'08 Seats don't fit properly.

Hi all.

My '08 RSVR had it's first service done today and while I was waiting I browsed round the shop and looked at some other RSVR's. Subsequently I noticed that both their seats fitted flush and MUCH better than mine did.

On mine there's about a 1 cm gap between the back of the pillion seat and/or single seat hump and the black plastic trim on the back of the brake light. There's also a gap of about a cm in height at the back of the riders seat too. It's been like that since I got it but I rightly or wrongly put it down to dubious Italian build quality.

I mentioned it to the dealer and they confirmed it wasn't right quite right but they couldn't understand it either as there's only one way to put the seat on. They said, rather obviously, it's the seat, panels or subframe! Cheers.

Essentially they said they can't see anything amiss with it without totally dismantling it and comparing it to another one. They suggested I should write to Mr Aprilia and take it up as a warranty issue with photographic evidence etc. (Good idea but not if I can help it!)

In actual fact it doesn't really make any difference as the seats are both secure and comfortable but it is a bit unsightly and water gets in quite easily too. However now I know it's not right it's annoying me and I wonder what the problem is or if anything else is wrong.

Possibilities I though of were:

Incorrect subframe from a previous or wrong model (Is that even possible?)
Incorrectly machined bolt holes on subframe for panels and/or seat?
Incorrect seat from previous or wrong model, eg could it have a Tuono seat, are they different?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated?

spoonz said:

The seat and hump etc sit on rubber feet that rest on the subframe. So it must either be the rear bodywork is too low or you have the wrong feet/saddle base etc on the seats which make it sit too high.

In 06 the rear body changed shape slightly and i wonder if you accidently got the wrong saddle/hump base or feet or something weird. I would take your seat and hump down to the dealer and do a comparison. they shouldn't mind taking the seat hump off a shop bike just to check.

Click to expand...

Cheers for the conformation spoonz, it's stuff I kind of thought myself but I'm pretty ignorant of the possibilities with regards to model changes and/or inter-changeable parts etc. I suggested the seat swap at the dealer but it was the end of the day and they were packing up and understandably didn't want to get into it. Your dead right about the saddle feet being too long on the rider saddle but I've got no idea why the pillion seat and hump are essentially too short.

I think I'll nip back up there asap and see if they'll oblige. One thing I didn't understand was that my RSV is white and this is an '08 only colour so I theoretically couldn't have the wrong seat hump but that doesn't fit either. Subsequently I'm presuming it must be something to do with body work or subframe and/or mountings. We shall see. Thanks again.

spoonz said:

Seat hump must be 08 but the base of the rear hump comes off and it's the base that has the feet etc on it

Click to expand...

Ah I see, I'm with you now. That would be weird, as you said previously, but none the less possible I'm sure.

I called my local dealer today and spoke to the manager and he was very helpful and keen to help out so I'm hopeful I'll get it resolved. Good thing is I guess I'll know if it's the seats within about 10 minutes of getting to the dealer, and if it's not at least it will eliminate one possibilty. Thanks again.

sprocker said:

It wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't an incorrect base fitted at manufacturers, I bought a rear seat for mine from a dealership (they were selling old stock off on e-bay) and when i tried fitting to the bike i found the locating peg had been fitted the wrong way round and the notch wouldn't locate into the catch mechanism :rantI had to take it back and get a refund. Manufacturers aren't infallible to mistakes :dunno

Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that as it's certainly a possibilty I've considered. The reason being is that all the seats line up and fit perfectly but all the mounting points are out, especially the rear pillion seat. It fits like a dream but the catch and the allen key bolts that hold the catch on are about 1cm out so they don't sit in the locator slots unless you move it forward, pretty much exactly as you described Sprocker. Although what are the odds both seats and the seat hump are all duff? Slim I'd've thought but I guess you never know.

Also, as suggested by spoonz and confirmed by myself, the rear feet on the rider saddle seem too long and the reason there is gap at the back of the seat is that it sits too high and not that it's too short or small. Odd to say the least!

Either way I'm hopefully nipping down there on Wednesday so fingers crossed.

The saga of the seats continues. Went to my local dealer yesterday and while they were ultimately helpful I could tell they were a bit irritiated by the inconvieniance of it and only really helped under duress. Basically we checked the seats and it's definitely not them and so it's obviously something slightly more serious like the tail unit or subframe.

The dealer really wasn't keen to get involved and mentioned several times that I need to take it back to where I got it from (Taz, Peterborough) for them to sort it but I mentioned that I'm in Southampton and it's not really practical for me to go all the way up there when I've got an official dealer 5 miles from my home. Plus under warranty I should be able get any necessary work done at any official dealer. Aprilia's words not mine.

