At just 17 years old for the entirety of the 1996 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, the long hair and youthful looks of Valentino Rossi did nothing to conceal the young rider’s near-instant impact on the sport. Indeed, lining up to race in the 125-cc field as the reigning domestic champion for the junior class in his native Italy, Rossi had a point to prove against fledgling new rivals comprising many of the most promising riders in the world. Scuderia AGV Aprilia enlisted the teenage Rossi to ride the team’s Aprilia RS125R after the Urbino-born rider had impressed on the karting circuit and in junior motorcycle racing. 

Taking to his first-ever Grand Prix race at the Shah Alam Circuit in Malaysia, Rossi lined up to the starting grid on the RS125R, a sports bike brought to life by its high-revving 125-cc two-stroke engine that was fed by a single Dell’Orto carburettor. The Aprilia race bike that launched Rossi’s career in GP racing was the very same motorcycle offered here, frame number 1291195. 

The bike was ridden to a respectable 6th place on Rossi’s debut and the Italian rider continued in points-scoring positions for the next four race outings. Rossi raced with frame number 1291195 for the rest of the season, continuing with 11th place in the second round at Sentul, 11th place at Suzuka, 4th place in Jerez, and 4th again at Mugello. Forced retirements came at Circuit Paul Ricard and in Assen, followed by taking 5th place on this bike at the Nürburgring, then having to step off the bike at the next race at Donington. 

At the tenth round of the season in Austria, the lead Honda of Ivan Goi finished some 10 seconds ahead of Rossi, whose Aprilia was first home among 11 entrants using the same RS125R. This race was significant for Rossi, though, who finished in 3rd place and stepped onto a Grand Prix podium for the first time. In a career spanning the next 25 years, Rossi became a mainstay of the top three, with 235 all-time podiums across 125 cc, 250 cc, and MotoGP classes. At the next race in Brno, Rossi’s promising form kicked into gear with the first Grand Prix race win of a long and distinguished career. This would be the first of Rossi’s 115 victories across all three first-class Grand Prix classes; a record that still stands to make ‘The Doctor’—a nickname earned while transcending from the two-stroke bikes of junior racing into dominating the MotoGP era—the most successful rider of modern motorcycle racing. 

Following the end of the 1996 season, in January 1997 the RS125R was sold to its first private owner, a resident of the Lazio region south of Rome. The invoice for the sale is available to view on file. The bike was retained until February 2013, when it was acquired by the consigning owner. The bike was running when purchased and then entered to long-term storage, a video on file shows the bike in static operation. Rossi competed one more season in the 125-cc class, scoring an incredible 11 race wins in 1997 to take the title and move up to the 250-cc division in 1998. He won that class with nine race wins in 1999 and progressed to top-tier 500-cc racing in 2000, making an instant impression to close out his first senior season in 2nd place, with his first title coming the year after. The following decade, from the dawn of MotoGP racing in 2002, Rossi was near-unstoppable.  

Now comes the opportunity to acquire this special bike; the Aprilia RS125R upon which it all began for one of the greatest, revered, and most successful icons of motorcycle racing. The bike is offered for sale with team documents that verify each of its race entries by Scuderia AGV Aprilia in 1996 and bills of sale to chart its short private ownership chain. A note from the team manager Mauro Noccioli is on file which details his thoughts following Rossi’s first win. Furthermore, the team sheets verify that the engine fitted is the very unit which propelled Rossi to his first victory at Brno Circuit in 1996. 

For fans of motorcycle racing in any capacity—and particularly those who fondly recall the halcyon era of future champions cutting their teeth on two-stroke bikes—the opportunity to own Valentino Rossi’s bike which he made his debut on and claimed his first-ever Grand Prix victory, with its preserved 1996 season livery, is one that simply cannot be missed.