Xtreme Powersports has been a full service Aprilia dealer for years and has competent techs that are fully qualified and proven with those bikes in street, or race trim.
Thanks for the info. If I end up with the aprilia Xtreme Powersports is most likely where I'll get it. They have some great deals at the moment. A Tuono is really what I should get, but I've had a string of ADV bikes and just feel like I need a sport bike again. Chris, Is the weight between the 2 really noticeable? Also, what'd you mean when you referenced the injector swap?
I think he's probably referring to when it transitions(a better word than swap) from one set of injectors to another as the revs change.
Yes. The weight difference is huge. On the Ape, the weight is in the motor and chassis. So even in race trim, it is very heavy. And trying to push it up a ramp, forget about it. My 1299S weighs over 70lbs less than my RSV4 with both in race trim. And that is with the OEM (heavier) Battery in the Duc. The Ape isn't a bad handling bike and I set my PB at Jennings on it, but the effort it took to hustle it through the back section was insane. I set my PB by throwing on a set of tires and going out with JD40 with the sole intention of setting a PB. There is no way I could have maintained that pace for race distance. My arms would have given out. At about 7.5k rpm the injectors swap. On other bikes, both sets of injectors spray and the uppers will just "take over" at higher rpms. On the Ape, the lowers completely stop and uppers start. That causes a big drop in power delivery, so much so that it upsets the chassis because it happens as you are still leaned over driving off apex. It can be "masked" some with fueling and we spent ALOT of time doing that. Livengood would have his laptop on hot pit, I'd do 2 laps, pull in and he would plug in and make adjustments, then I'd go back out. But the only way to truly eliminate it is with a Motec or Marelli system that will give you the ability to control the injectors. We ended up putting a "gearing bandaid" on it and going up on the rear sprocket so I would stay on the upper injectors the whole time.
With all of that being said, we are talking about things that come into play when you are chasing tenths. For the purposes you have stated, I still say the RSV4 is the better bike.
Chris, What year is your APE and how does it compare to the 2016 in terms of weight and the injector fueling issue?
Mine is a 2013. The 2016 is the same as far as chassis, brakes, etc. The weight is the same as is the injector setup. But the 2016 did get a bump in HP.
On the AF1 forums there is a guy with a TV4 with a blown engine. Aprilia USA denied his warranty because they claimed his bar on the back he used to carry stuff on trips was a stunt bar and that he was stunting his bike. After he cleared that up they then blamed the ECU map he got directly through Aprilia and for running the official Aprilia Arkoprovic exhaust they sold him. He has been fighting them for a month. Last I heard he was one step from going to court before the thread was locked because a few people were wanting to blow up Aprilia USAs phone lines to complain. There was even a case where a guy lost his warranty on a new 2016 for just switching out the brake levers. I don't know what's happened, but they have become a pain to deal with lately from what I've seen.
If he is in the US, i hope he takes them to court because there is already a precedence/law for that. They CANNOT deny/void his warranty unless they can prove the aftermarket caused the motor to fail. It is the same for vehicles. Meaning they can't deny a claim for the Air Conditioner because somebody has an aftermarket exhaust and tuner. Or they can't deny a trans claim because somebody has an aftermarket sound system, so on and so forth. They can't deny his claim because they "think" he might be stunting the bike. Unless they can prove the actual bar on the bike caused his motor to fail (which is absurd), they can't deny his claim. I hope he takes them to court and fucks them with bazooka. So sick of companies looking for any/every reason possible to deny claims when in the back of their mind they KNOW their denial is bullshit and they just don't want to stand behind their product.
I just hope nothing happens with my 2016 durning the first two years where I need to make a warranty claim. He is in Ohio and it is Aprilia USA he is having to deal with. I highly doubt if Aprilia Italy even knows what is going on because they would honor the warranty from what people overseas are saying. I admit had I known Aprilia USA was like that, I may have went with the new R1. Bottom line, if you own an Aprilia leave it 100% stock until the warranty is up.
I was following that thread on the aprilia forum. Kind of crazy how it's working out for him. It seems like aprilia was doing whatever they could to deny his claim. With that being said, I still find myself contemplating picking one up.
