This Aprilia rendering shows a semi-naked sports bike inspired by the Aprilia Shiver, which the artist has called the RSL 750 Cuvert, and which is more interesting for what it says about the future motorcycle market than the model itself.
This year we’ve seen the return of an important acronym in the bike sector: the CBR600F.
The Japanese can almost see into the future it seems, and could be readying themselves for the decline of powerful superbike models, and the return of mid–size sports bikes.
The latter haven’t exactly been enjoying a heyday of late, but with the industry in crisis, the world economy still jittery and a change in motorcycle culture, these kinds of sports bikes could make a comeback.
In the early 2000’s we saw the market push for what we have come to now – race-oriented, powerful superbikes at the expense of gentler road going models.
The idea of building a new 600F off the back of a naked bike such as the Hornet was widely discussed, and it looks like the concept has reached market acceptance.
After all, you get decent performance out of an engine that isn’t over-the-top and at a reasonable price.
Not everyone likes naked bikes, but the nakeds of today easily have a similar performance to the sports bikes of a few years ago.
And if you want a faired or semi-faired version? The Aprilia RSL 750 rendering follows this philosophy – providing good performance, easy riding on a sports–bike style.
The only questions to be asked are why bike manufacturers haven’t relaunched themselves in this segment and whether we will see a golden return of mid–size sports bikes.
Not only Aprilia, but also the Japanese manufacturers, all pretty much have a sports-style naked bike.
Is there space in the market for a return to mid–size sports bikes? The competition is currently watching the Honda CBR600F to see how it fares on the European market and it all should require is a few good sales and one other manufacturer to jump into the equation and we could see a revival of the bikes that were ubiquitous at the end of the 90’s.
A Shiver, Z750 or GSR750 with some fairings slapped on could work for those wanting this kind of riding style, but without the naked look.
The hypersport 600 niche should remain, as will the Supersports category in the Superbike championship and in national competitions, but with an extra option, the customer will have two offerings from the same brands to choose from.
And we should see a reduction in the annual updating of bikes released as refreshed models which is slowly ruining the used market offering.