As different as all three bikes are, they are all superb machines in their own way.
The instrument panels are all well laid out and easy to view. The Aprilia illuminates the tach, speedo, and indicator lights with a sick futuristic red glow, while the 999S provides illumination with a green hue. The RC51 was the least exciting panel and offers a standard yellow glow to light up the panel which actually makes the digital tach easier to read in the night than it is during the day. We didn't appreciate having to look under the edge of the Duc's windscreen to see the full display of the front-and-center tachometer.
The controls on all the machines are easily accessible and milled from quality components. However, the Mille Factory's turn-signal switch-gear is very low and takes a little time to get used to before engaging them became second nature and you stop honking the horn when you come up to a turn.
Fuel consumption on this trio of machines is right about where we'd expect, but the Ducati served up the best mileage by getting an average of 36.5 mpg out of the puny 4.1-gallon tank. The Mille Factory was second, logging 34 miles per gallon out of a 4.75-gallon tank, giving it the greatest range of the trio. The RC51 sucked up gas like it was going out of style, averaging 27 mpg. With its 4.8-gallon tank, the Honda has a fuel range of just 130 miles!
While we're nitpicking these bikes we thought we'd touch on an often overlooked aspect of bike maintenance: refueling. The Aprilia's gas orifice is ridiculously small and is only large enough to accept the tip of the refueling nozzle. Makes sense right? Well, the only problem is there is no way to tell how full the cell is until gas pours out onto the tank. Frequent peeks during the filling progress made our refueling stops a pain in the arse. The Duc wasn't much better but provided a little more visual access to the interior of the tank. We appreciated the Honda's ample room to view fueling progress.
"There's no question that the Duc has the best mid-corner stability," notes graphic geek Brian Chamberlain. "That being said, it also was probably the most difficult to get leaned over and back upright when we were riding really twisty stuff. I would have to say that for riding in tight corners the Honda and Aprilia were probably a little quicker."
The RC51 enjoys a horsepower advantage over its two competitors, but loses out on the street because of tall gearing. Click the image to enlarge graph.
Honda brings plenty of carving prowess to the handling battle. As before, it has a 43mm inverted Showa HMAS cartridge fork up front and a Showa HMAS single Pro-Link shock out back. Both performed beautifully on the street, providing excellent mid-corner stability and quick turn-in capabilities. The RC's rigid aluminum perimeter frame offers few unwanted surprises at high speed. As much confidence as the Duc inspires mid-corner, the RC51 feels almost as planted while serving up the ability to turn a bit more quickly. It offers the best combination of high- and low-speed handling on the street.
When the Mille Factory arrived in our warehouse, the first thing test rider Don Becklin noted was that it looks the most like a race-ready machine compared to the other two bikes. It also performs the most like a race machine, offering the quickest turn-in of the trio thanks in large part its light, forged aluminum OZ wheels, and O–hlins suspender similar in spec to that on the Ducati.
The Mille was universally praised for its quick turns, but responding quickly to steering input also leaves less advanced riders at a disadvantage when mid-corner input is applied. It isn't twitchy, but it's more prone to do exactly what the rider inputs, which can lead to some heart-stopping moments when pushing the Factory hard.
"I thought the Mille was the quickest turning of the three," says Becklin. "It got into corners almost immediately, but I found that if I tried to make small adjustments mid-corner it tended to respond almost too quickly. I could see how less experienced superbike riders might have a little difficulty with the Aprilia."
The Mille's wheelbase is claimed to be just 0.1-inch shorter that what Ducati and Honda claim for their bikes, but that doesn't reflect the fact that it feels the shortest and is the easiest of the three to get a wheel in the air.
As most sportbike hooligans know, the best way to keep from looping out is to tap the rear brake. Unfortunately, the first time we climbed on the Aprilia we found that the rear brake was nearly non-functional. When pressed to its very limit, the rear binder would grip the rear rotor, but even when riding the speed limit on public roads, the rear brake was virtually worthless. Even when fully depressed the pads don't grip well enough to slow the bike down when traveling at speeds as low as 25 miles per hour.
Once the revs climb beyond 5000 rpm, Honda enjoys a significant torque advantage. Click the image to enlarge graph.
We spoke with two Aprilia dealers who confirmed that our rear brake fiasco is not an anomaly and that they experienced the same problem with Milles of their own. The official word from Aprilia is that there is no widespread problem, but the reputable dealers we conferred with said the problem can be rectified with a new assembly from Brembo.
Thankfully, Aprilia's front brakes might be the best out of the three bikes. The pair of 320mm discs with radial-mount 4-piston Brembo calipers are absolutely wonderful in fact the Factory was the only bike equipped with the trendy radial-mount brakes. The front binders are so good, every rider in our test group was disappointed that the Mille's overall braking performance would be lowered by the poor rear brake that had to be considered in the evaluation process.
"The front brakes are awesome, and probably the best of the three bikes," Becklin raves. "Brake feel was positive and required little pull on the lever one finger to be exact. They slowed the bike quickly and created little or no commotion under heavy strain."
For the Ducati, both front and rear binders function superbly. They earned highest rating as a duo from all of our testers. A pair of 320mm rotors with 4-piston, 4-pad Brembo calipers do the dirty work up front while a single 240mm disc is slowed by a 2-piston Brembo caliper. Even the hardware to actuate the brakes is beautiful. The levers are a one-finger breeze and provide excellent feel and exhibit little or no brake fade on the street under heavy duress.
"The Duc's brakes are excellent," says Ken Hutchison in one of his lucid moments. "They offer great feel at the lever and I didn't experience any fade or lever mush as the day wore on."
Most of our testers rate the RC51's set of Nissin 320mm discs with four-piston calipers up front, and single 220mm disc with a single piston caliper out back as second-best overall. They do a good job of bringing rider and bike to quick stops on the street, but as they have a tendency to fade more so than the other two machines.
