Aprilia's Max Biaggi has declared he is more than happy with the new RS4 World Superbike contender, saying it's a good base from which to work ahead of the 2009 season.

Biaggi has had two tests on the bike at Valencia and Portimao, and will be joined next season by MotoGP refugee Shinya Nakano on what, on paper, could be a team in serious contention for the title.
"The Portimao test was my first real one with the Aprilia after trying out the bike for the first time last month at Valencia," said the Roman Emperor.

"Here we did a lot of work to try and find a good starting-point which will then help us to adapt the bike to the various circuits of the next tests and the races in the future. There are still a few problems to be resolved but we're only at the beginning and the bike is still in its development phase.

"I am however quite pleased with the work we have done, we accumulated a lot of data that will be useful for the engineers to produce new components to help the RSV4 develop. We have to find out how and where to improve and then step by step we will have a package that is competitive right from the first races, but we're going to have to roll our sleeves up to do this obviously.

"I'm really happy to work with this team, we have already established a great feeling and the right working method. It feels like I've returned home after several years."