Who has done linkage plate change?

Personally I have done mine.

Consider though how many '04+ RSV's and Tuoldo's there are out there and look at how many reported failures there has been - Odd's of your failing are pretty slim.

All I would say is change them if you can....

Having seen mine and Garin's i won't ride on the standard links unless i know there condition. His bike has 3500 and is an 07 Tuono but the wear was shocking. Even his dealer was shocked and instantly said they don't look safe and he wanted them replaced.
Some bikes are worse than others. mine had lost 1/5 of it's width where it had rubbed in 9k, Garins probably twice that in half the mileage but no one knows whether it's wear,overload or just a faulty batch that has caused the few failures. The police investigation in NZ might shed some light on it but for now it's just a heads up that something is going on.

you have to make up your own mind.
The failure rate is less than 1% so your odds are good. I just didn't want to be part of the 1% for which it goes **** up. For sure the AF1 links are better than stock but in mine and Garin's case strength wasn't the only issue it was the wear which needs harder or thicker material to solve and maybe a teflon spacer to prevent metal to metal problems.

It would certainly be wise to inspect the the inner faces of your links from time to time if nothing else. You will get a general idea by looking at the dogbone. If it sits to one side consistantly then you have a higher chance of some wear issues.

Would this effect an 02 machine?? I am about to pull my rear apart any way just to check it out. I have a bad habbit of gettin a foot of air off speed humps...:doug:doug:doug

no problem pre 04

the pic explains why. Imagine a 5mm thick leg on the post 04 link (right) being worn down on the inside to 3 or 4 and you get the drift of why it's a worry.

Changed mine a year ago when this first was posted, bike had 5000 miles on it and the plates seemed fine, a few rub marks but thats it, changed mine for stainless steel plates :thumbup

Fitted MPL ones to mine, ain't gonna take the chance, a few airborne antics on my local road made me think about the extra stress this was putting on them, so of they came, still to do the ones on my tracky bike though

Spoonz, what causes the 04> plate to wear down on the inside to 3 or 4 mm? Is there an issue with a certain amount of free play in the shock linkage?

Changed mine for AF1 plates at 700 miles. 07 rsvr. don't intend to be a statistic, my life, and the bike are worth more than £50. side stand next, don't want that to catch me out either.

LEGS said:

Spoonz, what causes the 04> plate wear down on the inside to 3 or 4 mm. Is there an issue with a certain amount of free play in the shock linkage?

Click to expand...

It varies from bike to bike but on mine and Garins the dogbone is eating into the left side of the linkage. In Garins case it gouged deep grooves in the plate as well. There is nothing to stop the dogbone making direct metal to metal contact. Normally that contact is minimal but in some cases it looks like the dogbone is held against the plate with some force and removes metal in the process. There are also some being rubbed by the swingarm itself almost like the linkage is bending and coming into contact with it.

For the average guy in the street it's impossible do know for sure why it happens but several have found the twisting that seems to be going on distorts the bearings in the dogbone so they wear very quickly or the distortion diverts the dogbone to one side or other.
That said i have the high wear but my bearings are fine so i don't honestly know exactly what is going on.

What i ask myself is what changed from pre 04 to post 04. The linkage/dogbone area works in the same way and the earlier models still have the metal to metal contact but they don't wear in the same way. It always comes back to the link plates. My instinct is they contstantly flex and come into contact with other parts and on very rare occasions flex enough to snap. I don't have anything to back it up really but having trawled my link plates round engineers trying to get some Ti versions made almost without fail they laughed at the original and said "is that off your pushbike" If they don't trust it from an engineers viewpoint then that worried me.


It needs some kind of wear acceleration test that manufacturers use where they simulate 10k in 2 days on a vibration machine or something whilst watching slow motion footage to see what is happening. Hopefully that is what Aprilia are currently doing.
They have some of the failed links and many pics of high wear items now in their posession to use as a guide to what is occuring.
a case of wait and see i think.
It has been mentioned before that some consider less than 1% acceptable as a failure rate so maybe they will do nothing at all.

My 01 bike had a fair bit of wear on the plates Spoonz, quite a bit of gouging on one side, but as your pics show there is a lot more metal on them.

Has anyone got any further news about the lad in NZ. last i heard he had opened his eyes

He is out of the coma and out of life threatening danger but has many injuries some of which may be long term.
He has no recollection of the crash or anyone or anything from the last 15 years.
Basically his brain has reverted to his teens in terms of it's capability but should improve with time hopefully.

Don't know if this sheds any light on the overall situation but the links with heavy wear i posted about before went to an Aprilia dealer along with the bike as they wanted to see it and it turned out the Dog Bone was out of shape from manufacture and had a shoulder of metal that was hitting the link plate as it all moved.
They are replacing the dog bone/link plates and bearings under warranty and then he will fit aftermarket plates when it's done.

posted this on several sites to see what interest there is so let me know if there are any takers.

Ok we have the lowdown on the Ti plates. it's not that straight forward though unfortunately.

There are 2 grades of 6/4 Ti we can have but 1 is 50% more expensive than the other and 2 finishes.

In the lower grade we are talking just over £50 a set but £100 for the higher grade.
The £50 set is about what i was expecting and my best option. These are water jet cut so no stress risers from machining. The 2 finishes determine the cleanness of the cut and only a few quid for the better option.

Now the main sticking point. Minimum order is 25 sets.
That's because the Ti plate comes in a minimum size which we have to cover the cost of.

The scary part is I will get a bill for £1300 + for the lower spec links or £2000+ for the higher spec and that is scary. Especially if people don't come through which has happened before.
So my thinking is that when we have enough takers and those takers have paid then the links will be made. I just can't risk doing it any other way.
So ask your mates and other forums and try and get the numbers and then it's ready to roll.

Spoonz, I'm up for a £50.00 set with either finish (can hardly see the things in situ in any case). I assume the year of the bike doesn't matter? I have a 2007 RSVR.

Ok Dave

Not convinced we will get the numbers but you never know.
There will only be the £50 set as there are more takers for that and we have to have either one or the other.