Bought a new bike and almost immediately took it apart

[katana]

After owning the Fireblade for almost 8 years I decided that I needed a change. I’ve always fancied a big V-twin so when a very low mileage Aprilia RSV1000 came up for sale I advertised the Blade (which sold almost immediately) and 3 days later bought this:

Its a 2003 with only 8000 miles on the clock. The previous owner is an electrician where I work and has completely upgraded the usually dodgy electrics as well as fitting a full Akrapovic exhaust system (including the correct updated chip to sort out the fueling), a steering damper, upgraded clutch slave cylinder as well as a couple of carbon bits etc..

The only thing that let it down slightly was some minor paint bubbling on the tank.

This is a common fault with these (and also some Ducatis -Radar) and is a caused by the increased amount of ethanol that is being put into our petrol. The ethanol not only makes the plastic tanks swell but it is also hygroscopic and the water it attracts migrates into the inside of the tank over time and then can’t escape when it gets to the painted side causing the micro blisters in the paint.

There are a couple of ways to avoid this happening:
1. Use Super Unleaded (which currently doesn’t contain ethanol in the UK)
2. seal the inside of the tank with something impervious the ethanol

As my tank was already suffering and I wanted to have it repainted I went the sealer route. After many hours Googling I came up with loads of products suitible for metal tanks but not many that are good for plastic ones.

In the end i went for a 2 part epoxy product from Caswell

Not cheap but it had good reviews and has been used in the USA for many years.

So this happened

followed by this

and quite a lot of shaking

I followed this guide
https://youtu.be/8MLQyiIWkzYz
https://youtu.be/L5g89hcEVGI

Now the inside of my tank looks like this

I’m very pleased – It’s like glass, but still with a bit of flex.

So i’m going to drop the tank off at the painters on Saturday – i’ll put some photos up when I pick it up.

But as the bike was apart I decided that I didn’t need these

and replaced them with these

This means the underside of the tank becomes the airbox, increasing in the airbox volume, giving an bit of a performance hike  and making a nice induction roar.

I’m also going to give the bike a service and replace the clutch oil jet with a smaller one to aid finding neutral when rolling to a stop.

Hopefully I’ll have it all back together for when the weather picks up

[HippoDrones]

nice bike looking forward to seeing it all back together.

[katana]

Cheers Pete

We need to sort another meet up when the weather gets better – I want to see Lord Vader.

[Radar]

That looks the mutts nutz. Be interesting to check my Duke tank over carefully in light of your warning too

[katana]

Been getting the RSV ready for the summer.

Put the repainted tank back on, gave it a service and took it for a MOT last week.

This morning I got rid of the dodgy standard side stand that Aprilia fitted to the Euro spec bikes. These are notoriously very weak and unstable resulting in many a RSV toppling over. In the USA the legal requirement is for a stand to support the bike, rider and passenger so the stands fitted over there are much better, but difficult to get hold of for sensible money.

Luckily. 04-07 Fireblade stand is almost a straight swap (I just needed to add a blob of weld to stop it hitting the fairing when folded up).

Original

Fireblade stand

Just need some better weather now

[Radar]

Good work! Is the wicker basket there in case the bike still topples over!?

[HippoDrones]

Didn’t know that about the American stands, is def worth remembering for sure!

[katana]

Good work! Is the wicker basket there in case the bike still topples over!?

That’s my new environmentally friendly top box

Didn’t know that about the American stands, is def worth remembering for sure!

I think most manufacturers use the same stands both sides of the Atlantic, Aprilia for some reason don’t.

[Radar]

Didn’t know that about the American stands, is def worth remembering for sure!

New one on me too, interesting. Sensible reg to be honest

[Author]

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