By some amazing twist of fate and pure luck there was an Aprilia rep in the shop at the time and they got him envolved and after he'd looked at it he agreed that something wasn't right. He thinks either the tail unit hasn't been fitted properly or the mounting holes on the subframe are in the wrong place. He essentially echoed exactly what I had already said and he politely asked (told) them to look at it as his assessment was that the tail unit was out for one of the two aformentioned reasons.

He suggested they swap my tail unit for one off an identical RSV in the shop as that would determine whether it was the plastic or subframe and the service dept guy didn't half squirm. You could see he'd been forced into a corner and was hating it. Shame really as he's seemed an ok guy but at the end of the day I'm entitled to have a properly assembled bike and while I may've bought the bike elswhere I'm still getting all my servicing done with him and I'd literally just paid £323 for the first service! Plus they get paid to do any warranty work, although to be fair it seems they don't get paid for the diagnostic work, as they put it, which essentially means they don't get paid to find out what the problem is.

It all got a bit tense so in the end I asked how long it would take to swap the tail units around and they said about 45 minutes and so I agreed to pay £30 labour, although if any warranty work is actually carried out I will ask for it back. Hopefully I'm gonna pop down there next Friday so fingers crossed.

AREESSMILL said:

Hold a minute

You paid 30 quid to Aprilia.......who under warranty are getting ****** that one os THERE employees has cocked up srilling the sub frame.:rant

Not good enough to be honest. :rant

They should have the bike until its fixed properly. :rant

Imagine if you bought a new car and the boot Lid didnt sit flush. :confused

I would start going down the "duty of care route" as if the pillion seat is not fitting properly then who says its gonna hold at 70mph down the motor with your wife sitting on it.!!

Nah Im a real **** for customer care, even more so if I have bought new. :rant

rant over Lads :eatcorn

Click to expand...

Not paid them yet but I do totally agree with you. It's all corperate politics crap. There sticking point is that I didn't buy the bike from them but unfortunately that doesn't really wash if your an official dealer, as the rep pointed out. Although to put things in context the conversation and atmosphere was going downhill fast even with the rep there backing me up so I felt it best to offer some concession to defuse things a bit and to simply get the work done. Plus I don't want to have to find another dealer considerably further away and start this fiasco from scratch again with someone else.

To be honest if anything is wrong with it and warranty work needs to be undertaken I'm not paying them a penny as the warranty is there for just such circumstances and it would make it totally worthless if you have to pay to rectify manufacturing defects. I'm gonna see how it goes but I WILL get it sorted one way or another and with the absolute minimum expenditure possible...like free! Wish me luck!

Right well I'm not sure anyone's interested in this saga anymore as I'm barely sure I am myself but thankfully it is the conclusion so I thought it fitting to finish it off.

So went to the dealers today, again, and was greeted with a "oh **** not him again" look which was endearing but not entirely unexpected. Anyway to make a very long story short they swapped the tail unit on mine with a new one in their shop and hey presto it all fitted together fine. After much discussion and deliberation with the mechanic (who was a very helpful top bloke) and the service manager (who was ok but was most definitely pissed off by the whole situation) the mechanic suggested a warranty job for the whole tail unit and the service manager went a bit spare.

Subsequently he very reluctantly agreed and told the mechanic to put mine back together and he was then gonna take some photos to send to Mr Aprilia, BUT when they put mine back together everything fitted back together alot better than before which was odd. It wasn't 100% as I would've liked to be honest but it was loads better and it was certainly no worse than any others I've seen, (and I've seen alot during this episode!) After looking at the others I would say it was within the typical tolerances for this part so the fact it wasn't perfect was more to do with Aprilia's manufacture than any defect I think so I couldn't really complain.

Anyway the only thing we could all come up with was that somehow the Aprilia boys at the factory hadn't managed to fit the tail unit properly. Either way all's well that ends well I guess and I'm just glad it was a relatively quick and easy fix as I think going through the process of warranty work with the dealer and possibly Aprilia would've been a nightmare!

kiwi_rsvr said:

Well thats sort of a happy outcome, I guess. Shame youv'e had to go through so much grief though :-(.

I just wonder what is going on in the minds of Aprilia and their dealer network.......its just plain scary that they want your money but arn't prepared to offer any support how can they survive in this way ?.

Click to expand...

That's a very good point kiwi, how will they survive? I appreciate they're not in a position to compete with the japs now or possibly ever but their not skint by along way as their moped sales along with their parent company Piaggio's mopeds sales rake in a mint. Personally I think it's probably a company ethos in that Aprilia went to the wall before Piaggio bailed them out and so maybe their on a very tight leash but either way Aprilia must understand that they can't justify treating their official dealers like crap who in turn pass this on to the customer by providing ***** after sales service.

