La Quinta, CA -- With apologies to Pat Boone, songwriter Sammy Fain and lyricist Paul Francis Webster, we attempted to hook up with an Aprilia in the Palm Springs area in order to avoid a day that will "suddenly bring showers... rain to grow the flowers." By scheduling the bike test a month (or so) in advance, we could give a damn about the flowers; we simply want to complete a daylong ride with the tires down and the bike fully upright, a feat much easier to accomplish on dry pavement. Of course, the night prior to Aprilia's Will Tate arriving, it rains... and rains.

Happily, for both this story and my peace (piece?) of mind, by the time Will pulled in (the following morning) to the La Quinta Resort's parking lot, the clouds were breaking, and the sun was trying mightily to peak through. All the better to reflect off of the Aprilia's almost luminescent red finish, a shade with just enough orange to be readily identifiable as Aprilia's red ("Rosso Fluo"), and not Ducati's or Ferrari's.

In its all-new for 2004 guise, the Aprilia RSV 1000 R and upmarket sibling, the R Factory, are immediately recognizable as products of Aprilia, while supplanting completely Aprilia's first effort at a V-Twin sport bike -- the Mille -- introduced some five years previous. And while the RSV's modern shape is in striking contrast to the traditional architecture of the La Quinta Resort, it's also perfectly appropriate for surroundings in which the latest, greatest and most fashionable make all-too-regular appearances.

Aprilia rep Marc Vandament gave us a chance to sample his 2002 Mille Factory over the holidays. Despite a King Kong V-Twin and a chassis more secure than Warren Buffett, we weren't exactly taken with the overall execution; the fully faired bike has plastic applied in an almost layered fashion. Where, in most design circles, less is more, Aprilia's design team must have figured more is more -- and just kept adding. The end result was a bike that was dynamic almost in spite of itself, with little of the stripped-down sex appeal of its immediate competition.

In 2004 everything changes, with a fully unified look. From the centrally mounted air intake in the forward part of the nose to the aerodynamically sculpted tail piece, this is more a vehicular sculpture than a typical motorcycle design exercise. And the main point of the redesign, which (as Mr. Tate puts it) is to centralize the bike's mass, is immediately apparent in the location of that mass and arrangements for the rider.

If the bodywork and aluminum alloy frame pull you in, the Aprilia's one-liter V-Twin closes the door on any pretense of detachment. With cylinders separated by 60 degrees, the twin-cam, four-valves-per-cylinder twin puts out 138 horsepower (via an 11.8:1 compression ratio) at 9,500 rpm. Torque, at just under 79 pounds per foot, is obviously more modest, but in combination with a close-ratio six-speed gearbox, the end result is effortless acceleration (almost too effortless) and the sleep-inducing cruising capability of a Dick Cheney speech.

In contrast to the 02 ridden previously, the seat height is slightly lower, while the reach to the bars seems slightly shorter. In fact, the ergos seem ideal for my once-compact frame, a proportion marginalized only by the post-holiday gut. Someone taller, however, might feel a titch cramped. Controls require positive input, but none of the hand wringing -- literally -- required by some high-performance sport bikes. Launches are easy, and even making tight turns in tight places requires no more concentration than does the average 30-second TV spot.

The ride from La Quinta to Yuma, Arizona, is transforming. Along Interstate 8, with sand to your left and Mexico to your right, you feel as if you're negotiating some kind of lunar landscape on the globe's most performance-oriented rover. In what is essentially the machine age, you -- as the pilot -- are at one with the machine. And at a suggested retail of just under $14,000, it's a pairing that, at some level, almost all of us can afford. For more info, go to www.apriliausa.com.