With Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga on board as riders, and more than a year of development under its belt with its MotoGP bike, the three-cylinder “Cube”, Aprilia will have no excuses but to produce results in 2003.
As the only major player to choose the three-cylinder design (with its corresponding weight advantage over the four and five-cylinder machines), Aprilia had the daring to go its own direction, engineering-wise. With the top speeds posted by rider Regis Laconi on the Aprilia Cube this year, it appears Aprilia may have made the right decision. The bike is definitely making competitive power, and that weight advantage can only mean higher corner speeds — especially with Edwards and Haga on board.
The Haga/Edwards/Aprilia combination is just one reason why Honda will not have it quite so easy next year in MotoGP.
