Seen the light and sold the sp1 for RSVR Haga

Hi Stokesy and welcome. That sounds like a cool bike you have there. Within the next 24 hours someone will surely request you post a piccie or two.

Cold starting - First, this winter is killing batteries and unless your battery is 100% it will not start. It sounds as if it isn't up to scratch. Suggest you get an optimate or, even better, replace the 12AH battery for a 14 AH one. In addition, fit a Yamaha starter solenoid. (pt/no 4KD 8194000100 - approx. £29). It's a straight swap for the Aprilia one and is a 10 minute job. These are 2 well documented starting problem areas. I have done both of these and have not had a starting problem since. I also fitted iridium spark plugs which do not require so much starting power.

The method you finally used to start it will ruin your sprag clutch in no time at all. :bawling (Do a search on this forum for sprag problems). Using the 'clutch' lever (although it is not a clutch but a throttle advance - it just opens the throttle a tad) should start it and will run at no more than 3K revs. As soon as it fires up, drop the revs to about 2K and wait a while for it to warm up.

He means choke not clutch. :thumbup
Welcome mate. That method you used is deffo for flooded engines and not normal cold starts. If started regularly it should not flood. so that is a last resort with the closed cold start and open throttle (just to get home job).:eatcorn

stokesy said:

Happy New Year!

Over the festive period i got myself an 02 RSVR Haga rep number 161,it was a bit untidy and required some lovin,but now its got new fork seals,rear sprocket,renthal grips,rad and oil cooler covers,oil&filter and plugs.
It sounds great with the twin akro's and after a quick blast around the village today its far more pleasant than my old sp1 to ride in town,clutch is fine,cans not too loud,and nice riding position.

I have had numerous jap bikes but this is my first Aprilia and like many newbies before me i did have a real nightmare starting it from cold,no throttle,full choke and it tried to kill the battery,so charged battery closed choke,opened throttle fully and after a second or two it jumped into life quickly followed by me knocking some 8000 revs of the throttle,it sat ticking over with a small amount of choke no problem,and starts from hot at touch of a button,so how do i resolve the cold start problem?? i cant give it full welly every morning! any advice is welcomed.thanks for all the useful threads on the forums,some excellent advice out there,well done to all.Cheers!

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Ensure the fast idle is actually working properly. Sometimes it can come loose and stops working. Welcome to the forum :thumbup

Welcome , show us your pics ( :nana BoB )

Welcome Stokesy,

As has been said, upgrade your battery to a YTX14BS. The Westco ones are considered very good as they produce double the cold start cranking power of equivalent std lead / acid batteries.

http://www.tayna.co.uk/YTX14-BS-Westco-Motorcycle-Battery-P3384.html

Again as said, buy an Optimate 3sp or new Optimate 4 and keep the bike hooked up when not in use and fit the Yamaha starter solenoid as the aprilia one becomes weak over time

An RSV should start within the first few seconds of hitting the starter when cold with the cold start lever fully open. If not then there is a problem somewhere and this is when sprag clutch problems develop due to hamfisted starting techniques

:thumbup welcome .good peeps here and very helpfull.enjoy the ride :doug

welcome to the zone had an sp1 myself very nice bike but the rsv is a vtwin with a whole new personality enjoy:thumbup

supertedlover said:

Welcome , show us your pics ( :nana BoB )

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Told you so :biggrin

Black Sabbath said:

He means choke not clutch. :thumbup
.:eatcorn

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You're dead right BS. Can't believe I wrote that :confused :confused

Hi there.....they are buggers to get used to but...it's worth it!