The future doen't look good if Aprilia keep being so cheap and difficult towards their dealers which is no doubt being passed on to the customer and they (Aprilia) just seem to be making life difficult for everybody. The question is who in their right mind would sign up to be an Aprilia dealer, or indeed stay one if things don't change? Then as a customer who would buy a bike from them if you get treated like crap and/or have to travel miles and miles to get something done only to find you don't feel very welcome when you arrive.

Hopefully things will change with the RSV4 as at that price they better be using some bloody good components and they're only making limited numbers so build quality should be good so hopefully no dodgy wiring, relays, cracked swing arms, clutches, rear brakes etc etc although they are Italian...fingers crossed then...BUT it's a pretty complex new model from a company with a so-so record with build quality so I'm currently a skeptic. Guess we'll have to see. I hope I'm wrong.

AREESSMILL said:

i get the impression here in France that they Aprilia dealers are geared up to Mopeds and 125s etc as when i came in with the Mille im sure the mechanic **** himself about what i was gonna ask to have done.

Click to expand...

LOL. I'd pop in every week and make stuff up just to scare them! You're dead right though it's mopeds all the way in France, Spain, Italy etc, they probably do at least 250 mopeds before they see a Mille.

spoonz said:

You have to consider the mindset of Piaggio/aprilia post the finance collapse in 04.

Piaggio had to address Aprilia's debts and put money into an ageing product lines development.
Aprilia are still leaking money to this day and have since 04 when the Italian helmet laws changed and the scooter market there crashed.
They have tightened the purse strings big time and warranties are expensive for them.
If you read the latest interview with Aprilia bosses re the RSV4 they say the flagship twin is dead (hints at no replacement) and the RSV4 has to sell well for Aprilia's future.

Read into that what you will but if the RSV4 is a sales flop and i fear it might be then there could be trouble on the horizon. Whilst i think the RSV4 is likely to be an excellent product when the niggles are ironed out, i think it's a case of wrong place wrong time.
A £15k and £12k (likely to rise as pound falls) bike is a big ask of anyones wallet at the best of times but in a recession it's a huge ask. Consider you have just got a New 08 Factory for £8200 and want to trade up next year to the new flagship. Your asking that owner to pay double what he payed 12 months before for the new model.
that's a pill that takes some swallowing especially when trade in values are almost non existent.

Click to expand...

I can see where you're coming from as what you say makes perfect sense and I eluded to Aprilia being on a tight Piaggio leash in my previous post so that's not in question and I do agree with you 100% on that score. However while I appreciate their under difficult conditions I still feel there's no real justification for poor service. In addition when you rightly say that the RSV4 has to sell for Aprilia to continue to exist, the after sales service will obviously be a major factor in that and is a very significant part of the purchase an ownership process.

I'm really not trying to pick a fight on this issue as I know what you're saying is totally right and you are only adding some rational balance to an emotive discussion, but I guess I'm just a bit frustrated and disappointed by my experiences during my 3 short months of Aprilia ownership. In truth it hasn't been that bad and instead just makes me realise how good the japs are at this stuff and how I (we) take it for granted.

Although with all that said it hasn't put me off owning my current Aprilia or indeed owning another one in the future but it's certainly been an eye opener. Essentially they are great bikes and I just hope they can improve their after sales service to match.

spoonz said:

I was not trying to defend anything aprilia does or does not do chap, far from it.
I was merely trying to demostrate some of the reasoning behind the general bug bear of warranty.
To me it's probably Aprilia's biggest loser of customers. In 2004 the Rsv made the top 10 best selling bikes in the country. Then came the cash problem and the rest is history.

As someone who had a fairly major issue with my new bike with 70 miles on the clock i am all too aware of the warranty failings. Due to the problems Aprilia were in at the time it took 5 months to get my bike 100% fixed. uke

Click to expand...

Sorry if that sounded like it was aimed at you as it really really wasn't and I didn't mean you were trying to excuse or justify their poor service as I know we're singing from the same hymn sheet on this one. As mentioned I'm just a bit frustrated and by simply replying you were a means for me to vent my irrittation. I guess I was trying to say I understand the totally valid reasons you stated that are behind it all but it doesn't make the problem go away.

Anyway my sincere apologies if I appeared rude or critical of you as that was most definitely not my intention. I'm always appreciative of your oracle like qualities and I won't hold it against you that you were wrong on this occasion...JOKE!!! :nana Seriously though sorry if I irked you. :thumbup