Words: Abhay Verma | Photography: Saidatta Naik
As I found out during the press ride, Aprilia’s Tuono 457 is a good recipe for having fun on the streets. My first rendezvous with the sport naked was in Bengaluru, when we rode it around the corners leading up to the famous Nandi Hills, but the seat time was very limited, and the bike’s eager power delivery and excellent dynamics had left me wanting for more. I’ve finally managed to spend over a week riding the motorcycle in and around Pune though, and living with the Tuono has helped me assess and understand the motorcycle far better than what the two-odd hours allowed me in Bengaluru.
I wasn’t exactly a fan of the headlamp design, despite it being a nod to the mighty RSV4’s triple headlamp design, but the design seems to have grown on me. The positioning and design of the front number plate (the Tuono was obviously never designed to have a front number plate!) is a bit of an eyesore. A saving grace though are the 41mm upside down forks and 110-section front tyre which help in offering the muscular feel associated with sport nakeds. Build quality and fit-finish levels are excellent, in keeping with the bike’s positioning as a premium motorcycle from a bike maker of Aprilia’s repute.
The 5.0-inch colour TFT display is a joy to use via the quartet of switches on the left handlebar yoke, particularly thanks to how quick the screen is to respond. The screen is also bright and its resolution crisp, which makes viewing information easy, even in harsh sunlight. Toggling through the options on the go is thus easy, especially traction control. I also like how you cannot switch traction off by simply toggling – you need to hold the switch down for a second or two, which will help in preventing turning traction control off accidentally. The left and right switches let you toggle through views on the display to access the lap timer, or connect your smartphone to the bike to use turn-by-turn navigation.
The seating position is comfortable, while the handlebar offers excellent leverage which makes quick directional changes easy, especially when cutting through traffic. A big help in traffic though is the engine’s eager power delivery, especially its strong bottom-end and midrange grunt, and also the well-spaced out gear ratios, which for the record, are shorter than the RS457’s. You have nearly 80 percent of the peak torque of 43.5Nm available from just above 3,000rpm, which coupled with the linear torque delivery ensures the engine pulls smoothly beyond 9,000rpm, before redlining at 10,500rpm.
The engine also feels very tractable, and riding at below 50kmph in sixth gear is a cinch. And the bike’s nimbleness, sure-footed feel and also the excellent grip from its specially-developed Eurogrip tyres further help in making the Tuono 457 a great city slicker. It’s engine performance also helps the Tuono 457 be a perfect hooligan, and in fact, for a motorcycle putting out less than 50PS of power, the Tuono is adept at letting you pull power wheelies too! Give the beans in first gear, chop the throttle as you hit the meat of the powerband and whack the throttle open, and the front ends comes up sweetly! It’s this demeanour that makes sport nakeds so much fun, no? The Tuono impresses on open roads too, as you can cruise at 100kmph with the tachometer showing around 5,000rpm, ensuring longer rides are easy too.
I found the rear suspension to be borderline stiff on Pune’s less-than-ideal roads though. Sadly, the suspension is only preload-adjustable so there’s not much you can do, and there were times when I was forced to roll the throttle off at triple digit speeds on undulated concrete roads, simply because I was getting unsettled due to the firm suspension. But that’s probably the only chink in the Tuono 457’s armour, as it impresses massively overall. In fact, with its kind of performance and power delivery the Tuono 457 is pretty much all the motorcycle you need in city – acceleration is quick enough to enthuse even experienced riders, handling is very good and overall, the bike has oodles of character, just like a thoroughbred Italian motorcycle ought to. It’s also priced well for its kind of packaging – at a shade under ₹ 4 lakh ex-showroom – which makes the Tuono 457 a great buy for everyday use!
