Aprilia motorcycles
Steve Palmer
buying another bike. An old friend of mine that I used to ride with
purchased a 2001 Falco and seems to be satisfied with it. He and I both have
owned BMWs and Moto Guzzis and he had a 900SS Ducati I absolutely loved to
ride. I loved the feel of that big V-twin and the handling of that bike. He
also loved the bike but hated working on it.
Can anyone give me some feed back about the reliability, ease of maintenance
and quality of the Aprilia Falco.
Steve Ho
The engine is made by Rotax and is regarded as a very well built and strong
engine. Servicing costs are higher than Japanese bikes but lower than
Ducati. Major services are every 9,300 miles requiring a valve
check/adjust - a 5hr service as its a shim under bucket OHC engine. Try the
chatroom on www.rsvr.net for plenty of good (and some not so good!) advice
from a large number of RSV Mille, Falco & Futura owners, all bikes having
basically the same engine.
I certainly don't regret buying my 2000 RSV, even though the 9,300 mile
service was £270. Basic maintenance is fairly easy, one you get your head
around the dry sump engine. Even checking valve clearances isn't seriously
difficult, just awkward, its adjusting clearances thats the pain. It appears
that its fairly unusual for the valve clearances to need adjustment before
20,000 miles plus, although some need it at the first check which is at 600
miles (also an expensive service.
--
Steve Ho
Discovery 200TDi - 1990
BMW R80/7 - 1979
Aprilia RSV1000 Mille - 2000
Rich Lesperance
fullstate
That site isn't bad, but I would check this one out instead:
http://www.apriliaridersite.com/
it's where I hang out and got a lot of info on my bike before I bought
it. If you have any other questions, drop me a line!
--Fullstate