The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finally released information about the upcoming Aprilia RSV4 engine recall, and just as we suspected here at Motorcycle.com, the culprit was a faulty batch of connecting rods.
Yes, the same conrods that curtailed the RSV4R’s European launch, attended by our correspondent Tor Sagen. That October media event at the world-class Mugello circuit was halted after five, count’em, FIVE engines blew. Sagen reported at the time Aprilia blamed the problem on a single batch of bad conrods.
Aprilia also said at the time the batch was only used in pre-production models, such as the ones used in Mugello. That was then.