Riding the RSV4 Factory

I've now ridden just under 1,000 miles on the new RSV4 and all I can say is an emphatic "WOW!!!" The bike is just amazing, it is everything I hoped it would be and more. I took it on a nice ride last month with my buddy Bill, up around Lake Berryessa, over to Middletown, then to Hopland, and back over HW29 and HW128. The handling is superb, with the most confidence-inspiring chassis I have ever been on. Every corner is effortless, the bike seems to know what you want it to do with only the slightest bit of input. The front brakes are one-finger for all but the most drastic panic-braking, which requires two fingers. I could change lines mid-corner, trail brake without a second thought, and the bike never seemed the least bit unstable.

On this ride, the bike was not fully broken in so I had to keep it under 6500rpm. With this restriction, it was completely civilized even when I set the fuel map to the "T" setting (for "Track"). The power delivery is very smooth, almost deceptively so. It's very easy to get up a pretty good head of steam without realizing it until you glance down at the speedo and exclaim to yourself "D'OH!"

I let Bill ride it on a particularly twisty section of HW29. I kept seeing him shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head in amazement. When we stopped to swap back to our own bikes, he was just laughing and saying it was the most incredible sport bike he had ever ridden (and he's ridden a lot of different sport bikes, as have I). He even called me that night after he got home just to heap more praise on the bike. Yes, it's that good.

Finally - the Aprilia RSV4 Factory

After 2 years of anticipation, the Aprilia RSV4 Factory has finally arrived in the US. The RSV4 is being heralded as the most advanced liter-class superbike on the market right now. I was #1 on the waiting list at Scuderia West, the San Francisco Aprilia dealership, as I had put a deposit on one back in 2007 when I first heard a rumor that they were going to build a V4. I had always wanted a V4 but there wasn't anything out there that really inspired me. However, I knew that whatever Aprilia came up with would be top-notch, and I was not disappointed.

The bikes arrived at Scuderia on Wednesday but Don Lemelin, the owner, asked me if I would wait until Saturday to pick up the bike, as that was the day of their annual fall open house party and he wanted to make a bit of a production of delivering the bike. I didn't mind at all. So, on Saturday November 7, my friend Joe Hittner, who also had one on order, picked me up and we headed over to SF. It was great, Don had set up our bikes in front of the shop under a 10' x 10' Aprilia canopy, with red crime scene tape around it, and "SOLD" tags with our names on them taped to the bikes. They had one more on display in the showroom that people could sit on, but ours were off limits to anyone but us. There was a nice crowd at the open house and of course lots of people were drooling over the bikes. We milled around for a couple of hours talking to various folks, got some photos taken, and I did all the paperwork with Don and wrote that big check. It was fun - a bunch of people came out to watch the first RSV4 sold at Scuderia ride off into the sunset.

Riding the bike was simply awe-inspiring. It is surprisingly comfortable, the engine and the gearbox are silky-smooth, handling is effortless, and the exhaust note is throaty even with the stock exhaust and unlike anything else I've ever heard. I didn't get to ride much other than the ride home from SF to Oakland, as I had to wait until Monday to get the insurance coverage set up. I'll give a more complete ride report after next weekend when I can take it for a real ride on some twisty roads.

Here's a picture of Joe and me in front of Scuderia with our bikes. Do we look happy or what?

Here are a few pictures I took of the bike after I got it home:

Now this is what I call attention to detail. Notice how there aren't any loose wires, everything is wrapped and clipped into place. Very nice!

Even the bolts that hold the bodywork on have "Aprilia Racing" etched into them!

 

Unbelievably Good Luck!

Wow, did I get lucky. My previous post was about destroying the rear fender on my BB1 on its first ride after finishing the repairs. I was certain that I'd have to pay someone major bucks to custom-make a replacement for me. Well, as it turned out, the guy who bought all of the Bimota parts stock from the previous Bimota US importer found a brand-new BB1 rear fender in his pile of parts! And it didn't cost me an arm and a leg.


Here it is installed on my bike:

I'm quite pleased with how it came out. I took the bike for a nice 120-mile loop on Mines Road with my buddy Bill on Labor Day and it was a total kick to ride on the twisties! Bill was following me and he said it looked like I wasn't even trying even though we were riding a nice brisk pace. Of course, when we got to The Junction to have a snack, all the motorcyclists there gravitated over to check out this bike, as very few people in the US have ever even seen one in person. Everyone thought it was a very cool little bike, myself included!

