Questions for GTA Aprilia Owners

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veteq said:
the Tuonos are be best bikes I have ever ridden.
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That exhaust... So much nicer than the OE stuff. Louder...by far, but looks so good.
 
I loooove my bike. I have a Tuono as well. No issues with mine at all so far (2016). I heard about stuff from people, but I haven't had anything happen to me yet. It is such a fun bike to ride though, I don't know of another bike that makes me feel the way I do when I ride it. The gas mileage is rough, as well as the wind blast over super long distances, but I've grown accustomed to those "negatives" and they don't bother me much. I just put a tail tidy on it and got rid of the passenger pegs. It looks even better to me now.. I just need to get rid of those hideous side mirrors now. I doubt I will alter the exhaust as when you get on it, its pretty decently loud. Even though I love loud exhausts.. :agave:
 
Another 2016 Tuono owner here.... loving mine so far and zero issues but its very new.

Had a Dorsoduro for a couple seasons before the Tuono and only had battery issues with it, otherwise it was faultless too.

I don't buy the Aprilia unreliability hype. Now the PITA to work, ya that might live up to its reputation!
 
komodo said:
I have a Tuono V4R. It's the best bike I've ever owned. Until you have to work on it.
Bought all the special tools to do a valve adjustment.
It's like 1k worth of tools by BTW.
Let's just say I was less than impressed to find that the official Aprilia tools don't work without modification. Nice.
I've gone through 2 stators. On my 3rd now so we'll see how that pans out. I don't think Aprilia puts much thought into maintainability.
The bike is so good while you're riding it it almost makes you look past rest, almost.
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I'm curious, what year is your Tuono V4R and how many kms do you have on it, if you don't mind me asking.
 
Gonna play devil's advocate here.

Owning an RSV1000R has made me want to quit riding.

Here is a list of issues since the start of this season:

  • Front fender bolt flew off into my face while riding
  • Rear left signal light stopped working, fixed by reconnecting
  • Front low beam stopped working. Speedworx fixed this
  • Gas tank is possibly leaking if I fill completely (my pants smell like gasoline every time)
  • Rear right signal stopped working. Reconnecting doesn't work.
  • Rear right signal cover's screw mount broke off
  • Front left fairing piece broke off (fixed with velcro)
  • And finally, clutch is now slipping once the bike is warmed up. I can get it consistently to slip by WOT or hitting a bump. 5th and 6th gear are most obvious
The thing that ****** me off most about this is that I bought it from a friend who bought it from a shop I trust. A shop owner keeps telling me "you bought an Italian bike, and an old one, it's not like a gixxer"

........so I bought a ****ing lemon? -_-

Compare the above to my GSXR. The GSXR ran perfectly and only had issues when I rammed it into a wall, and ran over a pinecone. I expect the RSV1000R will pull a Michael Bay explosion if it ever goes down.

Somebody please buy this piece of **** off me. I don't even feel right selling it knowing how much of a **** box it is.
 
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油井緋色;2516495 said:
Gonna play devil's advocate here.


A shop owner keeps telling me "you bought an Italian bike, and an old one, it's not like a gixxer"

........so I bought a ****ing lemon? -_-

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he's not wrong, those older Italian bikes are really high maint, and lots of stupid **** breaks on them......the new ones are supposedly better but we wont know for sure for another 10 years or so

I'd never buy an old Italian bike for its reliability, i'd rather drain the fluids out of it and display it in the living room
 
Are they still putting the flash to pass button on? If they are can you hold it on for a bit to get extra light on the road? On mine, using the button for more then a few seconds would blow a fuse and leave you completely in the dark. Discovered that one at night in a dark corner in rural nova scotia. Fun times.

油井緋色 sorry to hear about your bad experiences. I am not sure they are specifically related to Ape or if they are just related to the short straw on that specific bike. For clutch slipping, what oil are you running? I've had some bikes hate some oils. Also there have been problems with check valves and pressure plate flatness.
 
GreyGhost said:
油井緋色 sorry to hear about your bad experiences. I am not sure they are specifically related to Ape or if they are just related to the short straw on that specific bike. For clutch slipping, what oil are you running? I've had some bikes hate some oils. Also there have been problems with check valves and pressure plate flatness.
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Thanks for the empathy.

