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Starting an RSV

T

TinMan

Hi all, just got my first v-twin and love it (RSV Mille, 04 old shape). She's a bit of a shed but got her for a fair price and engine seems sound despite high milage. Anyway, the guy I bought it off said not to use the throttle when starting up, just the choke as it will damage the **** (fill in the blanks,I cant remember the name) clutch, is this true? My prob is that whilst it started ok at his with just the choke, it wont now :dunno
Anyway, hope its just a minor thing and cant wait to go for a proper ride on it.
Lookin forward for many bits of info off here!
Steve
Ps, whats the standard gearing, the last owner said he gave it taller gearing, so I want to get the acceleration back! Cheers.
 
TinMan said:
Anyway, the guy I bought it off said not to use the throttle when starting up, just the choke as it will damage the **** (fill in the blanks,I cant remember the name) clutch, is this true?

Ps, whats the standard gearing, the last owner said he gave it taller gearing, so I want to get the acceleration back! Cheers.
Click to expand...


Sprag clutch..what he said was correct, dont use throttle on starting :eek: it can be an expensive lesson to learn..If you can't start it now have you checked you haven't hit the kill switch :biggrin

if yours is the old shape, standard gearing will be 17/42, most change this to 16/44 or 15/42 for extra acceleration and it makes a huuuuugggeeee difference :devious

Welcome to the zone btw :thumbup
 
Cheers for the info,will get onto changing the gearing asap! Kill switch is definately not on, as I had to start using the throttle to get it home from my mates house (praying I didnt break it!), will try lookin at it later. A guy also told me about an airbox retrictor plate, do I have to take the airbox etc off to get to it, ie is it in the throttle bodies or in the airox itself, and that I'd have to cut a brown wire otherwise the engine will melt?? Sorry about all the questions!! Thanks
 
Your bike should start from cold with the cold start lever fully open pretty much instantly when the starter button is pressed. If it does not then you have a problem. Buy yourself an Optimate III SP or Optimate 4 to make sure the battery is at 100% charge as these bikes need the battery to be in tiptop condition otherwise you'll have starting problems as you are experiencing. Try this first. From here it'll be a process of elimination
 
Last edited:
However, if you flood it they are a tw*t to start, and will need the throttle unless you want to be there for 3 hours.

Welcome, and good luck - key is a tip-top battery as someone has already said.

Search for "starting" and "flooded".

Oh and, "what f*cking price sprag clutch!!!!!!!!!!!!"
 
Brown......

What he meant by that, I suspect, are the brown connectors in a few locations around the bike. One that is easy to spot is on the right side, rider's view, in the front, seen after removal of the fairing. These, along with the white connector in the tail section with the two large wires, have been melting down on some bikes. Various theories as to why. Suffice to say, too much electrical resistance for the current flow. Some owners cut these out and replace with weather-sealed butt splices. While it will not melt the engine, but it may cause a problem with the stator, leaving you stranded when the battery dies.
 
Well I noticed whilst cleaning it (its in a bad way, rust everywhere!) that there is a blue/green wire that has been cut going into the ecu, anyone know what this is for? Charging the battery so hopefully tomorrow when I put it back on she will start ok, that said the battery is only a few months old, found a reciept in the pack the old owner gave me so will be suprised (but hoping) that it is that.
 
If the battery is a couple of months old then all should be well but it still needs to be kept on charge with an Optimate. The cut wire that you've found is the part of the derestriction procedure to the ECU to enable the full power MAP
 
It should start straight away with just cold start fully on, but as i found a couple of weeks back it can flood, the options are 1, remove sparkplugs and dry 2, wait a couple of hours and try again 3, hold full throttle and push starter :) not good for sprag but it works!
 
It was the battery, I think for some reason he must have put the old battery back in as it dont look new. Anyway, she started after ' charged it, my only problem being the bike is miles away from an electrical source so no way to connect it to my optimate!
 
I can't use optimate for the same reason, however I changed my rectifier for aftermarket one and use bike almost every day, starting perfectly.
 
TinMan said:
Cheers for the info,will get onto changing the gearing asap! Kill switch is definately not on, as I had to start using the throttle to get it home from my mates house (praying I didnt break it!), will try lookin at it later. A guy also told me about an airbox retrictor plate, do I have to take the airbox etc off to get to it, ie is it in the throttle bodies or in the airox itself, and that I'd have to cut a brown wire otherwise the engine will melt?? Sorry about all the questions!! Thanks
Click to expand...
here are all the answers to derestrict your bike. its for the older milles but will give you a clue what to look for in the airbox.

http://www.apriliaforum.com/techtips/1000/derestrict.htm

http://www.geocities.com/sl_mille/derestrict.html

Good luck with the bike, im sure youll love it.
 
Little tricks that help!

I never pull the choke lever down fully as the RPM goes bananas:unhappy, I find about half way works fine and the engine fires into life and runs at about 3000 RPM smoothly and I let it run at that for a few minutes until the temperature registers on the dash and then knock the lever back. It is true that the battery needs to be on an optimiser,battery Doc,etc...
The Aprilia literature says that the starter relay is 12volt 100amp, but interestlingly they only have a 50amp so don't kick the engine into life with much gussto, I have changed the starter relay on both of my bikes. The cut wire is for derestricted, ie the bung taken out from under the air filter, the rubber air intake boot between the chassis and the air box replaced with one from a 99 model, high flow air filter ie K&N, performance muffler and a performance chip. the differance in performance the mods make over the standard
set up is substantial.:thumbup:doug
 
The alternative is to replace the battery with a 14ah one (slightly taller but will fit), or look at the mesh-type battery (can't remember the brand name now) which have huge cold cranking amp power.
 
Can you remember where you got the rectifier from/model?
Not gonna go down the whole chip route yet, gonna get the gearing sorted first.
I think there must be some sort of restriction on the bike somewhere other than the airbox, as she seems to struggle after 135, and its even got taller gearing, my gsxr600k2 felt quicker, although these twins are deceptive!
 

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