Riding Simoncelli's Gilera

The 2009 racing season will go down as the year that saw the demise of one of motorcycle GP racing's core categories - the 250cc class. For reasons that are as much political as anything else, the Valencia GP on November 8 saw the running of the last-ever quarter-liter GP race - and with it, the final nail in the coffin of what has consistently proved to be the most thrilling and most hotly, as well as openly, contested class of road racing. It's long been a class where privateer teams do stand a chance of upsetting the factory-backed status quo and beating the factory riders - just look at Mattia Pasini's improbable victory in this year's Italian GP, for example. As such, it's been a fruitful proving ground for successive generations of new talent, ever since the running of the first 250cc World Championship 61 years ago, in 1949.

Even if it didn't manage to overcome Hiroshi Aoyama's low-budget Honda in the chase for the last-ever 250cc GP title, Aprilia has dominated 250cc GP racing in the past decade, winning 10 out of the 15 titles and nine manufacturers' crowns ever since a certain Max Biaggi won the first of his four world titles in the category back in 1994.

That includes the single 250cc World Championship won last year for Gilera, Aprilia's partner marque in the Piaggio Group, on the eve of its 100th birthday in 2009 by lean, lanky 21-year old Marco Simoncelli aboard the badge-engineered RSA250 that's identical to the other factory Aprilias on the grid. The only difference is the name on the tank and the tricolore bodywork of Gilera's established sponsor Metis, one of Italy's leading employment agencies.

The bouffant-haired bravado of the swashbuckling Simoncelli in convincingly winning the 2008 title has made him a firm favorite with fans all over the world, not just in his native Italy, and not only with a Grand Prix audience, too. For in a true demonstration that he's a racer's racer, in between trying to retain his 250cc GP world title after no-scoring in the first two races after breaking his wrist in pre-season motocross training, Marco took on the challenge of a wild card World Superbike ride at Imola aboard the Aprilia RSV4 on a spate weekend off in September. Finishing third in his second race there on a track he'd never seen before, after muscling his way past teammate Biaggi, confirmed this is not your typical 250cc-class graduate, but one who's perfectly at home on bigger, heavier bikes, too. All of which augurs well for his step-up to the MotoGP class next year on a Gresini Honda RC212V, a bike not so very different in size and performance to the Aprilia V-four.

The chance to join Simoncelli and the Aprilia factory race team at Mugello as he dialed himself in aboard the RSV4 in the run-up to Imola, not only gave me the chance to test the Aprilia Superbike myself - but also to bid a fond farewell to the 250cc GP class by riding his reigning World Champion Gilera RSA250. Okay, it's an Aprilia under the skin, but it says Gilera on the wrapper...
Usually when I ride a 250cc GP bike I have to take a deep breath to squeeze myself onto it, and get busy with a metaphorical hacksaw to prise my limbs aboard. That's why I always enjoyed riding the lanky Valentino Rossi's two-stroke racers as he made his way up GP racing's capacity scale - and Simoncelli has a lot of the Rossi in him, not only his exuberant riding style and evident versatility, but also with his tall build. So his Gilera felt perfectly tailored to my six-foot stature, meaning I could move easily about the bike in the Mugello chicanes, and tuck myself well away behind the pointy screen and curvaceous fairing to take full advantage of the aerodynamics down the long front straight.

Everything was just in its place and just right, reflecting the years of careful refinement and evolution that have honed the multi-time World Champion Aprilia/Gilera into such a perfect tool so single-mindedly tailored for success. The handlebars are quite low-set - presumably to help Marco tuck away down the straights, and there's a sense of leverage and control, even if your arms are wrapped tightly around the Gilera's curvaceous fuel tank, and the footpegs are positioned quite far back, to give more room for Marco's long legs - and mine! Just as well, really: I need all the help I can get on a comparatively small but perfectly-formed bike like this!

The analogue tach and digital info display (the same as on the RSV4 Superbike) comprise Aprilia's traditional dash, still the best and most instantly readable way of keeping on top of engine performance, while indicating just two pieces of extra data. One was the water temperature and the other a simple No. 5 reading, indicating the setting for the six-position traction control that Simoncelli says he always uses.

"With setting six I can spin the rear wheel sometimes, and with anything else it affects acceleration," he said "But this is a good system that really works - it made it easier to adjust to riding the Superbike!"

It had been six years since I last rode an Aprilia 250, the 2003 RSW of that year's World Champion Manuel Poggiali and the biggest single surprise the Gilera had in store for me was the significant extra torque and midrange performance that had been extracted in the meantime from the twin-crank rotary-valve 90-degree V-twin motor. The engine is a gem - purposeful yet forgiving in its power delivery, unbelievably eager-revving as well as finely honed. It carburates well from low down and, thanks to the dual-guillotine powervalve, transitions well into the strong powerband. It pulls well from 9000 rpm upwards, comes on strong at 10,000 revs and holds the power all the way to the 13,800 rpm revlimiter, which thanks to the Gilera's ride-by-wire throttle simply means that the bike stops accelerating. There's nothing as crude as an ignition or fuel cutout that might seize the engine on a two-stroke, just a giant electronic hand that reaches out and tells you this is it, rpm-wise.

That's some revs lower than where the Poggiali bike fell off the pipe at 14,500 rpm six years ago - but the extra torque that Aprilia Corse engineers have uncovered makes it unnecessary to reduce crankshaft life by over-revving the engine, even to avoid a couple of time-wasting gearshifts between turns. Just gear the Gilera accordingly via the side-loading extractable cassette gearbox, so as to use that meaty midrange (well, by 250cc GP standards) from 9000 rpm upwards to surf that torque curve, and you'll go faster, with fewer revs. Faultless, as well as fast - that's the 250 Gilera's power package. What a fantastic motor.

