Owned my RS for almost a year now, it´s chuffing great! It handles beautifully and the brakes are phenominal! On the downside the parts arent cheap and aprilia servicing is expensive. But being a simple 2 smoke twin (the engine is the same as in the old Suzuki RGV250 but tuned and with different powervalves) the mechanics are pretty straight forward. You never intend to put lots of miles on a out and out sports bike, but with the RS you cant help yourself. If your being raped to insure a 600cc jap multi, then try one of these as an alternative. You wont regret it.