2004 Aprilia Mille Motorcycle: A Quick Look

Word on the street is that Aprilia has a well-sorted, fully developed redesign of its flagship superbike, the Mille. Aprilia reportedly entertained ideas of releasing this bike at last year's Intermot Show as a 2003 model; this obviously didn't happen, so it's probably safe to expect this one to debut as an '04 model this September in Milan. Either way, there's no reason to believe the new Mille will be anything shy of a radically improved evolution of an already amazing motorcycle. The current Mille platform has twice benefited from year-to-year tweaking since its initial release in '99.

A wholly redesigned big twin and an all-new top-shelf chassis and suspension are rumored for the new Mille. Being that Aprilia just slapped radially mounted calipers on '03 Mille Rs, the new bike will most definitely pack a pair of these. The edgier new look, as seen in these spy shots, makes it clear Aprilia intends to stick with ram-air induction to feed the V-twin, which will almost assuredly remain liter-sized. We're excited. Are you?