Aprilia cuts list prices by up to £975

Aprilia has taken between £500 and £900 off the price of all its 1000cc V-twins.

It’s clearly a move aimed at going head to head on price with its rivals, and means the Futura sports-tourer drops from £8875 to £7899, a saving of nearly a grand. The Falco all-rounder will now cost £6999, almost £900 less than last year. And the list price of the RSV Mille and Mille R are down close to £800 to £8099 and £9999 respectively.

The Caponord giant trailie is now just under £600 cheaper, at £6999.

UK spokesman Paul Walker said: " We are getting aggressive and want to sell more bikes this year. We had a very good year in 2001 and we want to do even better this time.

" It seems as though people are more open to the idea of riding a V-twin so we want to get them on Aprilias, " he added.

The move is part of a Europe-wide shift in prices by Aprilia, which is hoping to level the playing field between countries, giving parallel importers less room to undercut official dealers.

Yamaha announced a new price list just after Christmas, with an £800 cut for its Fazer 1000 leading the changes.

Moto Guzzi, which is owned by Aprilia, took an average of £650 off its bikes earlier this month.

And Suzuki has given dealers the green light to offer knockdown prices on last year’s GSX-R1000s and 600s, SV650s and 600cc Bandits.

The firm is giving dealers £800 back for every GSX-R1000 they sell, £500 for a GSX-R600, £400 for a Bandit and £250 for each SV650.

Frank Finch, who represents bike dealers’ interests as the Retail Motor Industry’s motorcycle director, said: " The manufacturers have cut the supply of bikes this year so I don’t think bikes will be this cheap again for a long time. It’s a great time to buy as bikes are bargains now, " he added.