The Aprilia RS 50: My Dream Motorcycle

Andrew Pham
2 min readJul 8, 2023

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Here in Colorado, low powered scooters under 50cc pay almost no registration, no insurance, and can be parked on the sidewalk. Now I ride motorcycles so I couldn’t be caught dead in a 50cc scooter… except this one.

The Aprila RS 50 with a 49.7cc displacement and a top speed of 30 mph. Maybe with a sprocket change and full tuck it’ll hit my neighborhood speed limit of 35 mph. The RS50 looks like a “real” motorcycle and it’s also from a respected motorcycle brand unlike those Chinese scooters you see imitating motorcycles. It’s truly the “scooter in disguise” I’ve been looking for. Just one problem, they’re rare. The RS50 in the featured image is modern and we don’t get that version in the states. They were only sold in the states from the late 90s to early 2000s. For $2500 one could probably snag a low mileage CBR that would be more reliable and more powerful than this thing but there’s something ridiculous about this motorcycle that makes me love it. If anyone sees one for sale, especially in Colorado, please let me know. I have a weird dream bike.

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Andrew Pham

Software Eng, Space Force Officer, Harvard Alum, MIT AI Fellow, & Frequent Flier