2013 Aprilia Caponord

REMEMBER Aprilia's first Caponord? When the firm took the V-twin motor from an existing model and wrapped it in some pseudo-offroad packaging to leap onto a growing trend for dual-sports bikes back in 2000?

Well this isn't that bike. But the formula isn't all that different.

OK, so there is pretty much zero attempt at off-road ability from the 2013 Caponord, which is based on the engine/chassis combo from the firm's Dorsoduro 1200, but it's still firmly focussed on a growing group of bikes that could loosely be defined as 'dual-sports' - containing everything from the BMW R1200GS to the Ducati Multistrada. High-rise riding positions, wide bars, comfy seats and a combination of real touring ability and a nod to off-road styling tie them together.

Specs haven't emerged yet, but the addition of an oil cooler points to the motor being Aprilia's 1200cc twin rather than the firm's 750, the brakes are the inevitable-on-Italian-bikes Brembo radial mount four-pots (remember when that was considered exotic?) and the suspension appears to be pretty high-spec, with some suggestion that top-line versions will get adaptive damping like the latest Multistrada.

That 1200cc motor manages a respectable 130bhp in Dorsoduro form, so while the Caponord probably won't challenge the Multistrada in sheer performance, it has the makings of a credible tourer. The styling, like the inbred offspring of an illicit relationship between the Dorsoduro and RSV4R, is predictable but not hideous. It should be a decent bike.

But in what's become the most hotly-contested market of them all, one that's still dominated by BMW and facing an all-new GS for 2013, decent might not be enough. With performance buyers no doubt opting for the Multistrada, world-circumnavigators (and wannabes) the BMW, and those looking for cheaper prices and Japanese reliability amply served by Kawasaki's Versys 1000, Honda's Crossrunner and, soon, Suzuki's new V-Strom 1000, the market is looking pretty crowded already.

It would be a shame if the new Caponord remains as rare as its namesake, but don't bet against it.