revtothelimit - motorbike forum

So, I am nearly 64 years young and, today, I am the proud owner of an early noughties Italian superbike.

I've been watching this beauty from afar, ever since @dern bought it.

When the old girl came up for sale I was tempted to strike up a relationship.

Weeks passed and it seemed that the RTTL massive, together with eBay, Faceberk and wherever else this was touted were blind... wtf, this should've sold by now, I thought.

However, I'm glad to say, it didn't..........a few pints of Guinness and a love of all things Aprilia meant that my Gen 1.5 Mille R - and the Trike and the Super Scalpel- has a younger sister occupying a space in a, now, very over-crowded garage.

For those of you who are thinking WTF is he talking about, welcome to my new steed.....

viewtopic.php?t=6496

viewtopic.php?t=8138&start=20

To quote @Tricky of this parish who kindly effected collection of the old girl

"She's a beaut, seriously "

There's life in this old dog yet

Kev

Excellent, it did look like an absolute cracker. Happy NBD to you

Eeeee good man! That's proper.

See you in spring I hope

Cool.

Your continued good health to enjoy,sir.

Tbh...I'd given this some thought myself, but space was my problem.

Nice one Kev. Nice one Dern.

Dodgy69 wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:19 pm Tbh...I'd given this some thought myself, but space was my problem.

Nice one Kev. Nice one Dern.

It's Kev's problem too, but we made them fit

- And my thoughts exactly

That's brilliant!! If I'd have had the money I'd have been seriously interested, but I don't think I could import it

But it really is beautiful!! Good call

Congratulations, looks a brilliant bike I'd have been tempted if only I wasn't poor. Keep a slew gen 1 rsv's and zx7r's in my ebay watch list.

Nice one, glad you’re happy with it.

Nice one, I've looked at that thread a number of times thinking what a nice bike that is.

Top toy purchasing

New bike thread in December! Top bombing!!

My garage needs an aprilia.

Thanks for the kind words, folks.

I know it won't be the most comfortable ride but I'm looking forward to my first trip out.

If the weather dries up and the roads are salt-free it would be nice to get out before Xmas.

There's a possibility I may have a trip to the south coast just after Xmas which would be a nice run - about 80 miles each way and I can easily choose a nice non-motorway route. If the weather's not right, then it'll be in the car.

As for next year, there's every chance it will make an appearance at a trackday, indeed it would be nice if I could do a day on each of the bikes.

Otherwise, I see it being used for dry day bimbles and trips out with @Tricky on the Laverda and my other brother on his 636.

Thanks again @dern , maybe you'll see us at Bedford next year

Kev

I rode one once rsv 04 and thought it was very similar to the 98 blade I'd just stepped off, which was pretty comfy for me , (normal arms and legs )

Tonight Matthew, I'm looking at Tuonos, rsv and Falcos...oh, and moto guzzi.

If I didn't already have a Falco (which I've been trying to make more 'comfy') I'd have been all over that RSV. It's a cracker and I'm sure will make the new owner very happy.

Nice dry day here in semi-rural Hampshire so I checked the tyre pressures and filled the new steed with 15 litres of Esso's finest and have just got back from a 35/40 mile shakedown first ride. Roads were still wet in places but not a lot of leaves on the ground so all was good

Well, despite the thread title, it's not totally unsuitable for old fat feckers such as I...as regards the riding position it was just as (un)comfortable as I remember my 954 'Blade.

It only seems to affect my neck, everything else I can cope with. Even though there was a fair amount of 30/40 mph dawdling my wrists, knees and joints didn't ache any more than when I left. It's definitely a bike I will need to acclimatise to, though, if I decide to do 2-3 hours at a time, not that I think I will be doing many 300 mile days on the old girl.

As to the bike itself, handling is sharp and solid, pretty much as I remember my Gen1 Mille R, engine is sweet although clutchless up changes are not as easy. It revs really nicely and the shift light is useful when making progress.

I think the gearing must be standard as it's definitely a little longer than the Mille which I changed from 17/42 to 16/44.

The major bugbear, well the only thing that annoyed me really, was the mirrors..........they only really gave me a good view of my wrists and forearms, not even my elbows

So I'll be having a play with those before my next ride.

Only other things on the agenda will be a higher screen so that I can see the clocks better and some db killers for the twin Akras. I love the sound of the Rotax V-Twin but I don't reckon this system is any quieter than the Ti Racing end can on the Mille - and that struggled to get through the 105db limit at a Cadwell trackday

That's all for now, folks, it's still gonna be here for Xmas

Kev

It had some stuck on wide angle mirrors that I thought were terrible until I took them off and it somehow got worse. The standard mirrors were terrible for me.

Effective mirrors were an afterthought for most of the Rotax V90 engined Aprilias. The OE ones on the Falco were useless (good view of forearms, nothing of what was behind) until someone made the discovery that Aprilia 125 mirrors had an extended stem and were a direct fit to the Falco. The extra few inches of sticky-outness make all the difference to rearward vision.

If you go faster than everything else, you don't need mirrors.

dern wrote: Sun Dec 17, 2023 4:35 pm It had some stuck on wide angle mirrors that I thought were terrible until I took them off and it somehow got worse. The standard mirrors were terrible for me.

Yeah, they're worse than useless. I've had a play with them and can't get much improvement. Bar ends aren't an option really imo.

I think I'm gonna do some googling and see if the tinterweb massive has any bright ideas, maybe even a call to Griff to see if he has any workarounds/suggestions.

Kev