The Aprilia Pegaso was an excellent dual sport that suffered the same fate as most Aprilias in the 90s/00s – it was poorly marketed and under appreciated, though it was a great bike. Aprilia developed this bike in tandem with BMW, so the latter’s F650 is mechanically almost identical. Aprilia added a few extras that the BMW did not receive, including upgraded brakes, upside-down forks, and interestingly enough, a 5-valve head – 3 of the valves were intake.
2000 was the last year the “Cube” version of the Aprilia Pegaso was imported to the United States. Cube signifies a generation of these bikes that ran from 1997-2004. Notice that it shares its headlight with the RS250, helping to tie in the Aprilia design language. The stalwart Rotax 650 was good for 50 horsepower – this thumper was capable of 112 mph and nearly 60 miles per gallon. The seller states that roughly 680 Pegasos were imported to the US.
This example is VIN #1 and it has less than 16k miles. Oddly, it has a Euro dash and the seller suggests that it was oriignally “given to the CEO of the American distributor who agreed to take on the bikes.” That may just be a story but the seller adds something I did not know about these bikes (emphasis added): “Many Pegasos died from a lack of oil pressure. There are TWO oil screens – one in the frame, that some people clean (sometimes) but another built into the Rotax motor that requires crankcase splitting to access it. BOTH screens have been removed and cleaned on this bike, the 2nd gear shift fork has been replaced (a common Achilles’s heel on this bike), and new piston rings installed in 2024.”
Find this Pegaso for $4,250 in Guilford, Connecticut here on Facebook Marketplace.
This bike-uriousity brought to you by Robert B!