Tuareg 660 (ZD4XB)

This is the bike's signature. It tips in fast, settles onto a line without complaint, and threads technical sequences that would leave a heavier machine scrapping. Lean harder and it snaps through quick direction changes with the eagerness of something far lighter, keen yet fully planted, and that Aprilia knack for pairing bite with calm shows up in the first technical stretch. The poise holds as speed climbs; out on the highway and deep into the brakes it sits square and unbothered, steady in a way that reads as balance, not bulk.

I fit this bike the moment I sat down, and I'm a tall rider. The reach to the bars, the bend at the knee, the way I stand on the pegs off-road, all of it landed right without me touching a thing, and that put it at the top of its group for me. The gearbox backs up the good first impression: the lever moves a short distance, my thick footwear never snagged it, and the quickshifter kept its manners through hard use. Two things wear on you over a long day. The motor lives high in the rev range, so the pegs get busier the faster you spin it, and you accept that rather than dodge it. The tall screen also promises more cover than it gives, leaving your upper body exposed once the pace or the weather picks up.

What sticks with me is how well it covers both ends of the pace. Ride it slowly and it stays relaxed, never pestering you to get on with it. Open it up and a sharper machine turns up, happy to be worked, and it moves between those two temperaments on its own instead of resisting. That breadth is rarer than it sounds. Most bikes commit to one mode and go flat outside it. Doing the gentle and the hard with equal conviction is what I keep coming back to.

Here it's about control rather than drama. There's plenty of stopping power on tap, yet the front never turns grabby, building bite evenly as you squeeze and releasing just as cleanly, which makes feeding a little brake into a corner easy to judge. The rear is just as simple to lean on. Together they give you the fine control to meter exactly the amount of stopping you want as the grip changes underneath, and they manage it without demanding careful hands.

The useful part is that traction control and the ride modes can be changed on the move, and the menu is logical enough to learn once and then ignore. After that the gaps show. From stock there's no USB or accessory socket, the switchgear doesn't light up at night, and while four modes are on offer, none is a straightforward wet setting and the names aren't intuitive. Range disappoints more: it falls noticeably short of the claimed figure, and an imprecise fuel gauge adds to the doubt on longer legs between fills.

The delivery is what I trust here. Power arrives in a steady climb with no sudden step to unsettle you, and that predictability pays off in tight switchbacks where you want to know exactly what your right hand will produce. On and off the gas it behaves as one piece, the engine braking easing in gently rather than snatching. The catch is a hollow bottom end. Below the middle there's little to pull on, so you keep it spinning, and anyone used to a torquey twin needs a ride or two to adjust.