Visordown - The Top 10 Bikes that Deserver Better

This has been happening steadily for 10 years. Piaggio doesn't seem to care. I'm told they loose money on the US market. I truly hope they do realize they're loosing millions in revenue. I visited a bmer dealer today and the tech I was chatting with was like "get out now" as he feels parts will be even more hard to come by in the next couple of years. As the T is my second bike I plan on keeping the miles down to 3k or so per year and I only have 2.4k now so this should help for a couple more years.

180, we don't even have a mechanic around here that even owned an Italian bike.

Ducati's going to reap the benefits of Piaggio's short sightedness.

How can a company that puts that much effort into design and production just sit back and let their name go up in smoke, that's shocking management!

Someone at Aprilia ought to have the foresight to ask the dealers why they don't want their bikes and address the parts and warranty issues head on, it would take a few years to put right but with the right attitude from the top, it would help them gain a better grip on the market.....very short sighted management!

Ash said:

They treat the dealers like *****, the warranty work decisions take forever, the spares backup is dire.
You will not find anyone praising the speed and efficiency of the spares back up service.

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A while back I spoke to a dealer that had a franchise for Guzzi and he told me that it would cost him to do warranty work, £25/hour was all Piaggio would give them.

As above really.

I like the fact that when I go out on a run I am the only V4 there. And guess what bike gets all the attention when it's parked up?

Also, nothing makes a sound like the V4 and everywhere I go people comment on the sound. I had one guy on a CBR6 chase me for miles just so he could tell me that my bike makes the most amazing sound he has ever heard coming from a bike.

But as for the list in the link.

1 Jap
1 Merican
1 German
1 Spanglish
6 Itallian

That tells me that the public have no faith in the Italians when it comes to dealer / franchise back up and re-enforces what has already been said before.

Come on Aprillia, you build beautiful machines so why don't you have the proper respect for the owners and dealers?

Don't think I have owned a "mainstream" bike and think I am the better mechanic for it.

You either buy a reliable bike that everyone else and no one bats an eyelid at it or dare to be different and get something less ordinary, sometimes that comes with the cost of having to research and fix things yourself rather than take it to a dealer.

I always hear people go on about Aprilia "spagetti engineering" etc most have never ridden one and have only heard stories of those who have had issues and do not fall in to the category above.

I personally am glad its not that popular, thats what makes this bike unique, I always wanted a duc SF 1098 but never got round to getting one, may be my next road bike.

I was at the classic bike show a couple of weeks ago, there were a few modern bikes, Ducati had a big stand there, tbh none of the bikes fitted me all the ducs are for peeps under 5' 10" with short arms. If cash was no object I would go for the SD 1290 r

Ducatis are indeed built for the 5'10" and under. That's what helped me make my choice between the T and the Monster 1200. The Super Duke is definitely my choice as well if I had 20k to drop and I could deal with a dealer an hour and a half away.

Dan I'm glad it's not popular as well and really try to stay away from the mainstream too, but if being unpopular means having trouble getting the bike serviced and waiting a month for parts it starts not to be worth it. Unfortunately I don't have a garage, I have a little car port, and I suck as a mechanic so having to do my own work is a challenge. I'm talking major work where you need to have the bike apart for a period of time. It's just not doable for me until I put it in winter storage. Even with resources and know how, waiting for parts for an unreasonable length of time puts a damper on ownership. There's only about 8 good months to use a sport bike around here so to loose one of those sucks. That being said I love the T enough (and have another bike) to deal with it now and then. As I posted earlier I don't intend to put more than 3k the clock per year so this should help.

8 months! Jammy *******. We get about 4 or 5 and that is a mixed bag lol

Mikkel said:

8 months! Jammy *******. We get about 4 or 5 and that is a mixed bag lol

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Sorry. Didn't mean to rub it in
If it makes you feel any better it's horribly sunny and warm right now:eek2

nothingfaced said:

I don't wish to sound like a Ducati whore but the 1098 Streetfighter was the comfiest super naked I've owned. The peg to seat distance was spot on for me and I'm 6'2". But will agree that most Ducati's aren't that comfortable.

I'll be keeping my Tuono for now, I've located a mechanic close by who has experience of the bikes and am just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have any more issues.

I was fortunate to be able to buy any bike I wanted and rode Monster 1200S, KTM super duke, BMW S1000R and none came close to the T. No regrets just don't think I'd buy another Aprilia.

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I have to concur on the Streetfighter. It seemed to fit my 34" inseam the best as well. None of the others even came close to that. Same on the T as well, Awesome but likely my last

Both Tuono V4R and RSV4 moved into a different market with pricing circa £12k to £16k compared to Tuono 1000R and RSVR which were considerably less than £10k and sold in relatively big numbers. Plus the new bikes were smaller and more extreme which perhaps also put off existing owners of the older bikes.