Even my HD riding coworkers?

This means the knobby tires and the Baja lights are not reccomended upgrades??? (jk)

Again, I have no idea whether or not the Falco was unrestricted. I was mainly checking out the feel and responsiveness of the engine, not so much the max power/torque. I'm a little scared of fuel injection on a bike, since everything I've ever owned had carbs. I've heard horror stories about FI bikes having poorly worked out fuel maps, yielding stumbles in bad places, etc. I'm mostly comfortable with the FI from the standpoint of not being stuck with the stock fuel and ignition maps, but I'm just Curious George or something like that.

Anyway, I'm sick as a mofo with the flu. Not sure what I'm going to do with this today, as I've been alternately between bed and the crapper. This is the wrong time of year to be sick. Big thanks to my buddies Mitch and Matt for bringing the Walking Plauge to work to infect the rest of us. . . . time for more Pepto.

BK

OK. A few thoughts...

First off, lets clarify some of the similarities and differences between the Falco and the Mille: The engines are nearly identical. What is different is the cam. Also, the fuel map on the stock Falco chip is severely de-tuned when compared to the Mille (and not very smooth, although this may have been fixed); De-restriction on either bike makes a HUGE difference (22 hp on the Falco); The sitting position on the Falco is very similar to the Mille (I could hardly tell the difference when seated on them side by side); Suspension wise, the front end is the same (to the standard Mille, not the R). The rear shock on the Falco is different from the Mille and is a piece of crap; The stock exhaust on the Falco is the equivalent in weight to the anchor on the Titanic, and it completely robs the bike of it's soul by supressing the sound to that of a lawn-mower.

So what does this mean. If you rode a stock, restricted Falco, you have no basis for comparison to the Mille (or a unrestricted Falco, for that matter). If the salesman put you on this bike for a comparison to the Mille, he is a fool. All this would have done for you is to give you a feel for the sitting position of the Mille while moving as opposed to stationary. You cannot draw any useful conclusions with regard to suspension or engine performance.

My two cents: Having to choose between the bikes you are considering is like having to choose between being stranded on an island with (insert favorite porn star here) or (insert other favorite porn stare here). Personally, having experience with Aprilia and knowing the reliability reputations and maintenance costs of the two bikes, I would go with the Mille over a stock 998 and a Mille R over a 998S/R. Hope this helps.

Stake,

Thanks for the 'gouge.' I'm playing phone tag right now trying to negotiate the best deal I can on this bike. I'm wondering if I ought to leverage a deal on a pipe or some other essential upgrades??? If so, what exhaust do you recommend? This Italian stuff is a whole new world to me. . . so be gentle. . . .

BK

I've got an Arrow system on mine, my buddy has the titanium Aprilia upgraded can. and yet another buddy has a set of LeoVinci's on his. The Arrow sounds deeper than the others, The Leovincis took a bit to install properly but were the least expensive. I think you can't go wrong with any of them. Really.

and yes, the HD riders will dig it.

The first thing I would have the dealer do is de-restrict it (and have him show you what he did). You can do this yourself, but why bother when you can get him to do it. I've heard that starting in either late 2001 or 2002 they were changing the configuration so that it is much more complicated to de-restrict than just clipping the wire and removing the baffle. You may want to check on that. Maybe you could get him to throw in your break-in service? The other thing I would ask him to do is to help you out with setting the sag and getting some initial suspension settings. Why...because beyond this there isn't much that he can do for you parts wise.

Fuel maps- FactoryPro makes what up to this point has been the best all around chip for both the Mille and the Falco. It is called the 1413 chip and does two things for you. First is that it is generally considered much smoother than the Aprilia map, and second, it is selectable between map 14 and 13 (hence the name 1413). One will give you more mid range power, the other more top end power. I run this chip and it is PHENOMINAL! Read about it here- http://www.factorypro.com/Prod_Pages/proda10.html

Exhaust- Akrapovic, or my personal favorite- Renegade. I'm sure you are familiar with Akrapovic, and you can find out about Renegade here- http://www.renegade-exhausts.com/renegade/index.html If your dealer deals Akrapovic, maybe you can get him to cut you some slack. Otherwise, Jorge from Renegade will answer all of your questions honestly, and while I don't have them yet, from all accounts he makes an outstanding product in both performance terms, and appearance.

Hope this is useful info....

SapperRSV had a set of renegades on his Mille' but yanked them off when he was unable to get the bike to run properly. They sure looked the cat ass though! The stock set up wieghs 17 lbs, His renegades were 13, my arrow is 7.2lbs...that sold me...

Wow. Honestly, that is the first negative thing I have ever heard about them. Out of curiosity, what chip was he running?

I'm not sure, he has a few posts on this site, email him. He'd be happy to clue you in with all the specifics. He lives about a mile from me and we make it a point to get together. he's got a cool website, I'm at work, otherwise I'd send you the link.

theduckllr said:

Bought a 2000.5 RSVR, and NO, the HD riders do NOT dig it. They all think it's a Honda. Several have told me it's a ni**er-cycle, and that I should have bought a HD with the same money.

I guess ignorance and biggotry are still alive and well here in the South.

BK

I've owned two Aprilias, an 01 Mille and an 02 mille R, which is still alive the 01 got into a heated argument with a 88 olds which was runing from the cops. (the bike lost). I LOVE my Aprilia and will never buy a four cylinder bike again. One of my Bros has a 998, It's pretty tight looking and is great on the track but on street rides it sucks. My wrists and ass hurt after about 30 min. My Mille is no goldwing but it's better than that Duck.(I'm 6' tall) Also I have no problem with any bikes/riders on bikes, on track days in the intermediate group, It is VERY capable. If you do pull the trigger on the Mille, do yourself a favor and change that huge cinder block of an exhaust. I bought My chip and exhaust through my dealer, It's a Aprilia lab built can (Ti) and the chip was mapped at Aprilia's factory racing services. It's a little loud but nice and throaty. Good luck