Octo, both are excellent bikes, so either one will give you good times.
For what it's worth, a friend bought an Edwards rep last year. At £8.5k, it was a steal - all the top notch stuff, good build quality, superb handling and fast as a very fast thing. Big b*gger tho. I could see why he raved about it and why he bought it, and he had no problems with it.
At the time, I was still in prevarication mode - weighing up a 998 against the 999, and all the arguments came into play. The sum of the Aprillia parts clearly represented better value than the Duke and a man of my advanced years would be unlikely to exploit any small performance difference. However, never once did I consider the Aprillia as an option - it just didn't do it for me.
Personal choice, that's what it's all about. Just don't come cryin' to me........
