Australian Motorcycle News — January 30, 2018

secondhand

THE LAUNCH OFAprilia’s impressive new
Shiver 900 – reviewed by Steve Martin in AMCN
Vol 67 No 12 – has people talking again about
the Italian bike with the funny model name.
The 900’s predecessor, the Shiver 750, is a
much under-rated bike that deserved broader
recognition than it achieved as a worthy
competitor to the middleweight Ducati
Monsters a nd Tr iumph’s St reet Tr iple.
The Shiver 750 arrived in 2007 at a golden
moment after the huge Piaggio Group bought
Aprilia. Using Piaggio’s resources, Aprilia
developed its own liquid-cooled, fuel-injected
V-twin engines, moving away from its reliance
on supplies from Rotax. The Shiver’s all-new
749cc, DOHC, four-valve-per-cylinder engine
was the first roadbike motor born of that union.

Producing a healthy 71kw at 9000rpm, it’s

a free-rev ving powerplant that also has a

user-friendly f lat torque cur ve. On the road its

response to a fistful of its ride-by-wire throttle

is reassuringly linear until 6000rpm, where the

urgent rush to the 10,000rpm redline kicks in.

In performance terms, the 750 engine doesn’t

give away much at all to its 900 counterpart,

which sacrifices some maximum power for

Euro-4 compliance.

The sweet 750 engine and smooth-shifting

six-speed gearbox are carried in a truss frame

that combines a welded-steel front with a cast-

alloy rear. The bike rides on a non-adjustable

43mm inverted fork and an adjustable

monoshock mounted on the right.

The impressive brakes feature four-piston

Snazzy Italian styling. Lusty engine. Really nifty handling.

That’s the Shiver 750

APRILIA SHIVER 750 2007-2017

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WORDSROB BLACKBOURN

PHOTOGRAPHY AMCN ARCHIVES

Latin lovely

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The Shiver 750 was

the first mass-produced

Italian roadbike to introduce

a ride-by-wire throttle

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Stainless-steel exhaust

system was acoustically

tuned to enhance deeper

tones while masking high-

frequency sounds

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The twin’s four-spark

plugs are fired by a digital

ignition system integrated

into the EFI

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The 320mm front brake

discs were from Aprilia’s

big-bore flagships, the

RSV1000 and Tuono 1000R