Difference between revisions of "Aprilia Pegaso 650/reviews"

[[File:Aprilia 650 Pagaso 97-1.jpg|300px|thumb|Aprilia 650 Pagaso 97-1]]

[[File:Aprilia 650 Pagaso 97-1.jpg|300px|thumb|Aprilia 650 Pagaso 97-1]]

The Pegaso is Aprilia's entry into the popular middleweight trail-styled bike, and while the off-road capabilities of the Pegaso are limited, its long-travel suspension, off-road styled tyres and narrow chassis make it well-suited as a town and back-roads bike. Hidden behind the swoopy fairing is a modern liquid-cooled single-cylinder engine. The Rotax-based design uses a five-valve cylinder head and Sagem electronic fuel-injection to produce almost 37kW (50bhp), with a balance shaft to reduce vibration. A five-speed gearbox drives the 130-section rear tyre through a chain drive, and twin underseat silencers give a sleek tail unit design. Aftermarket hard luggage systems make the Pegaso a decent middle-distance tourer.

The Pegaso is Aprilia's entry into the popular middleweight trail-styled bike, and while the off-road capabilities of the Pegaso are limited, its long-travel suspension, off-road styled tyres and narrow chassis make it well-suited as a town and back-roads bike. Hidden behind the swoopy fairing is a modern liquid-cooled single-cylinder engine. The Rotax-based design uses a five-valve cylinder head and Sagem electronic fuel-injection to produce almost 37kW (50bhp), with a balance shaft to reduce vibration. A five-speed gearbox drives the 130-section rear tyre through a chain drive, and twin underseat silencers give a sleek tail unit design. Aftermarket hard luggage systems make the Pegaso a decent middle-distance tourer.

Glamorized by events such as Paris/Dakar, the Trans-Sahara multi-stage North African rally, huge numbers of replicas were sold. However, these were replicas of form, not function -- the Sahara desert being as alien to them as Laguna Seca Raceway would be to an Electra Glide. But most owners of dual-purpose bikes aren't concerned with off-road capability anyway, as statistics have shown that for 95 percent of these bikes, the closest they ever get to a loose surface is the inevitable close encounter with dog turds that litter European cities.  In the never-ending search for niche markets within a niche market, a new variant of this type of bike has been evolving. The basic design parameters of wide bars, high seat, long suspension, narrow frame, and single cylinder 4-stroke engine have been taken and worked into models that owe more to high-tech industrial design than the sand dunes of the Sahara. An excellent example of this is Aprilia's Pegaso 650-3, now into its third stage of the evolutionary cycle.

Glamorized by events such as Paris/Dakar, the Trans-Sahara multi-stage North African rally, huge numbers of replicas were sold. However, these were replicas of form, not function -- the Sahara desert being as alien to them as Laguna Seca Raceway would be to an Electra Glide. But most owners of dual-purpose bikes aren't concerned with off-road capability anyway, as statistics have shown that for 95 percent of these bikes, the closest they ever get to a loose surface is the inevitable close encounter with dog turds that litter European cities.  In the never-ending search for niche markets within a niche market, a new variant of this type of bike has been evolving. The basic design parameters of wide bars, high seat, long suspension, narrow frame, and single cylinder 4-stroke engine have been taken and worked into models that owe more to high-tech industrial design than the sand dunes of the Sahara. An excellent example of this is Aprilia's Pegaso 650-3, now into its third stage of the evolutionary cycle.