it, that movement would occur."
Roberti was the only rider to experience the oscillation in the front tire, but then again few of us ride as hard as that two-wheel guru. For the most part, there were few complaints about the brakes on these three bikes, and most has praise for the binders.
The above graph shows Don Becklin's speed as he navigates the 15-turn circuit of Thunderhill Raceway. Click the graph for a larger image.
Like we did with our Superbike Smackdown, we fired up our V-Box data acquisition device to get some hard numbers. We sent almost all of our riders out with the V-Box to collect a variety of data including lap times, corner speed, g-forces, and top speed, just to name a few. However, we need to issue a caveat with the data: We tested these bikes and turned laps with other riders on the track during our PTT track days, which made clean laps nearly impossible.
We selected former road racer and MCUSA President Don Becklin to flog all four bikes in a row at Thunderhill. When the smoke cleared, the RC51 and Ducati tied for the quickest lap time. Both navigated the track in 2:09.4, and both topped out at 134.5 mph down the front straight. Don's best lap on the Mille was slightly off the pace of the other two, clocking a 2:11.9, but it exhibited the best top speed on the front straight at 135.3 mph.
Sadly, the hard numbers we gathered are a bit soft due to the constantly varying conditions on the track. However, the data we gathered is a good indication of what many of our testers experienced on the track. The Duc and Honda performed the most consistently during our test and many of our riders felt they were the easiest to ride, which the fast laps on the V-Box backed up.
Shawn Roberti's line around Thunderhill is shown above. Match Don's speed in the above picture with the turns and it gives you a good idea of what these competition inspired V-Twins are capable of. Click the graph for a larger image.
The Mille received high praise followed by several groans. Depending on who the rider was, the Mille was either a free spirit or an incorrigible problem child. The Mille failed to match the corner speed of the Ducati or Honda through a couple of turns. On the fastest laps of each, the Mille's highest speed through Turn 9 was 74.3 mph to the Ducati's 82.6. The RC51 fell in the middle, heading through Turn 9 at 78.6 mph. But keep in mind that traffic on the racetrack may be skewing some of our data.
The Mille definitely isn't slow, and graphics whiz Brian Chamberlain put in his quickest laps on the Aprilia. Once past its powerband hole, the Mille hits hard once it reaches 6000 rpm, providing a spike in its powerband that makes for gnarly, wheelie-producing power. And it mostly betters the muscle of the Ducati in the track-useful range between 7000-9200 rpm, though it loses a little bit on top.
But it's actually the least-expensive Honda that makes class-leading power from 5200 rpm until rev limiters kick in. The RC51 also trounces the other in terms of torque production.