Bimota BB1 Exhaust

I've had a number of inquiries about the custom exhaust that is on my Bimota BB1, so I decided to post some information about it. One of my Bimota mail list friends, Anders Hørtvedt in Norway, sent me a bunch of information about the history of my BB1 (he knew the original owner). The custom exhaust was actually fabricated from a section of a sailboat mast. Yes, you heard me right - a sailboat mast! It's amazing how you can find unusual things from which to fabricate custom parts. Here are a few pics of the exhaust. On the left side you can see the channel where the sail fittings slid up and down the mast.

 

 

 

 

Unbelievably Bad Luck

Okay, this is unbelievable. I took the BB1 for a ride over to San Francisco yesterday, only about 15 miles each way. I was coming out of the toll plaza to get on the Bay Bridge (which connects Oakland and San Francisco) and I apparently ran over something metal that I never even saw. I heard this loud scraping sound and then some clunking. I was in the middle of about 12 lanes that merge down to 5 so I couldn't pull off the road, and once I was on the bridge, there was no shoulder and stopping would have been seriously dangerous. The clunking stopped, but the bike started handling kinda funny - weaving a little bit. I slowed way down, and once I got across the bridge, took the first exit and stopped to discover that whatever I hit took a chunk out of the rear tire, and ripped a huge section out of the entire length of the carbon fiber rear fender. The tire was completely flat but luckily the rim never touched the pavement. I couldn't leave the bike where I was, as it would have surely ended up stolen. So I rode a few miles on city streets in first gear to get to my local Bimota dealership. Luckily they had a tire in the size I needed and mounted it up for me (I had to wait a few hours). 
 
Is this bike cursed? When I last rode it in September I got hit by a car. Then after the months of time it took to get it all back together, this happens on the next ride. I'm almost afraid to take it out again!

I'm going to try to find someone who can take the rear fender and make a copy of it. I've gotten a couple of referrals to check out.

Here are a couple of pics of the carnage:

Bimota BB1 Finally Finished

At long last, I finished getting the BB1 back together with its new paint job. What an ordeal that was. I had all sorts of problems with the fuel tank. The first time I put it back on (which is an absolute bitch of a job), no fuel was making it into the carbs even though I could hear the pump running. After removing it I tried to remove the fuel pump to make sure all the hoses were connected properly and it turns out you can't get the fuel pump out of the tank, at least I couldn't even with the help of my friend Mark Ellsworth. But we were able to see that the hoses were all intact, and put it all back together. We tested the fuel pump by putting some gas in the tank and running the pump with a battery, with hoses feeding back into the tank. Everything was working fine. I put the tank under the bike and used some longer hoses to connect it all up with the tank just sitting on the floor. The bike started right up, but then I discovered fuel dripping from the carbs right onto the exhaust - not good. I suspected this could be due to a sticking carburetor float, and tried the old mechanic's trick of tapping on the float bowls with the plastic handle of a big screwdriver. Voila - the dripping stopped! So I reassembled everything and filled the tank all the way. Later I noticed a very strong gasoline smell in the garage, and looked down to see a huge puddle under the bike. Aaaaarrrrrggggg!!! Started all over again, removed the tank, emptied it into a gas jug, and removed all the fittings - there are 3 on the top of the tank, one for the wiring that goes to the fuel pump, one for the fuel level sensor, and one for the fuel line connections. Two of these are sealed with o-rings and one with a rubber gasket. I discovered a tiny tear in one of the o-rings so I replaced that. Just for good measure, I used some RTV on the two o-ring seals and reassembled everything. I waited overnight and then filled the tank to check for leaks, and there were none. So once more I reassembled the tank to the bike, and in the process added a quick-disconnect to the main fuel line where it goes into the carbs, so that this job will be easier in the future (hopefully never again). 

Next was to re-fit the fairing and the seat/tail section. The fairing was a challenge, it's a really tight fit. The tail is an even bigger challenge to get it over the exhaust without scratching it up, and then getting it into position for bolting into place. After a lot of sweating and swearing I finally got the whole thing together. I fired it up and took it out for a quick ride just to make sure everything was in order. Anyone who knows these bikes knows that they vibrate like there's no tomorrow. So, of course one of the bolts holding the bodywork on vibrated loose and fell out, along with the fancy custom-machined aluminum bushing. I'll have to get another one made (I really wish I had a lathe of my own). I'm thinking Loctite should be used on every bolt on this entire bike!

The good news is that the bike runs great and looks better than it did when I bought it. Here are a few pics of the finished product:

 

 

Bimota BB1 Paint Job

Well, finally I'm getting around to posting an update about the BB1. About 2 months ago I picked up the bodywork with its final decal application and clearcoat. As you can see from the pics, it looks great! Thanks to Andrew at BodyMold in Australia for providing the great decal replicas (and a spare set to boot). And thanks again to Frank at FZ Restoration for the excellent paint job.

