Aprilia Partners With Skully Helmets For Further Rider Immersion

It has been announced that Italian motorcycle manufacturer Aprilia is partnering with Skully, the company who crowdfunded a new motorcycle helmet incorporating a built in HUD with a  rear view camera. Though information is scant, the partnerships is not believed to directly involve Aprilia assisting with the manufacture of the Skully AR-1 helmet.

The primary aim of the partnership at this stage is to facilitate the connectivity between the as yet unreleased AR-1 Helmet and Aprilia’s V4-MP system, Aprilia’s (and parent company Piaggio’s) multimedia platform which is used on the 2015 RSV4 and Tuono 1100 motorcycles. That multimedia platform currently requires connection to a smartphone via bluetooth and provides the following functions:

• Active electronic setup: using the GPS feature of your smartphone, the system recognizes the position of the bike at any given time on the track and automatically changes the electronic adjustments (traction control, anti-wheelie, engine mapping, etc.), accessing a database of parameters recommended by Aprilia Racing. In any case you can set the electronic controls up according to your own preferences, turn by turn.


• Immersive virtual telemetry: your smartphone records the data from the engine and, using an engine graphic, illustrates user performance. The lap reference is indicated by the “ghost” bike image and the performance relative to it can be downloaded to a database which collects all the laps made by Aprilia customers on each circuit.


• Adaptive race assistant: this feature provides tips in real time to safely achieve your best lap on the track. You can establish the ideal lap for each track, considering the various grip and rider skill levels. The application compares rider performance in real time and assists by immediately indicating the need to brake or the possibility of opening up the throttle.

This announcement was actually precipitated at EICMA, where Skully and Aprilia demonstrated telemetry transmitted wirelessly from the RSV4 to the SKULLY AR-1 heads up display helmet, giving riders insight into the mechanics of the motorcycles’ performance including vehicle speed, engine speed, gear position as well as fuel consumption and more

The Skully AR-1 is due for shipment July 2015 and can be ordered for a cool $1,499 although there is no indication connectivity with the RSV4 and Tuono 1100 will be available by then.

 

 

Aprilia Partners With Skully Helmets For Further Rider Immersion