To gauge just how much Aprilia is struggling in MotoGP at this point, you need only look at the results obtained by Colin Edwards on his Aprilia Cube and compare them with the results obtained by Troy Bayliss on his Ducati Desmosedici. Edwards and Bayliss, of course, were about as even competitors as you would ever find just last year in the World Superbike championship series. Edwards won that championship over Bayliss, but Bayliss is now a threat to be on the podium virtually every weekend, while Edwards and Aprilia seem to be going backwards.
Edwards is now complaining about his wheelie-prone machine being left behind on corner exits by the heavier v-4s and v-5s. It seems that Aprilia needs to re-think its weight distribution and chassis geometry to keep the Cube’s front wheel on the ground under acceleration. With a 22 pound weight advantage over its 4 and 5 cylinder rivals, it would certainly be ironic if Aprilia had to ballast the Cube as a short-term fix for this problem. In any event, this is a corolary to Alex’s article about horsepower ruling the day in MotoGP, not corner speed.
