Readers' rides: Tuono Pikes Peak

The awesome 2017 Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 factory "Pikes Peak" by our reader Gwenael Barthélémy.

Gwenael is passionate of track racing and often spends his weekends on track with friends and his 2014 Aprilia Tuono. A couple of years ago, he read an article about the Victory - Project 156 which Roland Sands was preparing for the Pikes Peak race and he felt in love with the raw style and the technical features of the bike. He also liked a lot the style of motorcycles like the Earle Motors Ducati Monster and the Bottpower XR1, so he started dreaming to have his own Pikes Peak’s ride based on his beloved Tuono V4. In order to start his project, he tried first to look for a second hand Tuono, but since the prices were quite high, he ended up buying a new Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 Factory… “To tell the truth, the electronic dashboard and the down shift were very exciting goodies for me” He confessed. Gwenael designed the entire bike and directed the three years build in co-operation with different suppliers and builders. He first bought an aluminium racing gas tank from Tamburini with 24 litres capacity. The choice was made in order to get the bottom fitting the Tuono frame and Burgol Racing Technologies would have done all the rest. Effectively, it took 2 full weeks to adapt the tank to the frame and at the end it appeared that it would have been easier to rebuild the bottom of the tank from scratch… But this kind of things you only know after... The idea was to get the smaller fuel tank possible with the maximum capacity, with a shape similar to the HD Sportster flat track tank. Biman.ch built a "plug-and-play" custom tail, the seat and the rear lights mounting while it took the entire 2018 to re-shape all the other elements of the bodywork. Profil Motos dealts with the new wiring. SwissMotorcycle built the front number plate, the radiator coolant reservoir, the front fenders brackets and gas tank air vent. All paintings were finally made by Paul Design.

Photos by Jean-François Muguet @ Burgol Racing Technologies premises

Gwenael Barthélémy- GenevaSwitzerland