2011–2015 · Supermoto · Buyer's Guide
The Big Twin Supermoto Bruiser
The Dorsoduro 1200 wraps a 1200cc 90° V-twin in maxi-supermoto clothing, and the figures tell you it means it: 130 hp, 85 lb-ft, liquid-cooled, ride-by-wire. This is no soft travel-enduro engine detuned for easy touring. It hangs on the gas with real intent, punches hard from low in the rev range, and sits behind a fully adjustable chassis with upside-down forks and 17-inch sport rubber. ABS, traction control, and ride modes keep the output honest and usable. What you get is a tall, wide-barred street brawler built to be flicked hard, not cruised.
On the road it feels lighter than its 448 lb suggests, thanks to wide bars and a tall 34.3-inch seat that lets you steer with your whole body. It rewards riders who ride hard and know it, and asks for the same commitment back. The trade-offs are real. The 4.0-gallon tank holds range to around 130 miles, wind protection is minimal, and the factory setup needs sorting before it shows its best. Buy it if you want a big-twin supermoto with genuine bite. Skip it if you need comfort, luggage, or all-day range.
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
| Power | 130 hp (96 kW) |
|---|---|
| Torque | 85 lb-ft (115 Nm) |
| Displacement | 1200 cc |
| Engine | 90° V-twin |
| Cooling | Liquid-cooled |
| Gearbox | 6-speed |
| Final drive | Chain |
| Fork | Upside-down (USD) |
| Front brake | 320 mm |
| Front tire | 120/70 ZR17 |
| Rear tire | 180/55 ZR17 |
| Ground clearance | 6.3 in (160 mm) |
| Front travel | 6.3 in (160 mm) |
| Rear travel | 6.1 in (155 mm) |
| Seat height | 34.3 in (870 mm) |
| Wet weight | 448 lb (203 kg) |
| Fuel capacity | 4.0 gal (15 L) |
| Top speed | 135 mph (217 km/h) |
| Fuel economy | 34 mpg (US) |
Equipment check
Chassis
Safety
Swing a leg over and the first thing that registers is how stripped-down it feels up top. Less windscreen, a sparser cluster, fewer switches than anything built to cover distance, and the bike seems to shrink around you the moment you get moving. Fire the V-twin and it talks back, a deep, hard-edged bark that fills out as the revs climb. At real road pace you sit tall and upright, steering with the bars and your hips, and it drops into corners with almost no effort. Ground clearance is generous, so you run out of nerve long before you run out of lean. Not everything is polished. Hunting for neutral at a standstill, at a light or in the pits, is a genuine chore every single time, and the low-speed manners never quite match the ferocity higher up.
My own 0–100 score for this bike against the class, area by area — the marker on each bar is the class average.
Fresh from the crate the rear shock is the one thing standing between me and a chassis that clearly has more to give. It arrives undersprung for anything past a relaxed cruise, so the first time I really pushed, the back end went soft and vague underneath me. The fix costs almost nothing. A few clicks of adjustment firm it up, and only then does the bike change direction cleanly and let me trust the rear when I lean on it hard.
There's nothing sleepy about this V-twin the moment you ask it to work. It carries far more aggression than the tall, practical stance suggests, and the drive off a corner is the part that still catches me out: I've watched riders on much racier machinery struggle to pull clear of me on the way out. My one genuine gripe sits at the light end of the throttle. Feed it the smallest input, or roll off into a corner that tightens on me, and it hesitates right when I need clean, predictable fueling.
The front brake is where this bike's origins stop hiding. At an easy pace it gives me nothing to complain about, but the picture flips the instant I start leaning hard on the lever. Push into a fast corner on a good road or out on a circuit and the setup shows it was tuned for a travel enduro, not a supermoto. I keep wanting a firmer, more urgent initial grab and far more feel from the front than this calibration is willing to hand back when I load it up.
Aim this at real mileage and it fights back quickly. There's barely any shelter from the wind, almost no room for luggage, and the saddle wears thin well before a machine built for the long haul would. I'll take that bargain happily. On a road worth riding, or out on a circuit, the engagement it gives me runs past anything with honest long-distance intentions, and everything practical I surrendered is simply the entry fee for that feeling.
Comfort on this bike is a story of subtraction. Sitting behind so little screen, a plain set of dials and clean, uncluttered bars, I get a cockpit that reads as honest rather than built to shield me from a full day in the saddle, and the whole machine feels quicker to answer for it. The catch shows up the moment I roll to a stop. Rowing through the gears underway gives me no trouble, yet coaxing the box into neutral while stationary turns into a small, repeated fight every single time.
I didn't ride this one for these notes. This is the community's read, gathered slowly: questions traded at events, owners walking me through their bikes, and a steady flow of rider mail. Put together, the split holds. Praise lands on the engine and the handling; the grumbles gather around fuel stops and low-speed manners.
The engine leads nearly every conversation. What sold most riders is the 130 hp V-twin and its thick mid-range pull. Handling isn't far behind: a bike that stays settled as speed builds yet still turns willingly into tight corners on those wide bars. The brakes collect steady praise for repeated hard stops that never fade. And a decent share say the roomy seat and compliant suspension let them ride farther in a sitting than the class allows.
Throttle behavior tops the complaints. In Sport mode the response strikes owners as jumpy, and holding a smooth line takes deliberate effort. Range comes right behind: at roughly 34 mpg, most start hunting for gas by the 130-mile mark. A good number find it heavy for a supermoto at 448 lb (203 kg) wet and harder to wheel at a crawl, and shorter riders keep pointing to the 34.3-inch (870 mm) seat as a stretch.
Rear subframe cracking
The aluminum rear subframe can crack at a welding seam near a bolting point, typically around 17,000 miles (27,000 km). Several owners have reported the same failure.
Electrical gremlins with ride-by-wire
Some owners report intermittent issues with the electronic throttle control, causing erratic behavior or warning lights.
Shift locking lever wear
The shift locking lever can wear prematurely, causing shifting difficulties. Replacement with an updated part resolves the issue.
Where this Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200 pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
Power
Torque
Displacement
Wet weight
Top speed
Seat height
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the Dorsoduro 1200 is actually built for.
If your weekends are Angeles Crest and the canyons above LA, this fits. The big twin drives hard off apexes and flicks through tight stuff, once you sort the rear and accept the short fuel range.
Made for Angeles Crest Highway · Coronado Trail / US 191 · Highway 1 / Big Sur
Perfect for a Hill Country blast out of Austin or San Antonio: engaging, loud, and quick through the twisties. Just know the 130-mile range and thin comfort make it a day-ride tool, not a tourer.
Made for Austin / Texas Hill Country · Twisted Sisters · Austin / Handbuilt Motorcycle Show
Built for skill work on the Dragon, Cherohala, and the Blue Ridge. It carves precisely and drives hard where you need it, though the stock brakes want more bite before repeat hard runs.
Made for Back of the Dragon · Blue Ridge Parkway · Cherohala Skyway