So now I just have to reassemble everything and it's ready to go. I installed the tank and tried to start the bike, but to no avail. It seemed that no fuel was getting into the carbs even though I could hear the fuel pump running. So, I had to remove the tank again, and I connected some clear vinyl tubing to all of the outlets on the pump assembly to test the fuel pump. I ran the tubing back into the tank filler neck and connected the fuel pump leads to a battery. The pump is working fine, I can see the fuel flowing through the tubing. So, I have some more troubleshooting ahead of me :-(

There are a few other minor issues to deal with. One is the front turn signals. For some reason, the ones that were on the bike don't flash correctly. I've tested with turn signals from another bike and they work fine, proving that it's not a wiring or flasher issue. So, I'll try to find some other signals that look decent and work correctly. Ideally, I'd like to return to mirrors with integrated turn signals, like the original. But the original mirrors are unavailable, so I will have to find something else that fits. With so many bikes now that have mirror-integrated turn signals, I should be able to find something that looks good, and I'll have Frank paint whatever I get to match the silver of the upper fairing.

I'm growing quite anxious to get this bike finished and back out on the street so I can enjoy it properly!

How extreme can a motorcycle get?

Every now and then, someone decides to build a totally outrageous machine. I remember the guy in the UK who built a working 48-cylinder motorcycle by grafting 6 V-8 engines into a single power plant. I saw/heard a video clip of the bike actually being started up; it was a mechanical marvel, albeit completely impractical for any real use.

Well, enter German engineer Clemens F. Leonhardt, whose company, Leonhardt Manufacturing, has designed and built an absolute behemoth of a motorcycle, the Gunbus 410. Looking at the first two photos, it doesn't look that big, but scroll down to gain a proper perspective.

Get ready.....

A typical superbike-class sport bike has a 1000cc engine, which translates to 61 cubic inches. This baby is 410 cubic inches, or 6728cc's! The fuel-injected, 45 degree V-Twin engine runs through a 3 speed transmission with reverse and puts out 523 foot pounds of torque. The seat height is a reasonable 31.5 inches but overall length is an insane 136 inches. At 1433 pounds it might be a beast to handle. I'm still waiting to see a road test...

Bimota BB1 Progress

Here's the latest update on my Bimota BB1. Frank emailed me pics of the painted bodywork today. One minor detail is wrong; the fuel tank is supposed to be half black. Hopefully that won't be too much of a hassle for him to correct. But the paint looks fantastic in the photos! He'll be sanding/applying decals/clear-coating soon, I just have to wait for the corrected left side decal to get here before he can start. Oh and here's some amazing news on the decals - Don from Scuderia called me yesterday and Bimota still has a few of the decals in stock. Of course the one they are missing is the one I need, but they said they could probably make another one. So hopefully we'll hear back from them quickly.

Here are the pics:

Bimota BB1 Repairs Underway

Finally, an update on my Bimota BB1: A couple of weeks after I posted about the accident, I was contacted by the driver's insurance company about the accident. As it turns out, she did have insurance, she just didn't give me the right information, and refused to respond to my phone messages. Long story short, the insurance folks agreed it was not my fault, and they are paying for the medical bills and the repairs to the bike.

Unlike repairs to a more current model actually sold in the US by dealerships, where you just drop the bike off at the dealership and let them do all the legwork, it was up to me to locate parts, decals, and a painter. The really difficult part was finding the original graphics decals. From the Bimota mail list that I'm on, I was able to find a company down in Australia that had made a decal set for a BB1 in the past. I got the decals in December and they're nearly perfect. One for the left side needs to be modified and remade, but I'm hoping someone local can do that for me. I was able to find a shift lever through through my friend Bob Steinbugler, a Bimota dealer/historian in Raleigh, NC. I discovered that the billet aluminum footpeg mount was slightly bent, so I will try to straighten that out by heating it and applying some mild force (i.e. carefully beating it with a hammer without denting the aluminum). The only non-stock cosmetic feature of the bike is that the original mirrors are gone and have been replaced with CRG bar-end mirrors (this was done before I owned the bike). I was able to find a replacement for the damaged left-side mirror online (CRG is down near Monterey).

A fellow customer at my local Aprilia/KTM/Bimota dealership (Scuderia West in San Francisco) referred me to a really reputable painter in Livermore, Frank Zucchi (FZ Restoration) and he's started the work. As of a couple of weeks ago, the bodywork had been stripped and prepped for priming. Now here's an example of excellent customer service: Frank emailed me a status update complete with photos of the work in process, totally of his own volition. How many places would bother to do that? Hopefully I'll get another update from him this week.

Here are a few pics of the prepped bodywork:

This is what the bike looks like without its bodywork. It's actually a really cool machine underneath the covers:

I'm hoping the bike will be ready to ride sometime in February. I'll post an update after the next stage of repairs.