I'm running 7100. Manual says I need to run 5W30 or something I believe. The shop owner said 10W40 was okay...maybe I should have listened to the manual lol

I've done a ton of research on the clutch issue. The solutions have been all over the place, from the lever plunger, to the master, to rebuilding the clutch. I'm lacking the time to do it myself and we all know how the shops around GTA are...even the 5 star ones will take 4 weeks to do anything these days =/
 
mbroyda said:
he's not wrong, those older Italian bikes are really high maint, and lots of stupid **** breaks on them......the new ones are supposedly better but we wont know for sure for another 10 years or so

I'd never buy an old Italian bike for its reliability, i'd rather drain the fluids out of it and display it in the living room
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exactly, its a ferrari with two less wheels. comparing a gixxer to an italian bike is like maserati vs honda. They arent lemons, they are italian quirky with crappy electrics, lack of parts, manuals that make no sense and often reliability issues. And that why a lot of us love them, because its not a Japanese build.
 
crankcall said:
exactly, its a ferrari with two less wheels. comparing a gixxer to an italian bike is like maserati vs honda. They arent lemons, they are italian quirky with crappy electrics, lack of parts, manuals that make no sense and often reliability issues. And that why a lot of us love them, because its not a Japanese build.
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Is a love/hate relationship.
Love it when it's working right.
Hate it when it's not.
All depends on how much abuse you're willing to live with.
 
I read a good deal of icky stuff on Aprilia forums about "early" Aprilia V4s (mostly cam chain, dropped valves and guide issues) and electrics (mostly instrument cluster issues) and was reticent to blow a large wad on a new Tuono. I didn't trade my Fazer 8 in at the time because I wanted a backup bike if/when the Ape broke down or had to go back to the dealer.

So far, 4200kms in, no problems have surfaced. Well, no serious problems. The front brake pressure sensor bar graph on the LCD glitches periodically. I've had to add a bit of oil now and then. Once in a while I have to try the key twice for the immobilizer to recognize it. That's about it. The Tuono has otherwise been an exemplary bike. Will it last? I don't know but I do know that in the here and now it's a hoot.

Fingers crossed that Aprilia got their quality issues sorted for the 2017 model year.
 
crankcall said:
exactly, its a ferrari with two less wheels. comparing a gixxer to an italian bike is like maserati vs honda. They arent lemons, they are italian quirky with crappy electrics, lack of parts, manuals that make no sense and often reliability issues. And that why a lot of us love them, because its not a Japanese build.
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So....do you want mine? lmao
 
Exactly like a mid 90's Ferrari where maintenance is an after thought and you have to remove the engine for service.
 
So I'm not going to pull the trigger on this this year for various reasons. Next year is more likely, but I've also decided to keep the moto that I have now. Can never go wrong with 2 motos, right??
 
Chaos said:
So I'm not going to pull the trigger on this this year for various reasons. Next year is more likely, but I've also decided to keep the moto that I have now. Can never go wrong with 2 motos, right??
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That's the perfect plan. Dive right in as long as you have a back up ride.
 
This image that their Motorcycles are unreliable is the biggest issue Italian manufactures will have to overcome. For many years, they produced beautiful (In my option) but far from reliable motorcycles; all that has changed in the last few years yet this perception still remains. I own several Italian bikes and all have been very reliable. My 2012 Tuono just hit 24,000+kms mark and cost me less than $500 in repairs (a redesigned Stator, know issue) outside scheduled maintenance. When it comes to the other bikes, I had the sprag-clutch (part of the start motor) replaced under warranty on the MV Agusta Brutale; no other issue to report with any of the other bikes.
Forums are far from the best place to gauge reliability or lack thereof. People only post when they are experiencing problem.
Most people here comparing Japanese to Italian bikes never owned both. My 2006 GSXR1000 was in the shop several times for clutch and stalling issues, at the 8000km mark I traded it in for a Ducati 1098. I went on to put over 20,000 trouble free kms on it before trading it for the 2012 Tuono, I was done with ergonomics of sport bikes.

Just my two cents.
 
over the last 35 yrs of riding there have been a lot of Italian, German, Brit and Japanese bikes parked in my garage, parked is the key word here.

Multiple models and over many yrs, and I've had great riding bikes and ones that are the reason I'm a decent mechanic, and equal pain from all mainstream manufacturers.
My small Ducati 620 monster may have been the best of the lot.
 
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