Shiver me timbers

Greatness is subjective. Something is only good or great if you perceive it to be, but some may not agree with your perception.

And so stands the problem with being a motoring writer and being overly generous with praise for our reviews.

But some reviews really do deserve such mention.

Take this Aprilia for example – bold looks, sounds amazing, a torquey engine, and at RM57,905.40, it’s a steal.

Simply put, it’s a good bike. But it’s an Italian bike, and Italians never settle for just good, especially not with their cars or bikes.

Climb aboard the narrow saddle and you will notice that the Shiver is actually a pretty comfortable bike. The footpegs are rear set, the handle bars are wide and low; you sit with a slight forward lean.

There’s a flyscreen up front but it does a better job at trapping bugs than it does at keeping the wind out of your way. Ride at above 160kph and you will need to lean over the tank because hanging on at that speed is near impossible.

Speed is something this burly, naked middleweight bike excels at.

It’s powered by a 750cc twin-cylinder 90° V engine that’s quite loud; slam the throttle shut at high rpm and you are rewarded with a beautiful-sounding pop and burble. The engine puts down 95hp and 81Nm of torque and runs out of breath at about 8500rpm. By then you will be well over 240kph, but that’s assuming you keep the throttle wide open.

Riding the Shiver is surprisingly easy and handling is also good as well, as it weighs in at just 189kg.

And because this is an Aprilia and they are among the best chassis builders in the business, the Shiver is confident through the corners thanks to a compliant set-up that makes it predictable in turns.

You do get the occasional wobbly rear end if the roads are not even but hold your line and keep your guts in check and you will do just fine.

Like most modern bikes of this category, the Aprilia comes with electronic gadgetry that makes riding easier, or faster, depending on what you want. The Shiver features three riding modes – Sports, Touring and Rain, each with a specific throttle mapping.

In Sports mode, you pretty much get the full package.

The electronic ride-by-wire throttle gets sharper and responds to the slightest throttle inputs – the bike is now set to be ridden aggressively.

In Touring mode, the throttle is smoother and you still get maximum power which is mostly available at the upper end of the rev meter.

The throttle is considerably muted in Rain mode and necessarily so. In this mode, the bike reins in the power to maximise traction in slippery conditions.

However, the annoying thing about all these modes is switching from one mode to another because you need to get off the throttle to switch.

That means decelerating and waiting for the switch to take place and then cranking the throttle just to get back to where you were again. That’s no fun but it’s certainly not a deal-breaker.

On to the brakes then; the new wave styled rotors lend a sense of contemporariness to the Shiver. They perform as well as they look. The Aprilia branded radial-mounted calipers together with stainless steel braided lines stop the bike with considerable force and takes some getting used to or you just end up locking the rear tyre.

The clutch and brake lever, though, are placed at quite a distance; larger hands shouldn’t have a problem here but for those that do, multi-point reach adjustments should be able to fix that.

There’s always aftermarket parts to make life easier.

Overall, the Shiver is a really good buy.

You get a lot of electronics for the money and the design of the Shiver definitely deserves a second mention.

Even the funky undertail exhausts are distinctive, brilliant looking and will not have you thinking of an Akrapovic aftermarket exhaust or you risk messing up the overall design.

But how does it stack up against the competition? It’s definitely cheaper than its Italian or British competitors but it’s not as fast as, say, a Ducati Monster 795.

What it lacks in overall speed, it makes up in others ways.

The riding position is more comfortable, it doesn’t soak you in engine heat when in traffic and an Aprilia has something exotic about its brand. Maybe it’s because you don’t see many running around, or maybe it’s because this is the same brand that has won 45 World Championship titles, I can’t decide.

But I do know that at its price, it’s a very enticing prospect.

There are very few bikes out there that can offer as much value, look as good and perform as well as the Shiver 750.

It even comes with three-year free maintenance or 30,000km, whichever comes first.

If you’re looking to switch to a naked street bike, or if you’re considering getting your first superbike, then you should give the Aprilia Shiver 750 a long, hard look.

This is one bike that justifies using the words “good” and “great”.