The "born bad" bike that was ahead of its time

In 2002, the upper echelon of grand prix motorcycling experienced a sudden and seismic shift in its technical regulations.

Having raced with 500cc engines since the inception of the category in 1949, the top class moved to 990cc powerplants, opening up the engine capacity to something almost twice as large.

As the 500cc moniker was now obviously redundant, the new formula prompted a switch to the infinitely more marketable MotoGP name. For the world of bikes, this was akin to the top level of English football breaking away from the other divisions in 1992, and rebadging itself as the Premier League.

The new name was also accompanied by a switch from two-stroke engines to four-stroke, and while the benefits of the latter were clear - better fuel economy and greater torque being two such advantages - they were costly to make.

But at the time, manufacturers were willing to put the money in. Honda had developed a curious V5 arrangement, Yamaha opted for an inline-four design (which it uses to this day), while Suzuki persisted with a V4. The satellite teams stuck with the two-stroke 500cc engines, as did Kenny Roberts' Proton-backed squad - but there was one more manufacturer who made the 990cc leap at the very start.

Aprilia, after sitting out 2001, returned to the top tier with a brand new bike - the RS Cube. Having given up on the previous RSW 500, which was nothing more than a glorified 250cc bike, the RS Cube was an entirely new design and featured an innovative 990cc three-cylinder engine co-developed by Cosworth.

With Cosworth's decades of pedigree in developing engines for Formula 1, Aprilia looked to have the perfect partner to take the fight to the better-funded likes of Honda and Yamaha.

An inline-three cylinder engine can be quite easily balanced and lends itself to a compact arrangement, certainly desirable traits when developing something as light and nimble as a motorbike. Cosworth also sought to inject F1-developed technology that had never been seen in MotoGP but would ultimately become common-place, borrowing pneumatic valves and a ride-by-wire throttle for the Aprilia engine project - headed by Jan Witteveen.

For 2002, Aprilia threw its weight behind just one bike, drafting in Regis Laconi (pictured) - who had spent 2001 with the team in World Superbikes - for the first year with the 'Cube'.

The bike was a rocket down the straights, but in the corners it was a particularly capricious beast, especially on the exits of corners where the rider hit the power and had to stop the front from pulling a wheelie

It was to be largely a development season as the team got to grips with the bike's highly sophisticated electronics, which deepened its F1 links with the addition of traction control and the option for launch control.

Altogether, the three-cylinder engine allegedly churned out up to 240bhp - arguably making it the most powerful bike on the grid.

But power untamed is power wasted, and the gallons of grunt that the RS Cube's powerplant possessed were often spilled on the floor. The chassis was too stiff to handle the engine and, as a result, handling was far too wayward; riders had to work hard to not only stay on the horse but also keep the front end from lifting.

Sure, the bike was a rocket down the straights, but in the corners it was a particularly capricious beast, especially on the exits of corners where the rider hit the power and had to stop the front from pulling a wheelie. It sounded spectacular, adding a deep baritone note to a field of sopranos and tenors, but its bark was worse than its bite.

It was hardly a surprise that Laconi plonked his Aprilia towards the back of the grid at the Suzuka season-opener, qualifying 19th to hang around at the rear with the 500cc machines, the Bridgestone-shod Protons and independent Honda runner Jurgen van den Goorbergh.

It was much more of a surprise that Laconi ended the race in eighth place amid difficult and wet conditions, and even more so that he ended the race ahead of front-row starter Loris Capirossi, who had fallen through the field at the start after an initial excellent brief surge into the lead. Perhaps the Aprilia had promise after all.

In the initial flurry of races that kickstarted the MotoGP era, Laconi dragged the RS Cube into the points as the team initially had reliability within its corner. Most impressive was the bike's performance at Mugello, where the long straight and the three-pot engine's power helped Laconi become the first MotoGP rider to cross the 200mph barrier. Qualifying an impressive fifth, the Frenchman repeated his eighth place from the season opener. But from there, Aprilia's fortunes all went downhill.

Laconi's brace of points at Barcelona - narrowly beating backmarker and current crew chief to five-time WSBK champion Jonathan Rea, Pere Riba, on a 500cc Yamaha - was no doubt assisted by retirements, before suffering his first retirement of the year at the Dutch TT after clawing his way up to 10th place. Laconi only bothered the scorers once more in 2002 with 11th at Motegi, as Aprilia lost ground throughout the season against the development - and greater prevalence - of the other four-stroke bikes.