Hopefully it works out positively for him. I absolutely love the 2016 and intend to keep it a very long time. It really is a fun bike and unique in its own way. Just the whole warranty thing does worry me.
I actually have the opposing viewpoint; might as well mod the shit out of it because they will find a way to deny any warranty claim regardless. Just like the 1299S, my RSV4 was heavily modded before I took delivery of it. I am not going to ride a stock bike (and avoid racing something) just because I might have a warranty issue. I'd rather enjoy it and use it for what it is built for, then ill worry about anything else if the time comes.
Y'all are kidding me right? Of course if you remap an Ecu it should void the warranty. This happens all the time in auto industry. Especially in diesel trucks. There are 59282647 people who claim to know how to properly reflash an Ecu only to fuck it up royally. Go reflash the Ecu and then take it to Yamaha for an electronics warranty and see what that gets you. As far as the levers, I have firsthand experience. There are now 37277 different Chinese knockoff levers on the market and people want to buy cheap shot on eBay. A customer came in claiming his brakes locked up. Bike rolled just fine. Took it for a very close speed test and sure enough front started slowly locking up. Turns out his shitty brake levers were applying just enough pressure as if you were slightly Riding the brake. The machining is junk and there was no freeplay. As far as Aprilia I have had zero problems from a warranty standpoint. We actually just did a complete engine swap under warranty and they even replaced another customers radiator under warranty from a rock.... Typical forum stories where you're getting 1/2 truths
Furthermore, Aprilia learned a huge lesson when they were replacing Sxv engines left and right because dumbass people were overfilling the oil. I'll just add that I am very proud of my Aprilia dealership and our ability to properly take care of customers and ther bikes
To expand on the original post, from my working on them daily and building each into racebikes, I'll give my perspective. Broome could offer a little more since he's owned both as racebikes. As streetbike said I'll take the APE 80% of the time. It's sound alone is mesmerizing. The 1299 lets you know you're riding a Racebike. Don't be the typical person wantig to commute in stop and go traffic or 35mph zones. They hate that. Also don't expect it to want to turn 2500 rpm. Yes it's a twin but it wants to rev. Both have amazing brakes and chassis. The ape is a little more girthy in that regard but it's a nice controlled girth. Both will need certain things to really transform into racebikes. It will require cussy words also. Also, if you're going to mod it, stay off eBay. You spend shit tons on the bike, buy quality stuff like exhaust and shit that some dude didn't make in his garage. Both have really good electronics. Like REALLY good.
I had Race map and a Zard slip on on my 2014. I had no problem with two claims both at different dealers. The first was for an expanding gas tank, the second was for an intermittent Urgent Service light. The gas tank issue pisses me off because they know the plastic tanks don't like ethanol yet they continue to use them. Ducati was smart to make the switch back to metal tanks. The Urgent Service light was caused by an backfire in the airbox. One of the sensors in the box got some oil on it and caused the problem. The mechanic cleaned it up and it was fine after that.
I completely agree with the Levers thing, if the warranty claim was about a braking system failure. More than one crash has been caused by those Chinese knock-off levers (some forums have stickies about not using them). But from what I understand, the warranty claim had nothing to do with the braking system, they tried to deny an unrelated claim because the bike was "deviated from stock". As far as the flashed ECU, I also agree...except in this case we are referring to an official Aprilia ECU supplied by Aprilia. That is the complaint. Aprilia is attempting to void warranty work because the bike has the official Akra exhaust and Aprilia ECU. I know most of the time people bitch about things because they simply don't want to take responsibility for their actions or shell out the money to repair stuff, but in this case I feel they have a valid complaint. If we were talking about some hack job, yeah he is on his own. But we are talking about officially licensed Aprilia parts that were supplied by Aprilia and installed by the dealer. It could just be red tape. Like how some insurance companies will initially deny every claim by default, then wait for it to be pursued. I know stuff like that happens. Or perhaps he just caught somebody pre-coffee. I don't know. But I don't feel like any OEM should deny warranty claims when the customer is using OEM supplied parts installed by the dealer.
