The Aprillia Falco (SL1000) - Any owners on BB?

[MikeA3]

I'm considering a change of bike from my Suzuki SV650s in a few months time, it's been faultless over the last 3 years and a great first big bike but I'm starting to want a bit more oomph and something that handles a little better as standard without being a supersport. I am however truly smitten with the sound, torque and riding style of a v-twin so I'm looking for something similar just a bit bigger.

The falco seems to be forgotten about nowadays but tick a lot of the boxes for me, circa 100bhp, seems to handle well, Aprillia branded brembo's up front and a v-twin with a nice noise.

The only downside I can see at the moment is the lack of some spares (fairings mainly) as it had quite a short production run.

If anyone's owned one and could give me some advice on what they're like to live with it'd be appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

[Tall_Paul]

If you can stretch to a bit more then an early gen2 Tuono can be had for Not much over £3k, they shared about 90% of their parts with the RSVR and have a huge following, so spares aren't an issue. Bit more power too, 135bhp ish.

[abarber]

I had one from new. Whilst the engine and chassis were always great, I did have a lot of problems with the cycle parts.

Hopefully most of it would have been ironed out by now. Have a search on PH, myself plus at least one other has posted their experiences quite recently.

Cheers.

[Harvey Mushman00]

I had one of the early ones, great bike, Dyno read 113bhp at the back wheel, good brakes, the only downside I found was the Sachs rear shock, I presume most of them have been rebuilt/upgraded by now,not sure how many are left, if you can find a good one it should be a decent bike for not a lot money

[CAPP0]

OP, would you not consider the SV Thou?

[black-k1]

I had the RST1000 Futura. Great bike to ride with a stonking engine, a good chassis and loads of character. A number of niggly problems like the side stand switch, coil failure (a real pain to replace), fuel pipe connector and regulator all had the potential to spoil the ownership experience.

If I were looking at getting one now, I’d do some very serious checking as while the engine is rock solid, and likely to be issue free almost regardless of age or mileage, the cycle parts and ancillaries all have the potential to spoil the party given how old originals are now.

If you don’t plan to do touring or long range commuting on it then I’d suggest a Firestorm would be a cheaper and likely more reliable alternative.

[MikeA3]

CAPP0 said:

OP, would you not consider the SV Thou?

I did give them some thought as they're great bikes but the suspension isn't much different to the SV650.

That said, I'm sure the wife wouldn't notice if I got one in the same colour....🤔

[sjtscott]

OP the search function does actually appear to work.. it certainly didn't for a long time here on PH.

Anyway not wishing to type stuff again/repeat myself see the link below for some feedback on another thread I owned one from new 2000 to 2003 some 3.5 years adding around 23000 miles to mine. Used year round for commuting and fun and at the time my only transport.

This was a recent thread around the subject of Futura/Falcos in particular.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=160...

HTH!

[abarber]

MikeA3 said:

I did give them some thought as they're great bikes but the suspension isn't much different to the SV650.

That said, I'm sure the wife wouldn't notice if I got one in the same colour....??

I've not ridden one, but I thought they had fully adjustable cartridge forks, adjustable rear shock and decent four piston calipers?

They certainly didn't sell well though. A friend bought a naked one brand new for not much more than 4k! Didn't like it though.