Having spent the year attempting to tame the RS Cube for little reward, Laconi returned to the comfort of WSBK after penning a deal with Ducati for 2003, while Aprilia returned for a second season with an all-new line-up - with the aim of turning its project around.

The Italian outfit scooped double WSBK champion Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga out of Superbikes and tasked them with getting a tune out of the RS Cube. Little improvement had been shown over 2002, and the team switched from Dunlop tyres to Michelin in a bid to close up to the leading manufacturers. Aprilia also attempted to refine the electronics on board with a year's worth of data to fall back on, seeking to improve the power delivery and reduce the bike's chattering that would often leave Laconi in pain after races.

Edwards, undeterred by a fraught first test at Jerez with the bike, was "amazed" by the RS Cube despite falling off on the opening day, having not yet become accustomed to the engine management systems off-throttle.

"I am amazed by the Cube," Edwards said back in 2002. "It's an extraordinary bike. You can customise it as much as you like with no end of different settings - it's a lab on two wheels, really special. I was expecting a lot of power, but certainly not that much."

Effusively optimistic at the start of his Aprilia tenure, Edwards' early feelings about the RS Cube conspicuously contrasted with those at the end of 2003, after the Texas Tornado had failed to tame the bucking bronco. Haga, too, struggled with the bike and it frequently appeared prostate on a gravel trap more than it did upright and circulating on-track. Edwards declared later in the year that the bike was "born bad" and was frustrated by the number of issues that it had in the handling department.

Although Aprilia's efforts at Suzuka once more showed promise - as Edwards scorched to sixth place, with Haga clinching a first double-points finish for the bike in 12th - the year was more notable for the RS Cube's attempt to cook Edwards alive.

In practice for the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring, Edwards (pictured below at that year's Japanese GP) had taken a reworked Aprilia chassis out for some mileage and the team had made a number of changes to instil a sense of feeling in the bike's turning capabilities. Then, Edwards' fuel cap let go, and he and his bike were immediately doused in fuel, which splashed onto the exhaust and spectacularly caught fire. Caught in a blaze at high-speed, Edwards ditched the bike in a gravel trap and was left with burns to his leg.

Haga promptly wrote off the other new chassis in a particularly typical crash, leaving Aprilia with a bucket of parts in one corner of the garage and an urn of ashes in the other. The duo was able to make it to the grid on the old bike, with Edwards salvaging 14th place (as Haga fell off again), but the RS Cube's comedy of errors showed little sign of abating.

Edwards had, by the end of the year, had enough and departed to the Gresini-run satellite Honda team, while Haga's collection of crashes had prompted the Japanese rider to retreat to WSBK to lick his wounds.

By 2004, the engine's power advantage had been eaten into by the other manufacturers and the inherent handling problems could not be alleviated by the off-season work produced by Aprilia's engineers

Aprilia, needing new riders to try their luck once more, signed up British duo Jeremy McWilliams and Shane Byrne for 2004. McWilliams had experience of Aprilia machinery in both 500cc and 250cc categories and was fresh from leading Kenny Roberts' MotoGP project. Byrne, meanwhile, was a relative unknown to the grand prix circus, having just won the first of his six British Superbikes titles. Perhaps a fresh outlook was what Aprilia needed.

Resplendent in a white and gold livery, the RS Cube had no less than 200 new parts, while Aprilia had long since taken the development of the four-stroke engine into its own hands without Cosworth's involvement. But by 2004, the engine's power advantage had been eaten into by the other manufacturers and the inherent handling problems could not be alleviated by the off-season work produced by Aprilia's engineers.

The chatter still remained prevalent in the bike too, and Byrne felt the full brunt of the RS Cube's fury, falling off in practice for the Brno round and injuring his wrist with a violent highside impact. Following a painful Motegi return, he ceded control of the bike to Garry McCoy. But none of the riders could surpass Byrne's 10th place at the rain-affected Italian Grand Prix, as the RS Cube's three years of development showed little signs of progress.

New parent company Piaggio pulled the plug at the end of the season, ending Aprilia's involvement in MotoGP. It was another eight years before the marque dipped its toe back in the shark-infested waters of grand prix motorcycling's top flight with its ART-badged bikes in 2012, the short-lived CRT era acting as its springboard to return as a factory entrant three years later.

The RS Cube left a legacy of being devastatingly quick in a straight line and a particularly sinister beast as soon as the riders attempted to weave it through the corners. But my, did it sound good.

Specifications

Chassis: Twin-spar aluminium frame
Engine: Aprilia inline-three four-stroke
Engine Capacity: 990cc
Power: 225bhp
Tyres: Dunlop/Michelin
Weight: 135kg