Acceleration is extremely impressive by 250cc-class standards, and this I think is the Gilera's strong suit, rather than the extra top-end power it certainly has also compared to its reed-valve rivals like Aoyama's current Honda and his previous KTM FRR250 ride I tested three years ago. Getting to your bike's top speed quicker than your rivals is at least as important as being faster than them outright, once you've got there.

A key ingredient in this is the way the Gilera engine picks up revs so fast in second, third and fourth gears on Simoncelli's Italian GP gearing I was running, working the wide-open race-pattern powershifter as soon as the green shifter lights across the top of the dash that started flashing from just 13,200 revs upwards ended in a bigger, brighter red one at 13,400 - not much warning, but it's enough! There's quite a big gap to fifth, but then top gear is very close - typical fast-circuit two-stroke gearing to keep the show on the road, and the bike on the move up high.

"I like to keep the engine between 11,000 and 13,500, where there is best power and most acceleration," said Simoncelli, while trying to give an impression of a two-stroke teacher in pit lane. "But the engine is quite supple, I think. She pardons you if you make a mistake - and I make many!"

Not as many as me, mate, while trying to work out which gear to use where, and when, but eventually I got it right. I pulled 12,500 rpm in top gear tucked in down the kilometer-long main straight - well, in my defense, I'm even more un-aerodynamic on such a little bike than Marco, who wasn't even in the top 10 for the published top speeds at Mugello this year - making him at least 5.5 mph slower than Bautista's similar 181 mph Aprilia, and almost two mph slower than his shorter, more streamlined teammate Roberto Locatelli. Force yourself to not even think about braking until the 150-meter board, then squeeze hard, hard, hard as you zip down through the gears in one go all the way to bottom, just before tipping into the San Donato curve and start climbing the hill out of there - noting as you do that you can powershift wide-open from first to second without any jerk from going through neutral as on many other bikes.

I had company there one lap, when Simoncelli blasted past me on the RSV4 Superbike at the end of the straight, then out-braked himself and went way too deep into the turn, before squaring it off and cutting back in front of me. No way I could emulate his late-braking technique even when he got it right in subsequent laps, although I have to say the brilliant braking from the Brembo package, even with the smaller 255mm front discs, delivered so much confidence I ended up braking harder, later and deeper into turns each lap. The little 250cc GP racers are the perfect track tool, with a level of performance is just within the ability of an average rider to exploit to somewhere approaching its true potential.

It's too long since I tested Poggiali's Aprilia to make direct comparisons, but the revised RSA250 chassis package certainly seemed extremely agile in flicking from side to side in the four Mugello chicanes, yet was super stable powering round the fast fourth-gear sweepers at Savelli and Arrabbiata. Above all it's predictable under braking and on turn-in and, even with my extra weight on board compared to Simoncelli's, didn't push the front wheel unduly anywhere.

The Gilera held a line well, even under acceleration from low down when with my extra kilos and the extra power compressing the rear Ohlins shock, I was frankly expecting it to understeer. Didn't happen. It turned in well to the second-gear chicanes without any feeling of oversteer in putting the power on at the apex, and didn't weave around when slowing hard thanks to those radial brakes.

The Gilera felt pretty balanced, in spite of the 53/47 percent static frontal weight bias, so didn't lift the back wheel on me more than just a couple of times at the end of the straight, thanks to the 50/50 percent weight balance that exists with the rider in place - well, maybe more at the back to keep the wheel down, with yours truly aboard. Again, it felt forgiving - but this time, not just the power delivery, but as far as the carefully-evolved chassis design is concerned, too.

The Ohlins suspension delivers so much feedback, coupled with the trustworthy, grippy Dunlop tires, that you feel you can trust the Gilera's track manners implicitly, and just focus on how to reduce your lap times. In spite of its class-leading engine performance, it's a bike you feel secure enough aboard to start pushing your own personal boundaries with, knowing that the Gilera will allow you to deliver whatever you ask of yourself. That's a perfect ride...

Indeed, this is the heart of the appeal of a 250cc GP racer, why it's so seductively enticing to ride hard and fast in something approaching anger. Once you surpass the threshold of at least reasonable racetrack experience and two-stroke technique, bikes like this are the ones that make you feel master of the universe. It's fast enough to thrill without being frightening, it handles and steers on autopilot, and it changes direction without requiring muscle or might, just skill and timing to do it just right.

The more time you spend on the Gilera, the more addictive and engrossing it becomes, as you start polishing your technique, cleaning up your lines, working on your braking markers, and taking advantage of that fabulous Aprilia Corse traction control to work on opening the light-action throttle sooner and harder exiting every turn, each lap. That's because you feel completely in charge of the Gilera, not it of you, as is frankly the case even for experienced riders on bigger, more powerful MotoGP metal - and what's more, the fabled connection between right hand and rear wheel is always present and all correct.

Provided you're careful to keep the engine running in the optimum power band and work the gearbox accordingly, it's as if you're at one with the bike, not sitting on it but a part of it. Apart from an equally intuitive but slower Supermono four-stroke single, I know of no other motorcycle as completely involving as a 250cc GP racer, and that certainly won't apply to a much heavier Moto2 bike. I feel sad to have said farewell to motorcycle road racing's most enjoyable, most fun and, yes, most enthralling kind of bike from a rider's standpoint - but honored and privileged to have paid GP racing's quarter-liter class a fond farewell by riding the Simoncelli RSA250 Gilera in the company's centenary year.

But as I rode down the Mugello pit straight and into the Gilera pit box, I realized this was the end of an era - the last time I'd ever ride a current 250cc GP two-stroke. The bike I'd just spent 17 laps of Mugello aboard was history on wheels - pass a Kleenex, Marco.