Adventures in Apriliandia

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Contrary to what many may believe this isn’t my first Aprilia, It’s not even my second! lol But it will be the first one that I’m going to do some rather fun things with project wise. I expect a lot of fun knowledge to be explored with this bike.

Initially Ed picked it up as sort of a parts bike the two of us would share. I thought well I might as well pick up the missing parts and make it a runner. Then I'd have mare RS wrenching experience, and another loaner for GPR Camp this year.

The previous owner had planed to create an abomination by cramming a four stroke in there. Thankfully he lost interest, and decided to send it on it’s way. I found it on Craig’s and promptly told Ed about it. He called the guy up and made arrangements to pick it up. That got it to San Francisco.

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The bike is missing a lot of parts.

Headlight shell
Side panels
Side panel inners
Center lower faring
Blinkers
Seat
Mirrors
Some wiring
And probably a bunch of other stuff yet to be discovered.

I'm in the process of ordering up some bits for it. Some parts have proven fairly elusive, such as the headlight shell. I know that the RS125 shell will fit as well, but even looking for both I've not been successful at finding a shell. I have some ideas on repurposing some Derbi parts as a temporary fix if I can't find a one promptly enough.

I'll be posting up as items start to show up for this project.

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Treats was of course having one of their big sales during New Years. There weren't a lot of choices left by the time I started ordering, but I was able to get a decent kit for the bike. I've installed these on GPRs before with great results, and decided I'd like to give this kit a go on the RS too.

On thing that's different about this one than on the Derbi is the head insert is pinned. This is kind of a bummer because if you can rotate the insert you can index the spark plug quite easily. I suppose I could remove the pin, but they probably put it in there for a good reason.

I like that the piston came coated too.

Giladoni Italkit 48mm bore, single ring, seven ports :

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These beautiful jewels showed up from Santa Xero for the RS. I need to get a photo of the other side too as they are something the behold.

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UPS came by today with some goodies from AF-1.

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Inside were many fun items. Lets start with the forks. One of the most important things riding wise is the RaceTech fork spring upgrades. While this was probably the worst value of the purchases it will add the most to the bike's performance. I also ordered new sliding tubes. The came with all new seals and bushings, and at that price it was impossible to say no. Just the seals would cost as much.

Next up were body pieces. The bike is missing a number of parts, and AF-1 has good pricing on many things. They did't have a full set so I had to piece things together. Hopefully though it will achieve a cohesive look.

The didn't have a pair of side panels that matched so I ordered one of each of the two right hand panels that they had figuring it would be easier to find a match this way. They look absolutely gorgeous though. The bike will at least look lovely from one side.

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Not quite so shiny, but it will protect the bike until another better option presents itself, and some of the marks may buff out.

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The RS is still hanging over at Ed's place until I make some progress on the other projects, and get a few more parts. Many of the parts that I picked up for this bike are ending up on RD's RS because I got the last bits from the Treats store. It's cool I can replace them later.

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I was over at Ed's the other day picking up the 899 which he protected for me while I was in Japan. I got a better look at the RS, and saw that the tail section, and tank cover were toast. So that meant that I needed to make another AF-1 order. The box showed up today, but I'm too exhausted to even look inside. lolz

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Had a chance to open the box. I probably would have waited on these parts, but AF-1 is just about out of these specials. They really didn't have the livery that I would have chosen, but these parts should look fairly well together. There are still a bunch of parts I need to get for this bike including the seat, headlight bucket, rear sets (RD got the ones from this bike), top end (RD got it), carb (yup RD got that too), and probably a bunch of little stuff.

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Finally was able to pick up the RS from Ed. This bike is going to require quite a bit of effort. And those mustard color wheels, well that's got to change!